Latino Community Leaders at a New Destination: Creating Spaces for Social Participation and Cultural Expression

Ricardo B. Contreras, PhD David Griffith, PhD Department of Anthropology, East Carolina University Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association Montreal, November 18, 2011 contrerasr@ecu.edu

Abstract This poster presents preliminary findings of the project “Celebrating Latino Leadership in North Carolina: An Oral History Project”. The purpose of this project is to elicit the stories of ten Latino immigrants who have settled in rural and semi-urban eastern North Carolina, and to explore the processes through which they have built leadership roles in their communities. These are new destination communities that have experienced a fast and recent increase in Latino settlement in association with food processing plants and agriculture. The interviews will be archived at the university central library constituting the library’s first Latino oral history collection.

Introduction This study explores the processes through which Latinos build and practice leadership roles in new destination communities. Through the exploration of leadership, the study attempts to illuminate the understanding of community building processes and the adaptation of newcomers to mainstream society. Ten individuals were interviewed through in-depth interviews focusing on a) early history in their communities of origin, b) migration process, c) adaptation to receiving communities, d) leadership roles, and e) perceived impact on their communities. Participants come from rural or semi-urban communi- ties in Mexico, Honduras, and Puerto Rico.

Conclusions These stories illustrate the experience of Latino immigrants in North Carolina communities of relatively new immigrant presence. Paralleling the Latino migration and settlement pattern of the state, these ten individuals arrived in rural or semi-urban communities that lacked the service infrastructure necessary to support the newcomers.

These ten stories reflect the efforts made by Latino leaders to open spaces for social participation and cultural expression, bridge the gap between formal institutions and the communities, provide immigrants with basic services, and advocate for their rights. Although all of these individuals have excelled in building community from inside, leveraging a form of horizontal social capital, they have also excelled in building bridging or vertical social capital, thus facilitating the insertion and adaptation of immigrants into these receiving communities. These community leaders facilitate insertion by building a sense of cultural citizenship (following Flores and Banmayor 1997).

As a final conclusion, the study is allowing us to see that the process of incorporation of these Latino newcomers is not only shaped by structural institutional and cultural forces. An emerging thesis is that there are key individuals, such as the leaders portrayed in this study, who “push” the system, forcing the creation of spaces and in doing so, they counteract the negative forces that serve as barriers for incorporation. As such, they are much more than culture brokers: they are agents of change and creators of new spaces.

Inauguration of the Latino Oral History Collection at the East Carolina University Joyner Library

Jesus Alves Mr. Alves is a native of Agua Dulce, in the Mexican state of Veracruz. The youngest of ten children, Mr. Alves left home at age 14 to migrate internally within Mexico working in agriculture. In the early 1980s, at age 16, Mr. Alves left Mexico for eastern North Carolina to join relatives who were in process of settling there. In North Carolina, Mr. Alves worked in agriculture, food processing, and the service sector. In the mid 1980s, Mr. Alves legalized his immigration status through the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA). At a time of yet little Latino presence in the state, Mr. Alves joined other leaders to formally create a community organization to represent the interests of the Latino constituency. The organization grew and through it Mr. Alves has achieved local, regional, and transnational reputation as an advocate for the Latino community. Wilson Castañeda Mr. Castañeda is from Coamo, Puerto Rico, a small community near the city of Ponce. He joined the army, travelled the world, and ended up stationed in eastern North Carolina, where he met his current wife. Together with other Latinos, he founded a grassroots organization to serve a growing Latino immigrant community. Mr. Castañeda describes the role of the organization as follows: "We find that there is a lack of information, that people need to know, and that is the reason why I get involved in this. I decided to build a center, we teach English in the Center, we have computers, we have clinics that come to the center." The organization organizes festivals, health fairs, and serves as a broker between the community and the system of services, particularly health clinics and schools. In that way, it plays an important role facilitating the adaptation of Latinos in this “new destination”. Juan Conejeros Mr. Conejeros immigrated from Honduras into the town of Clinton in 1999. Raised in Honduras’ middle class, Mr. Conejeros graduated with a Doctor of Medicine degree before emigrating to the United States (first Florida and then North Carolina). Unable to practice medicine, Mr. Conejeros created a small media-resource center complex that includes a radio station and a newspaper, both of which serve the local and regional Latino communities. Guadalupe Fernandez Ms. Fernandez is a Mixtec woman from Mexican state of Oaxaca. As it is common among indigenous people from Oaxaca, together with her family, at age six she left the “rancho” where she was born and headed to Sinaloa, where the family worked in the grape fields. At age 19, Ms. Fernandez moved to Baja California, where she met her current husband and gave birth to two of her three children, and continued to work as a migrant farmworker. There, as well as in the fields in Sinaloa, Ms. Fernandez witnessed abuse and injustice against farmworkers: “Every time I witnessed an act of injustice, I tried to do something about it.” Now a resident of Standford, a small semi-urban center in eastern North Carolina, Ms. Fernandez spearheaded the creation of an informal organization of Latino families and is employed as a lay health advisor by a local clinic. Maria Gonzalez Ms. Gonzalez left her hometown near Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, in 2003 and settled in Sunnyville, North Carolina. In Oaxaca, she worked with her father who owned land where he cultivated corn, beans, chile, tomato, "everything." About her father, Ms. Gonzalez said: "He was fair with his employees, never treated them badly. He taught us never to treat anyone unfairly, that we are all equal. He taught us respect." After leaving Oaxaca, Ms. Gonzalez joined the U.S. eastern migrant stream, picking oranges and grapefruit in Florida, onions in

