Posted on 07/16/2005 2:26:29 PM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
It started with the spray-painted, misspelled "Rapest" on the house of a Hispanic man accused of sexually assaulting a 9-year-old white girl. Then the house went up in flames in a suspected arson. Confrontations, name-calling and threats against Hispanics followed. Men roamed the streets wearing pillowcases with eye holes, and Ku Klux Klansmen in hoods and robes showed up to pass out pamphlets. There were rumors of assaults and beatings.
Now this small Ohio river city's booming Hispanic population is cowed, the streets in their neighborhoods nearly deserted.
Outside the office of the Living Water Ministry, which two months ago drew hundreds of people to its first Cinco de Mayo festival, there is still a smell of charred wood from the June 21 fire that gutted the house next door and caused damage to the outside of the ministry's office.
"Before, the street would be covered with people, people out all over the place," said Sasha Amen, community outreach coordinator for Living Water. "There's a lot of fear now. People are shutting themselves in their homes."
Hamilton has been a hotbed for Hispanic growth in a state that has lagged behind much of the nation in Hispanic population. The number of Hispanics here jumped fivefold in the 1990s, to 1,566, and is now estimated at 4,000 or more in a city of some 61,000.
For the most part, the immigrants had settled in without much controversy in Hamilton, whose mayor in the 1990s was of Cuban descent. But life here was transformed on June 19, when a 9-year-old Caucasian girl was raped, allegedly by a Hispanic man who has apparently fled the city.
"Yes, there is fear," said Ramona Ramirez, who owns a corner deli-supermarket where she says business is off and her bread delivery man is now afraid to come. "They are attacking all the Hispanics, and it is only one person. We don't know what will happen."
Lupe Galvan, a Mexican-born woman who has been here five years, said some neighbors are talking about moving away.
City and community leaders are trying to heal the wounds, beefing up patrols and trying to calm the community, Mayor Don Ryan said Friday. Ryan said authorities are stressing that the rape was "strictly a random act of violence" and not racially motivated.
"We're continuing to be a melting pot in this country," he said. "Assimilating into our culture is tough; I firmly believe that it will take time."
While the anti-Hispanic backlash has stunned many of the immigrants, some say they've felt racial prejudice here before. The Rev. Eustaquio Recalde, a native of Paraguay, says he was often harassed and ridiculed while working a factory job as the lone Hispanic employee.
"I think it's been around," Recalde said. "This was an opportunity for a few people to express it."
Ezra Escudero, executive director of the Ohio Commission on Hispanic/Latino Affairs in Columbus, says Hamilton is not alone in feeling tension in a state where the Hispanic population has doubled to nearly 280,000 since 1990.
"The challenge for the community is whether the tragedy will bring out the best or the worst in people," he said.
Shelly Jarrett Bromberg, an assistant professor of Spanish and Latin American studies at Miami University in Oxford, has helped organize two community forums since the fire. She called the Hamilton unrest an important moment for local Hispanics, churches, police and public officials.
"I think everyone realizes that we need to have a dialogue ... to make the community feel safe and feel that they have a voice," Bromberg said. "I think there are a lot of people who want to make this work out."
Well, shame on Ohio for lagging "behind much of the nation in Hispanic population." Maybe they could rent some from California so that they can make their quota.
/sarc
Post #5...I'm not hispanic but my children and family are. Like I said, those who hate won't see us coming.
Immigration is out of control, period. The through down is coming...apparently.
through=throw. Good luck.
There was a time on FR when I never found the occasion to take umbrage, but I've found myself more and more tempted in recent months to hit the "abuse" button and it makes me sad because I know worse days in the "real world" are coming.
Those of you with honorable, truly patriotic intentions, please please please continue to pressure Washington into doing something. And, I'm not talking about a "guest-worker" program, either. I'm talking about keeping our nation sovereign and secure for ALL its citizens rather than continuing to foster an environment that is divisive in so many ways.
Just to be confrontational, my family is Chinese. We're pouring as many of the family into the country as we can get by....legally. You looking for us also? Or is your golf game interfering with you replies.....?
You ask too many good and pertinent question in #3.
Hence, you shall be banished from the Kingdom.
Sobering post H.R. ......
I know; that's why I've begun to swill wine.
You want to see shear, unmitigated racism... live in a town like I do where the Hispanics are an overwhelming majority. They are absolutely shameless about it.
I've read your posts for years, all excellent. Not to mention you've always had the wine handy.....LOL. The US isn't gone yet H.R. Regards......
Not to mention the nine year old white girls.
"Ku Klux Klansmen in hoods and robes showed up"
I've heard they were alive and well in Ohio.
I've become very concerned with the hatred promoted by the leftist media. My thought is that since the Latinos failed to support the liberals and didn't all stay on the plantation, that the left will attempt to unite anyone they can very much in the same way that Hitler used hate.
I abhor illegals, they are criminals.
My family is not.
Therefore any attempt to promote "blanket" anti-hispanic behavior is perceivable as a threat to my family...my children.
And just in the same way I would fight the Nazis I would fight any attempt to forward anti-hispanic sentiment among the American population.
And yeah, I'd do anything to protect them. Kin is kin...
I read your previous posts on FR, I know you're not a "la raza" person. Just wanted you to clear it up. Take care....
Only the beginning.
Hamilton's crime rate surges.. Serious offenses up 20% during 2001, FBI reports
What is there to add?
I certainly understand and share your concern about "blanket rcist attitudes"
But I am not sure there is anything we can really do about it, what would happen if I, a blue eyed blonde American, went down to Mexico City and raped a nine year old girl?
The reaction there would be EXACTLY the same.
Those who chose to come here, should do so legally. And one does not "assimilate" by speaking only spanish. Personally, I'm a bit offended that they have Cinco del Mayo celebrations all over, but if you try to do something for Christmas, you get slapped silly by the courts or some town council, whatever.
And the ones who should be screaming the absolute loudest are folks like yourself, who stand to be tarnished, fair or not, by these inhuman acts.
I'm screaming as loudly as most on here are. What else do you want me to do, get a tattoo on my forehead? And, don't tell me to "gather up with other Hispanics". Mainstream, conservative Hispanics don't join "hispanic" organizations. We shouldn't have to, because we thought we were thoroughly assimilated and that we wouldn't have to be defined by an issue like this but could take on the same issues as other Americans such as ending abortion or widget tariffs if we've "assimilated" ourselves into the widget industry. I'm not the one who opened the borders, and frankly, I DON'T IDENTIFY MYSELF WITH THESE ILLEGALS it's others who do.
WELL SAID!! YOU TOTALLY NAILED IT!
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