Monday, December 11, 2006
Editorial: A center for Roanoke's Hispanic community
HACIENDA aims to help people adjust to life where language alone can be a barrier.
From the RoundTable blog
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Last week's opening of the Hispanic Community Center HACIENDA in downtown Roanoke was an encouraging sign of a city embracing its growing diversity.
The volunteer-run center aims to help Hispanics new to this city -- this country -- assimilate by providing information about jobs, health care, housing and other basic services.
But the center also aims to see that Hispanics are permitted to preserve their cultures as well, and share their knowledge, experiences and talents with others in the community.
The center's leaders deserve recognition for filling a need, and all members of the community should lend support without allowing their views to be clouded by the national illegal immigration debate. Roanoke is not immune; some Hispanic immigrants are here legally, many are not.
HACIENDA, at first glimpse, is poised to help.
The center will have translators on hand to help people work through issues in courts and schools, and hold free English as a Second Language classes. The second floor will serve as a referral site where people can get information about jobs, health services, housing and insurance. Art Forum Rayuela offers year-round gallery space for Hispanic artists and others on the center's first floor.
While Roanoke's overall population declined during the past five years, the Hispanic population grew. U.S. Census data from 2005 puts the city's Hispanic population at 2,046, up from 1,405 in 2000. But some say the current Hispanic population is much larger, at least five times larger.
That certainly qualifies as explosive growth -- growth greater than any other ethnic group in recent years and growth the city should acknowledge.
For years, Roanoke has extended a hand across the seas by establishing relationships with sister cities in seven countries. Now Roanoke -- and its citizens -- have an opportunity to extend a welcoming hand right here at home.