Georgia, and tobacco and sweet potato in North Carolina. She settled in Sunnyville to give her two children what she saw as necessary stability. Following the teachings of her father, Ms. Gonzalez started in Sunnyville a community garden and an organization of women and families. Susana Hidalgo Ms. Hidalgo left her home in the Mexican state of Nayarit in the early 1990s and headed to California with her husband, where the family joined the western migrant stream. There, the husband was employed seasonally in agriculture and construction, traveling north and south between California and Oregon. In the mid 1990s, Ms. Hidalgo and her family left the West to settle in Stanford, eastern North Carolina. With the husband still working in agriculture, but now as a crew supervisor and truck driver, Ms. Hidalgo provides informal support to the seasonal migrant farmworkers who are members of the husband’s crews: "I cook for them, they are tired after a day of work in the fields. When they are ill, I take them to the clinic, and I also give them medicines. Tobacco makes them ill, they develop headaches." Ms. Hidalgo developed a reputation among farmworkers as a natural helper, compensating for the absence of resources in the fields, but also becoming a broker between the workers and service providers, particularly the health clinic. Pedro Montes Mr. Montes left his rural community in Olancho, Honduras, to settle in the small town of Ruralville, eastern North Carolina. Born into a peasant family, Mr. Montes graduated with a teaching degree from a normal school in his hometown, where he taught in rural areas for ten years before making the decision to emigrate. In Ruralville, Mr. Montes opened a store (“tienda”) in which he sells products and services of critical importance to the growing local Latino community. Mercedes Reyes Ms. Reyes comes from a small town in the Mexican state of Hidalgo, in the outskirts of Mexico City. Born into a family of 10 children, Ms. Reyes spent her early childhood in a single room with a dirt floor with no water or electricity. Although both parents were semi-literate, they made considerable efforts to put the children through school. As such, Ms. Reyes was able to graduate with a teaching certificate from a normal school, and to enroll in the university in Mexico City, although the need to work forced her to drop out of the latter. In the mid 1990s, Ms. Reyes left Mexico and headed to eastern North Carolina to join close relatives who were living there. After joining the eastern migrant stream for a while, Ms. Reyes married and settled in the proximity of Rocky Mount, a city of 60,000 people in an area dominated by agriculture and food-processing plants. She is employed by the school system as a transition facilitator (a form of culture broker). Juan and Magdalena Vega Juan and Magdalena Vega, husband and wife, came to eastern North Carolina from Guanajuato, Mexico. They are part of a Mexican educated middle class. In Guanajuato, he graduated with a university degree in law and she with one in education. Not satisfied with the job opportunities available for them, they decided to emigrate to the United States. They settled in Goldsboro, a city of 40,000 people in an area with a growing population of Latino immigrants attracted by jobs in food-processing plants (mainly pork and chicken) and agriculture. "We have worked in everything, restaurants, construction, food packing, and step by step we built a vision of what we wanted for ourselves, to succeed." The couple now owns a tienda in Goldsboro, providing a variety of goods and services to Latinos.

