Peace.

And so it begins. Just for a bit of background, I was born in New Orleans and have spent nearly all my life in this wonderful city. I love the food, the culture, the pace, the hospitality (believe me, its there), but most importantly the people. You see, I’ve come to realize that it is the people that make the city what it is. Interestingly enough, the “gumbo” of ethnicities that exists in New Orleans creates for quite a range of cultures and customs.

Within that “gumbo” there is a Hispanic community (our Hispanic community) that has remained relatively seperate for decades. While there has always been a large Honduran community, immigrants from all over the Carribean, as well as Central and South America, have been a big part of New Orleans’ Latino community for quite some time. In the mid-90’s there was the yearly Festival Latino which seemed to unite the countries, and from the late 80’s throughout the 90’s, the Mensaje Festival brought all the flags together under a spiritual message that any Hispanic from New Orleans can tell you about.

Unfortunately, aside from these festivals, Hispanics have remained seperate, clinging to those from their specific country. I was speaking with someone last week about why this is, but I couldn’t explain it. I did begin to brainstorm on some reasons, but have yet to point out exactly why Latinos in New Orleans haven’t united. My early observations are that as an immigrant comes to a new place, he/she is leaving their place of comfort. They are leaving everything they have become accustomed to, only to start a new life elsewhere.

A good friend of mine recently told me a story about his his father, who moved to New Orleans in 1969 from the Dominican Republic. He told me that shortly after moving to New Orleans, his father met another “fella” from the Dominican Republic. Long story short, until this day, that individual remains one of, if not the, best friend(s), of his father. I would assume that they became and continue to be such good friends because their friendship reminded them of the land they left. It reminded them of everything that was familiar to them.

This is one of the main reasons I think Latinos in New Orleans have not made the impact they have the capacity to make. Once the immigrants from each respective nation came to New Orleans, they continued to look for the familiarity of what once was. When they find that familiarity, they tend to stick to it. This is probably why you find pockets, if you will, of Latinos all over the city. There seem to be a lot of Hondurans in Kenner, while there is a pocket of Dominicans on the Westbank. With so many pockets spread throughout the city, there has never been something reminiscent of a Spanish Harlem or Little Havana in New Orleans.

In a nutshell, Latinos are all over the city, which makes it difficult to reach out to them. To make matters worse, each ethnicity, rightfully so, sticks to itself for the most part. I am in no way stating that there are struggles within the Hispanic community (except for soccer games), I am merely stating that our people, while from many different countries, share many characteristics and customs. Our countries share so many things in common, that non-Hispanics tend to categorize us under one umbrella. And since the power, the decision-making, and the resources are in the hands of non-Hispanics, unity is the only way for our people, Hispanics, to have their voices heard. For if we are not under the umbrella together, a lot of us will get rained on.

Paz y mas
gio

Tags: latino, latino community new orleans, latino leadership, latino new orleans

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 at 3:59 pm and is filed under El Monopoli. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.