Where La Raza meets La 'Hood
f rom AI
already strained \c.iial services
ami tense race rt /.. ions in the
Piedmont ? indeed in the South
where such 'elation s have
alwuvs heen bhu 1 and white.'
This overview begins a series
about that relationship. Our
community news staff-con
tributed to this report, under the
overall supervision of our
columnist, sociologist I)r.
William H Turner, who filed
tins feature ?
?> w h i i \\f II n KM l< I'M D
Snciwil i?' the ( h'1'nn It
David Harold holds a mass
tor's of divinity degree and is
the very sensitive and progres
sive administrator of Catholic
Social Service, the umbrella
organization ot Casa
(juffdalupe. Casa. Spanish tor
"House of ..." points believers
to. Latin America's premier
patron saint. Guadalupe. In
Winston-Salem, Casa is the "go
to" agency for the thousands of
Hispanics who have made the
Winston area their home over
the past decade. Over the past
two years alone, Casa has
served nearly 2,000 Hispanic
clients.
However, the "influx" of
Hispanics to the area has been
so great that Harold and his
Casa staff really don't know
how many Hispanics are in the
area, but they do know that
many are poor and have limited
English skills. Catholic Social
Services, along with the county
health department and St.
Anne's Church's Neighbors in
Ministry are conducting a com
prehensive census of the local
Hispanic population.
Hispanics constituted some
where between 6 and 9 percent
of the county's population ot
2 I 7.000 people in I 995. That
amounts to somewhere between
I 5.000 and 19.500 Hispanics m
borsyth County.
I hey have come to borsyth
(and other northwest Piedmont
counties), and they* go to
Catholic Social Services and
Casa looking for citizenship
education and translation assis
tance.
Harold interprets the com
ing of Hispanics to the area 'as
not only natural' and expected
but also as a "golden opportu
nity for our area to become truly
multicultural, because our Asiar
population is growing too." Iln
staffers. N i I d a Cardenas a n c
Veronica Zambrano, full of tlu
universal zest of youth, agree
with Harold and also think tha
much needs to happen in tlu
area in terms of "reducing tlu
divisions in this "divided area.'
to get what they all call "beyonc
black and white."
The Urban League o I
borsyth County, according t<
Cleo Solomon, an employment
specialist, undertook last vear. ;
Hispanic Community Need*
Assessment, since "so many
Hispanics were coming througf
the doors of the Urban League.'
Leaeue Director Delores Smitl
supervised a sample survey by
local consultant Vircher Lloyd.
Solomon takes notice of her
other traditional clients
African Americans ? some of
whom express "feelings of
threat and competition" with.
Hi span ics. The League also
(let) Solomon^ Director of
Employment Services headed tip a
team of the W'S Urban League
that conducted a 'Weeds Assess
ment" of the area Hispanic com
munity in 1995
takes the Hispanic presence as
further justification for "Bridg
ing the Gaps," a cultural aware
ness and valuing-diversity pro
gram targeted for human service
professionals.
Catholic Social Services'
Casa Guadalupe and the Urban
League's approaches do not
exactly fit the more austere and
basic reaction to the area's His
panic community, like that of
Sylvester Garner of East Win
ston's Lakeside community.
"Syl." who refused to be pho
tographed. lives off Harrington
Circle, in a subsidized apart
ment. The street, in Lakeside, is
Z- A
l'rancisco I'rudente Arellanez, left and (irahriel Medina, arriving for
assistance at Casa (iuadalnpe, Winston's premier Hispanic'Assistance,
( enter.
strewn with trash and broken
beer bottles, lie says "the man
(management) caters to them
Mexicans, gives them apart
ments when black lolk be on the
waiting list " According to Syl,
they "hang tight, like in a gang
thing." He said he expects that
"something big's going to go
down between them and the
bloods one ol these days."