The Leaders

Board meeting of the Hispanic Community Development Center, a Latino organization in Wayne County

Study funded by a grant from the North Carolina Humanities Council. Grant S10-02. IRB approval #10-0045.

References Cited Flores, William and Rina Benmayor, eds.

1997 Latino cultural citizenship: Claiming Identity, Space, and Rights. Boston: Beacon Press.

Gouveia, Lourdes, Miguel A. Carranza, and Jasney Cogua 2005 The Great Plains Migration: Mexicanos and Latinos in Nebraska. In New Destinations: Mexican Immigration in the United States. V. Zuñiga and R. Hernández-León, eds. Pp. 23-49. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Griffith, David 2005 Rural Industry and Latino Immigration and Settlement in North

Carolina. In New Destinations of Mexican Immigration in the United States: Community Formation, Local Responses, and Inter-Group Relations. V. Zuñiga and R. Hernández-León, eds. Pp. 50-75. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Lacy, Elaine 2005 Cultural Enclaves and Tansnational Ties: Mexican Immigration

and Settlement in South Carolina. In Latino Immigrants and the Transformation of the U.S. South. M.E. Odem and E. Lacy, eds. Pp. 1-17. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.

Marrow, Helen B. 2011 New Destination Dreaming: Immigration, Race, and Legal Status in

the Rural American South. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Odem, Mary E., and Elaine Lacy

2009 Introduction. In Latino Immigrants and the Transformation of the U.S. South. M.E. Odem and E. Lacy, eds. Pp. ix-xvii. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.

Zuñiga, Victor, and Rubén Hernández-León 2005 Introduction. In New Destinations: Mexican Immigration in the

United States. Pp. xi-xxix. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Folkloric group of immigrants from Panama, Cumberland County

Literature Review The 1980s witnessed a significant increase in the Latino presence in areas of the southeast that had not had a history of Latino migration (Odem and Lacy 2009; Griffith 2005; Marrow 2011). North Carolina, and the eastern part of the state in particular, was one of those areas known in the migration literature as “new destination” communities. According to the 2008 Census, the Latino population in North Carolina increased 400 percent between 1980 and 2000 (Griffith 2005; Zuñiga and Hernandez-León 2005)). This increase occurred in communities that were not prepared, from a cultural as well as institutional point of view, to receive these immigrants. Marrow (2011) discusses how newcomers encountered positive as well as negative pressures that both facilitated and served as barriers to adaptation to their new home communities. The availability of job opportunities in food-processing, agriculture, and construction (mainly in urban centers) was one of the positive forces facilitating adaptation; the negative pressures have to do with culture and prejudice in particular. Along similar lines, Gouveia, Carranza, and Cogua (2005:25) propose the thesis that successful incorporation of these Latino newcomers is precisely “a function of the opportunities and barriers immigrants encounter in the host society, as opposed to simply the level of skills (human capital) or cultural attitudes they allegedly bring with them.” Lacy (2005:7) uses the concept of “cultural citizenship” to explain the process of insertion of Latino immigrants in South Carolina, also a new destination for Latino immigration. Building “cultural citizenship” refers to the daily activities that serve to “claim space in society and eventually claim rights…” (Flores and Banmayor 1997:15). Following Marrow’s point that little is known about the processes through which immigrants are being incorporated into American society in new destination areas (Marrow 2011:184), this oral history study explores the role of community leaders in precisely creating spaces for participation or, following Lacy (2007) and Flores and Banmayor (1997), building cultural citizenship. In this way, leaders facilitate the insertion and consolidation of Latinos in these new destination communities of the U.S. south.

Study Area in North Carolina