From One Guatemalan’s Journey, A Whole Community Rises In Long Island

*This is my favorite read of the day. Do yourself a favor, read this story, or listen to it. It first aired on NPR’s All Things Considered. It tells a story of Latinos in the U.S., repeated all over the country, where family and friends from a small town in Latin America follow each other to this country, establish roots and change communities for the better. VL


CodeSwitch-01By Will James, Code Swtch (3 minute read)

For four decades, San Raymundo in Guatemala has been a source of workers for Riverhead, home to much of Long Island’s remaining farmland. Riverhead is also home to the area’s fastest growing Latino population.

Danilo Garcia came to the U.S. in the 1970s. Like Garcia, many others heard about Riverhead from friends and relatives in San Raymundo and made the journey to work in Long Island’s sod, grape and vegetable fields.

Garcia says it’s all thanks to Trancito Perez, a relative who told him about Riverhead, and the first man from San Raymundo to stumble upon Long Island. Perez still lives Riverhead, not far from the farm where he made his start 40 years ago.

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Immigration from Central America is quickly changing parts of Long Island, and experts say networks of family and friends are linking one town to another. It’s not by chance that immigrants settle in where they do. They arrive through established connections between towns in Central America and . . . READ MORE



[Photo by Will James, courtesy of WHSU]

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