Syl was sharing a bottle of
beer with two friends under a
tree while offering a barrage of
opinions on the full range of
negative stereotypes about
"Mexicans." while about half-a
dozen Hispanic young men
could be seen talking about 50
yards away. Syl is convinced,
for example, that "downtown,
the Mexicans get more play
than the black man ... they get
the day jobs, the loans to start
business, and it's like they done
replaced us, you know what 1
mean!" Angry and enraged with
his temporary-worker and
parolee status at 38, Syl sees
Hispanics (whom he calls "them
Mexicans") as another barrier
between his "rock and hard
place" ? Lakeside.
Casa officials note that the
area's social service system is
"unprepared for the Hispanic
Where (many) area
Hispanics worship ???
? Winston-Salem
Nuestra Senora de La Merced
Iglesia Primera Rsamblea
Iglesia Rlianza Cristiana Misionera
Iglesia de Cristo
Iglesia Pentecostal Nueua Uida
UJoodland Baptist
? Kernersville
Iglesia Bautista Hispana
Iglesia Cristiana UJesleyana
Iglejtsia Holy Cross
community." For example, at
Reynolds Health Center and
Crisis Control, more than half
of the clients are Hispanics.
There is a need for more bilin
gual interpreters, like Cardenas
and Zambrano, in the courts,
social services, and health care.
Zambrano, an AmeriCorp
volunteer and native of
Ecuador, has been in the United
States almost a dozen years.
Arriving in this area just over a
year ago, Zambrano and Carde
nas. are "overwhelmed'' trying
to serve those who need immi
gration counseling and legal
assistance.
They point to "the apart
ments" off Salisbury Road in
Kernersville, the center of Kern
ersville's Hispanic community.
Here, at Grosvenor Apartments,
one finds many Hispanics fac
ing the greatest challenges to
most in the area: illegal status.
Zambrano said that law break
ing is double-layered around
citizenship status, because laws
are broken on the first order:
fake documents like driver's
licenses and green cards. As in
California and Texas, many His
panic men came to work in agri
culture. and farmers look past
workers' legal status when
crops like tobacco and vegeta
bles are?ripe in the fields.
Back to Black and Brown,
the barrio and the "hood. What
we have is a clash, a competi
tion for low status, low paying
jobs. But. it is apparent to many
blacks that, in their view, there
is a "takeover," in southeast
WINSTON-AREA HISPANICS: COUNTRY OF ORIGIN
? 60% OF TRIAD-AREA
HISPANICS ARE FROM
MEXICO
? 2ND LARGEST GROUP
OF TRIAD-AREA
HISPANICS
GUATEMALANS
3-4% Triad-Area
Hispanics come from.
Puerto Rico
Venezuela
Cuba
El Salvador
Argentina
Peru
Ecuador
Columbia
Source: W-S Urban League Hispanic Community Survey, 1995
LA Fl EST A'
I.a Fiesta : "The Party Stare". Spanish language
video. Old Rural Hall Road, North Winston.
Winston-Salem, for example.
Even though the Hispanic
owned businesses cater primar
ily to Hispanics, one senses a
resentment, rivalry, defensive
ness, and a tinge of envy from
people like Syl Garner. In words
that are not exactly his, there is
a "shakeup at the bottom."
The movement of immi
grant groups onto and off of the
bottom rungs of the economic
ladder is a mark of American
ethnic history. Lakeside, for
example, three decades ago,
was starter apartments for many
families who have now moved
into the middle classes. But
,many unskilled and uneducated
blacks, like Sylvester, can't
seem to move out of the bottom.
Sylvester's daring and rather
mean-spirited attitude toward
m
fcj , | icwim
ME XJCANA
JB
All Photos by William H. Turner
/?;/ Triunfo, "The Triumphant Mexican Store. Main
Street, Kernersville.
Lakeside Apartments off Sew
\\ alkertown Road site of His
panic (Mexican) Migration in
Last Winston.
"Mexicans" is not all posturing,
and David Harold a*. Casa
Guadalupe is right: there is a
tremendous challenge to meet
Grosvenor Square. Off Salisbury
Road, site of Hispanic Migration
in Kernersville.
the needs of the Hispanic com
munity. Sylvester just thinks it
might he at his expense.
