Land of Opportunity

The Roanoke Times

In increasing numbers, Hispanic immigrants are putting down roots in the Roanoke Valley. They're pouring concrete, opening hair salons and filling classrooms. Some employers, meanwhile, are attributing their success to this new labor pool. In this occasional series, The Roanoke Times explores the local impact of the national debate about immigration.
Recent Roanoke Times stories on Hispanic immigration have included:
gallery-immigrantsDuring a busy Friday night dinner waiter Jesus Malaga serves an armload of food to their Anglo customers. Malaga came to America four years ago from Mexico and, like many Mexican immigrants in Roanoke, first landed a job at El Rodeo.

December 31, 2006

As Congress wrestles with what to do about the estimated 12 million illegal Hispanic immigrants, friends and relatives keep showing up on the Roanoke doorsteps of those already settled here. The Roanoke Times documents the people behind the debate in this series of occasional articles titled “Land of Opportunity.”

Though some subjects were reluctant to have their names used and photographs taken out of fear of being deported, many believed that telling their stories would put a human face on a growing population that is still largely invisible — but which openly co-exists — in our community. In most cases, the newspaper has not pinpointed where the immigrants live or where they are employed.

Beth Macy

Beth Macy has been a features writer at The Roanoke Times since 1989. Macy gravitates toward stories that feature real-life struggles of ordinary people, with profile articles that have garnered national feature-writing awards and Virginia Press Association honors. She has published freelance articles in salon.com, The Christian Science Monitor and The Chronicle of Higher Education, and taught literary journalism at Hollins University.

Josh Meltzer

Josh Meltzer has been a photographer at The Roanoke Times since 1999. Earlier this year, Meltzer was named Photographer of the Year (Under 115,000 Circulation) by the National Press Photographers Association. Meltzer previously was a staff photographer at the Duluth (Minn.) News-Tribune for four years. In addition to his still photography, Meltzer has photographed, recorded, edited and produced more than two dozen video, audio and multimedia online presentations that have received awards from the Virgininia News Photographers Association and the Society for News Design.

In 2005, Macy and Meltzer teamed up to produce "An Unlikely Refuge," a multimedia series documenting the resettlement of Somali Bantu refugees in Roanoke. Their work won several national awards, including the 2006 Digital Edge Award for multimedia storytelling and the Associated Press Managing Editors award for online convergence.

Evelio Contreras

Evelio Contreras has been a reporter at The Roanoke Times since June 2005. He began as an editorial assistant in Metro and is now the community sports writer for the New River Valley Current, Neighbors and Sports. Contreras hopes to write narrative stories with a photographer's eye for detail. Before moving to Roanoke, Contreras was a desk assistant at The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS and worked as a sports editor of The News Gram in Eagle Pass, Texas. He graduated in June 2004 with journalism and philosophy degrees at Northwestern University.

Reporters: Beth Macy, Evelio Contreras

Photographer/multimedia: Josh Meltzer

Online designer: Amanda Hicks

Online producer: Jordan Fifer

Editor: Carole Tarrant

Multimedia editor: Seth Gitner

Print designer: Terri Macklin

Photo editor: Michael Stowe

Graphics: Grant Jedlinsky, Rob Lunsford

Copy editor: Alison Weaver

December 25, 2006

'My soul is thirsty'

Dania Castenela drinks water from a cistern filled with water for washing while her grandmother, Inocencia Guzman Alcala, washes the family's laundry in their backyard.
Audio gallery Open Dania Castenela drinks water from a cistern filled with water for washing while her grandmother, Inocencia Guzman Alcala, washes the family's laundry in their backyard.

It has become a rite of passage in Mexico that a boy who reaches a certain age says goodbye to his mother and, with the money he borrowed to hire a smuggler, finds his way into the United States.

“All four of my boys will go to the U.S,” Emerita says, determined.

“Hopefully, one day when the little kids are older, I will go and be with them, too.”

In early January, her oldest son, who’s 21, will begin the arduous journey to Texas. Jose says he already has an electrician’s job waiting for him there, where he’ll earn $200 a day. Right now, he’s doing similar work in nearby Mazatlan, making $200 every 10 days.

For months now, in preparation for the journey, mother and son have prayed to the Patron Saint of Mercy. During his two-week trek to Texas, they plan to recite a prayer dedicated to that saint daily — Emerita on her knees in Sauta; her son, wherever he is.

… I come from the world
I come from combat
Tired of suffering and fighting …
My soul is thirsty …

Not long ago, Emerita bought Jose a medal of the saint to wear on the trip. For added protection, she copied the lengthy prayer down for him to carry.

He already knows it by heart, though. They’ve been practicing the prayer since he was little, she says, with this journey in mind.

Jose Juan Espinoza Segura translated interviews for this story.

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