Posted on 08/14/2005 11:31:49 AM PDT by Namyak
You can see it in Hazleton. There are new grocery stores on Wyoming Street.
On their doors, signs thank you, Gracias por su compra. Well into the summer, a faded banner wishes you Feliz Navidad, Merry Christmas.
Below it, a U.S. flag declares with bold, blue English words: Proud to be an American.
You can’t miss it in South Scranton, either.
On Pittston Avenue, the sign outside a sky blue house announces Casa Latina, and offers a travel agency, money transfers, translations.
The things one needs when living thousands of miles from home. “Styles by Connie” is painted in red in a hair salon’s window on Cedar.
On the other window, Estilos por Connie.
And the change has arrived in Wilkes-Barre.
On the corner of Butler and Wyoming streets, the reds, whites and blues of the Puerto Rican flag flap in the wind alongside those of the U.S. flag. Hispanic women, children in tow, compare peppers and cucumbers at the Thursday farmers’ markets.
A substantial wave of Hispanic immigration is sweeping across Northeast Pennsylvania.
Families that speak Spanish — some only Spanish — are taking over houses left vacant by decades of population decline.
They are living, working, shopping and praying in cities built by Welsh, Irish, Italian, Polish and Slovak immigrants a century ago.
This is just the beginning for Hispanics in Northeast Pennsylvania. Though the size of the Hispanic influx is hard to quantify — Census data is almost six years old and Hispanics are considered undercounted because millions immigrate illegally — there is no doubt that Northeast Pennsylvania’s Hispanic community is large. And growing.
Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty told Hispanic leaders at an informal July 11 meeting he estimates Hispanics to be 16 percent of the city’s 74,000 residents, or about 11,000. Mr. Doherty later said he arrived at an estimate of 13-16 percent using Scranton’s growing school enrollment. That growth, he said, is Hispanic. “This is the first strong migration we’ve had in maybe 40 years,” Mr. Doherty said.
Amilcar Arroyo, publisher of El Mensajero, a monthly newspaper based in Hazleton, puts that city’s Hispanic community at 7,000 to 9,000. The city’s population was declining and aging.
In 2000, there were about 23,000 residents. Just 4.9 percent were Hispanic. Six years later, the city could be as much as 30 percent Hispanic, and Mayor Lou Barletta said the city’s total population has grown, too, maybe close to 30,000.
As many as 2,000 to 3,000 Hispanics have made Wilkes-Barre their home, Mr. Arroyo estimated.
Paul Oreck, president of the regional monthly paper La Voz Latina Mensual puts Wilkes-Barre’s Hispanic population higher: 5,000 to 6,000.
Out of a total of about 42,000, that would make one out of eight residents Hispanic.
Hispanics are bringing another language to cities where Italian and Polish were once common. The influx is bringing youth and business back to cities with aging populations.
However, the growth challenges cities’ institutions and neighborhoods to change.
The head of Catholic Social Services, Monsignor Joseph Kelly expects the area’s Hispanic population to double in five years. Immigrants from the 15 countries of Latin America are changing the face of Northeast Pennsylvania.
Arrival
The area’s Hispanic immigration began in the early 1990s. Some Hispanics who migrated to the East Coast in search of work took a liking to Northeastern Pennsylvania and decided to call Scranton, Wilkes-Barre or Hazleton home.
They found jobs, and the cost of living was lower than in the big cities. They discovered a tranquil, affordable place to raise a family.
The stream of immigrants continued to build during the 1990s; people moved to Northeastern Pennsylvania to reunite with family. They, in turn, brought more relatives. “Very few people are coming that don’t know anybody,” said Monsignor Kelly, diocese secretary for Catholic Human Services, which oversees Hispanic outreach programs.
Most of the Hispanic population arrived during the last five or six years, those who work with Hispanics in government, social and religious services agree. Many Hispanics point to a single day as the cause of the recent influx.
When hijacked airliners destroyed the World Trade Center towers in Manhattan, New York City’s economy was thrown into chaos. Many New York Hispanics lost their jobs, especially those working in the hard-hit tourism sector.
For many, a sense of insecurity grew. Hispanics started to leave New York and New Jersey, looking for a place where their dollars would go further and their families would be safer.
Mr. Arroyo said many began to settle in Hazleton because there were jobs in industrial parks near the city.
Delfina Hernandez has seen Scranton’s Hispanic population grow year after year. For years, Ms. Hernandez went door to door to gather donations to bring a mariachi band from New York and to buy flowers to celebrate Mexico’s patron saint, the Virgin of Guadalupe. Wherever she knew there was a Hispanic family, she went. She kept track of donations and made sure there would be plenty of food.