Cynthia Torres Cruz...La Cos mica
from A J
representation at Hispanic confer
ences She handles all R.Ik pub
licity for Hispanic programming,
including press releases. Spanish
translations, news media contacts,
and she coordinates special
events.
Prom her window, she can
see all the way to Kernersville. to
the tobacco and vegetable fields
where many Hispanics in the area
found the work that brought them
to the Triad. There, this first gen
eration college graduate also
"sees." through eyes now misty,
Ciilberto and Amelia, her parents,
migrant farm workers, neither
with much formal education, who
worked the fields of Texas, Col
orado. and other parts of the
Southwest.
Cni/.'s responsibilities at RJR
.tre a long j&ay from the struggles
and sacrifices her parents made to
raise her and three sisters: an
architect, an accountant, and state
government official in her native
Texas Cruz holds a bachelor's
degree in broadcast journalism
from Texas Woman's University
and an MBA from Wake Forest
University. Along the path to
R.IR, she worked as a newspaper
reporter, interned on CNN's pop
ular Hvans and Novak, and was
legislative assistant to Texas Rep
resentative Henry Gonzales.
Cruz gets a bit keen-eyed and
feisty when she responds to those
who heap stereotypes on Hispan
ics for "invading" immunities.
She speaks passionately of the
strong work ethic of her people
and their traditional value sys
tems, which are strongly rooted in
family life, group loyalty, patrio
tism and religious faith
Cruz is most articulate when
Cynthia Cruz wants to see
something concrete come out
of the upcoming project
being undertaken by the
Forsyth County Human
Relations Commission.
she explains how Hispanics, for
the most part, are no different in
their dreams and aspirations than
other struggling minority groups.
She laments the handicaps that
many Hispanics ? especially
women ? carry in the form of
language barriers and a cultural
stereotype, machismo, which is
overstated in the (white) world.
But, even so, machismo, a value
covering various qualities of mas
culinity, must bear on this
supremely confident, capable, and
independent business woman.
Cruz wants to see something
concrete come out of the upcom
ing project being undertaken by
the Forsyth County Human Rela
tions Commission. She will be
front-and-center next month when
the Commission begins to address
the critical issues, problems, con
tributions and challenges of local
Hispanic residents. She sees the
project as a "golden opportunity
and catalyst for all people, gov
eminent agencies, religious and
educational institutions, busi
nesses, civic and political groups
to examine their relationships to
Hispanics." She wishes to break
down barriers and build bridges.
Cruz has been much influ
enced by some in the area "in
whose footprints 1 step," such as
Betsy Silva, president of the His
panic League of the Piedmont
Triad, and Julio Barea. also asso
ciated with the founding of the
League. Mr. Barea is a senior vice
president at Sara Lee and member
of the Human Relations Commis
sion. She beams when she talks
about top local Hispanic business
man Julio Pando, publisher of
"Que Pasa!," a newspaper, and
Ferrnin Bocanegra, pastor of Igle
sia Christiana Weslcyana. To
Cruz and others in her orbit,
Bocancgra's parish is a "Ply
mouth rock" for Triad-area His
panics, the grounding place and
getting-connected point to the
newly-arrived. She is an ardent
supporter of Casa Guadelupe,
which RJR has funded consis
tently. David Harold of Catholic
Social Services is, to Cruz-, " a
most faithful and sincere advocate
for Hispanics."
La Mujer Cosmica. Cynthia
Torres Cruz. If it is true that
minority groups need points of
light and persons of sterling talent
to illuminate the way towards true
intercultural understanding and
the valuing of diversity, Hispanics
could have no better person than
Cynthia Cruz. This American
enriches the lives of all of us and
advances our common humanity.
The Triad and RJR should be
proud that Cynthia Torres Cruz
chose to live here and make a dif
ference, a cosmic difference.