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

October 15, 2006

'No speaka English'

Xenia “X” Alvarez has heard concerns expressed about the United States becoming a bilingual country, sparked both by the immigration debate and the recent controversy over a Spanish-language version of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” She strongly believes that Hispanics living in the United States should learn English.

Xenia “X” Alvarez goes through Spanish pronunciation with Roanoke County deputy fire marshall Randy Spence during a class offered for law enforcement and safety personnel. “It’s a fact that a lot of Hispanics are here, so whether or not our officers need to learn Spanish is a moot point,” says Alvarez, who is the Roanoke police chief’s secretary.
Audio gallery Open Xenia “X” Alvarez goes through Spanish pronunciation with Roanoke County deputy fire marshall Randy Spence during a class offered for law enforcement and safety personnel. “It’s a fact that a lot of Hispanics are here, so whether or not our officers need to learn Spanish is a moot point,” says Alvarez, who is the Roanoke police chief’s secretary.

Nonetheless, it was Alvarez’s idea three years ago to make sure Roanoke city police officers had a working grasp of Spanish. She was frequently being called on to translate for city employees. And officers were increasingly pulling drivers over only to be met with, “No hablo inglés” or the Spanglish version, “No speaka English.”

“I start with '¡Párate o te tiro!’ — which is “Stop, or I’ll shoot!” explains Alvarez, who is the police chief’s secretary. A New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent, Alvarez recently began teaching officers in Roanoke County, too. (The county has a smaller Hispanic population than the city — slightly more than half, according to census figures — but is experiencing a similar rate of growth.)

Audio of Xenia Alvarez
Understanding cultural differences is as important as knowing emergency commands, she said. “In Mexico, there’s so much corruption, and so I tell the officers that when you stop somebody and they’re trying to offer you something, it’s not really a bribe; it’s what they’re used to in their country, where the police will leave you practically raped and with nothing.”

Three-quarters of the city police force has voluntarily signed up for the course. While they don’t condone immigrants who migrate here illegally, “It’s a fact that a lot of Hispanics are here, so whether or not our officers need to learn Spanish is a moot point.

“The officers realize that learning Spanish is now something they have to learn to do their jobs — so everyone can be safe,” she said.

« Not enough classes | Working around barriers »

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