On the eve of the celebration, Ms. Hernandez stayed up making hundreds of tamales. She moved to Scranton 14 years ago, working to put her son through college and law school in Mexico.
There were three Mexican families in the city at the time, she said. “There weren’t Hispanic people” during her first years, she said.
Every year, though, she had more doors to knock on, and more families came to the celebration. The Hernandez family was there for Scranton’s first Spanish Mass, 13 years ago at Immaculate Conception Church. Ms. Hernandez’s grandchild was the first Hispanic baptism and her daughter, Benita Trently, was the first to celebrate a quinceañera, a Mexican tradition for 15-year-old girls.
At her mother’s side, Ms. Trently watched the Hispanic population grow. Ms. Trently points to Sept. 11, 2001, as the turning point for Scranton’s Hispanic community. So does Ana Vasquez, a Costa Rican who has lived in Wilkes-Barre since 1992. “There was nothing Hispanic,” Ms. Vasquez said.
Hispanics are moving to Wilkes-Barre for the lower rents, said Ms. Vasquez and others. Many work in manufacturing and the restaurant industry. Though Wilkes-Barre’s Hispanic community is now low-profile, Ms. Vasquez expects it to grow quickly in the coming years.
Making a community
First on Wyoming, then on Broad, Hazleton’s Hispanic community established an unmistakable downtown business presence.
In 2001, Hispanics owned three businesses in Hazleton, Mr. Arroyo said. There are now about 60. In that sense, Hazleton is ahead of Wilkes-Barre and Scranton. In Wilkes-Barre, there are few Hispanic businesses, including La Esperanza, a Mexican grocery, and La Tolteca, a restaurant in Wilkes-Barre Township. Scranton’s Hispanic business district is developing.
Mr. Doherty hopes to spend up to $20 million in local, state and federal funding to revamp South Side, a long-term project that includes turning Cedar Avenue into a business district anchored by Hispanic involvement. Hispanics are excited about the plan, said Monsignor Michael Delaney. Several Hispanics have told the priest they’re considering starting businesses because of it.
Monsignor Delaney learned Spanish 13 years ago so he could minister to Scranton’s Hispanic. He watched Hazleton’s Hispanic population explode during his 11 years there, where he said Spanish Mass. He recently returned to Scranton’s Nativity Church.
Already, signs in Spanish dot South Scranton advertising groceries, jobs, money transfers and international phone cards.
“Send flowers directly to households in Peru,” reads a sign in Spanish in the window of Pasajes on Cedar Avenue. Down the street, there is a Mexican bakery, La Amistad. On Pittston Avenue, Garcia’s grocery sells food from Mexico, flags from Honduras and El Salvador.
Mr. Arroyo links Hazleton’s Hispanic business community to the post-Sept. 11 influx. The population is largely Dominican. Most had lived in New York for years, Mr. Arroyo said, and the money they made from selling their dwellings in New York had more value in Hazleton. They bought homes, often investment homes to rent, or to start businesses. As Hispanics settle and bring their spouses, children and parents to the area, home ownership is increasing. Silvana Hogben is a real estate agent with Realtec. She moved to Florida from Colombia 15 years ago. After living in Houston, Texas, Ms. Hogben moved to Scranton with her husband, a Scranton police officer. She is one of few Spanish-speaking real estate agents in the area.
“Ninety percent of my clients don’t speak English,” Ms. Hogben said.
When Ms. Hogben arrived in Scranton six years ago, she said there were very few Hispanics. Now, most of her clients are Hispanics coming from New York and New Jersey. They are moving to the area, she said, for the same reasons many leave big cities: tranquility, good schools and a lower cost of living.
“Hispanic people can’t live in New York with the cost of living,” said Luis Albino of Wilkes-Barre.
Mr. Albino moved here almost two years ago from New Jersey, where he’d lived for years. He serves as a chaplain at Grace Fellowship Church and translates the sermon for the Spanish service the church started in May.
Mr. Albino switches between English and Spanish, speaking each flawlessly. The Puerto Rican chaplain hopes for increased interaction between Hispanics and the rest of the community, though he says it is still early.
In his time here, Mr. Albino said he’s seen little friction between Hispanic immigrants and Luzerne County natives. “Pennsylvania has that background from the Quakers,” Mr. Albino said. “The Quakers were very accepting people. They have that culture.”
Has MS-13 arrived yet?
Yes!! Along with the Bluds and Crypts ..
You can drop this Pollyanna a line at: tlong@citizensvoice.com
If you only post here, you're bitching to the choir. If these guys get hammered enough, they're bound to tone things down.
Allow me.
Hispanics are considered undercounted because millions immigrate illegally —
almost sickening
Only "almost"? :^)
ping
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.