n 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.
During 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.
Se habla español
cross the region, in church basements and hospitals and factories, an increasing number of American-born adults are trying to learn Spanish — or figuring out creative ways to get their points across:
At the Roanoke H&R Block office where she works, Charlotte Jarvis has to call her bilingual daughter on the phone to translate every time she helps a Hispanic client.
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Danny Thurman (right) helps Jesus Ayala (left) and Florentino Gonzales unload young trees at Seven Oaks Landscape & Hardscape in Franklin County. Thurman has picked up enough basics to direct laborers in Spanish.Managers at Mohawk Industries in Rockbridge County take Spanish classes at work and even learn how to cuss in Spanish — so that when two employees are arguing, managers can tell how serious they are.
“Uno mas! Dos mas!” Danny Thurman says to the Hispanic crew he works with at Seven Oaks, a landscaping company in Rocky Mount.
While Thurman has picked up enough basics to direct the laborers organizing truckloads of plants — “One more! Two more!” — Seven Oaks office manager Hope Rutrough has had to go beyond the one high school Spanish course she took years ago.
Her boss sent her back to college to learn Spanish and, like many area employers, paid for her to go. In the end, it was cheaper than having to call bilingual foreman Marcelino Guzman away from a job site every time a translation need arose.
Rutrough used to need help arranging the H-2B temporary work visas used to legally hire the company’s landscaping crews each spring. Numerous phone calls to Mexico had to be made; directions for the paperwork needed explaining .
“It took days just to get the right people on the phone, and every single time, I had to pull Marcelino away from a job to do it,” she said.
Now in her third semester of Spanish at Virginia Western Community College, Rutrough is fluent enough to coordinate the work crews on her own. “Aside from just making it easier, it’s important for me to make the workers feel that we appreciate them.
“They need to learn English, I know. But not too many years ago, my family members were the immigrants, and somebody helped them,” explained Rutrough, a German Baptist.
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