For The Herald Bulletin

Imagine being in a land where you don’t speak the language, you don’t know or understand the customs of the people, and you have trouble with everyday tasks that others handle as a matter of routine.

“(Hispanics) struggle with the basics,” said Tanya Navarro-Gonzalez, volunteer coordinator and programs director for the Floricanto Latino Center, a non-profit advocacy group for Latino affairs in Anderson. Gonzalez said it can be a challenge for Hispanics to fill out job applications, enroll their children in school, find hospital locations and schedule medical appointments .

No one knows exactly how many Hispanics live in the area, but estimates range from 1,500 to 6,000, depending on the season and who’s doing the estimating, according to Katherine Goar, former director of community development and long-term planning for the City of Anderson.

She added that the city “has worked toward addressing many of the issues which plague the Hispanic community.” Many organizations and businesses have translated documents and brochures to accommodate Hispanics. Others have hired translators or bilingual employees.

Gonzalez said she has seen the city respond to the influx over the past few years.

“Local businesses and government have made an effort to hire people who are bilingual,” she commented. “Now they are better equipped and able to do translations instead of relying on volunteers from Floricanto.”

Gonzalez understands the struggle many Hispanics are facing. She and her family immigrated to the United States from Mexico in 1993, but when they arrived in Anderson, there were very few Hispanic families, she said.

“I felt alone and like I didn’t fit in,” recalls Gonzalez. “The community has changed a lot since we first moved to Anderson.”

Gonzalez said the hail storm of 1998 was a turning point, as many Hispanics flooded into Anderson looking for roofing and construction jobs that they had heard were available via word-of-mouth.

That same word-of-mouth has brought many others here to join their families. According to Gonzalez, many people have come from the small village of Oaxaca, Mexico, in particular.

One immigrant to Anderson said, “Life is so much easier here than it was in my village in Mexico.”

The woman and her family have moved multiple times and had car trouble, a leaky roof and little income, but she still feels blessed to be here.

The woman also mentioned how St. Mary’s Parish has helped with the transition into Anderson.

“Father Bob translated documents for me, and many of the members have   reached out to my family and me, inviting us to dinner and helping us when money gets tight,” she said.

Father Bob, or the Rev. Robert Williams, said that many Hispanic people come to St. Mary’s because of their Catholic roots.

“St. Mary’s is a community that is favorable to them because we don’t said.

Local residents Joe and Griselda Garcia partnered with Williams to create a “safe haven” in 2001, at which point a room in the annex building of St. Mary’s School was devoted to serving the needs of the growing Hispanic population.

“It was started originally as a Hispanic ministry,” said Williams.  

“It became Floricanto in 2003.”

According to the mission statement of the center, Floricanto is “assisting Latinos to integrate into the community and the community to receive Latinos.”

The center has helped the newcomers enroll their children in school, fill out job applications and learn about food pantries and health clinics.

“We provide them with resources to help meet their needs,” stated Gonzalez.

The center also offers English classes, after-school tutoring and “Opciones,” a court- ordered class for those convicted of abuse or domestic violence.

“We teach them how to deal with their anger or depression in other ways besides drinking,” said Gonzalez.

She sees alcohol as the biggest problem among Hispanic males.

“We still need more [programs], but we are moving in a positive direction,” Gonzalez said optimistically.

In 2005, the Anderson Police Department began hiring officers who also could speak Spanish. Since then, the police department has made a special effort to hire people who are bilingual.

“If [Hispanics] are not bilingual, then we are going to have to be,” stated Deputy Chief Steve Napier.

Napier credited officer Keith Gaskill with putting Spanish on the APD’s agenda.

“Keith’s desire to learn was a catalyst for the APD, and he brought the issue to light,” said Napier. “We knew we needed to do something about hiring bilingual officers.”

The police department currently has three officers who are fluent in Spanish and several others who have some level of proficiency, according to Napier.

“We require all officers to attend tactical-Spanish training,” he said. “We have also sent some officers to immersion schools to improve their Spanish.”

That has allowed APD to reduce its dependence on a telephone-translation service, according to Major Dale Koons.

Officers “are not encountering as many situations where they need to use the service,” said Koons. “So there’s evidence that we’re making progress.”

APD also has translated many of its brochures into Spanish. Amber Miller, a bilingual officer with APD, has found her training to be very helpful.

“I have used my Spanish multiple times to help out fellow officers,” she said. “I was able to diffuse a situation by speaking with a Hispanic man who had been pulled over but didn’t understand English and typical traffic-stop procedures.”

“It is all about learning each other’s culture,” Miller added. “If we can understand where they are coming from, it will help us to understand their actions and how to react.”

The police department is not the only organization that has made an effort to help the Hispanic population by changing from within. Sharon Eubanks was hired as the bilingual victim advocate in 2006 for the prosecutor’s office. As the victim advocate, Eubanks helps victims of domestic abuse, sexual battery, stalking and dating violence.

Eubanks was hired through the Stop Violence Against Women grant, which is funded by the Violence Against Women Awareness Act (VAWA).  

The grant is geared toward helping Hispanic victims understand their rights and know that there is someone on their side who wants to stop the violence.

“I want to help Hispanic women who are in an abusive relationship to become more independent,” said Eubanks.

She notes that as the bilingual advocate, she has been called on to translate in court, in police situations and in protective-services cases involving children. She also has translated a variety of documents.

Eubanks recalled a time when a Hispanic couple asked her to translate a marriage certificate. She asked when they were getting married, and they said right now—and asked if she could do the translation on the spot.

“Everyone knows I speak Spanish, so I have become a resource for many  

Hispanics in the community,” Eubanks explained.

She said one of the biggest problems in the Hispanic community is their lack of knowledge of American laws and the criminal-justice process.

“The word ‘crime’ has a more serious connotation in the Spanish language,” Eubanks said. “They think of a crime as a murder, theft or bank robbing. They don’t understand that domestic abuse is a crime and is not allowed in the United States.”

Dr. Jacoba Koene, an Anderson University Spanish professor and Floricanto board member, also believes that language is a problem for local Hispanics. She says, however, that “their limited English doesn’t hinder them as much as the cultural differences and miscommunication.”

Eubanks noted that her job is “very rewarding because I get to help Hispanics in a way others cannot. Their gratitude is also very evident.”

Sarah Mabry and Angela Simpson also have seen an outpouring of gratitude by the Hispanic community. Both Mabry and Simpson work for the Hopewell Center’s “Early Head Start” program, which assists pregnant women and lower-income families with children ages one to three.

“We teach them things that their parents would teach them, but their parents often aren’t here,” commented Mabry.

Mabry and Simpson have seen the poverty that some of the families live in, and yet the Hispanics seem happy to be here.

“Like anyone living in poverty, it is one struggle after another,” said Mabry. “The only difference is, many of the Hispanic families we work with cannot receive the assistance other American families rely on.”

These women have been a point of reference for the families they work with.

“We tell them about the programs offered at Floricanto, the library, food banks like Operation Love, East Lynn Christian Church and the Salvation Army,” Simpson said. “The Christian Center has also helped many Hispanic families by providing them with furniture, clothes and appliances.”

Each of these organizations has helped Hispanic families meet their basic needs.

The Anderson Public Library also is helping Hispanics assimilate.

“Since 2006, we have provided computer classes in Spanish to teach the basics of Microsoft Word and the Internet,” said Stephanie Holloway, manager of community relations for Anderson Public Library.

The teacher and facilitator for the classes is Ramón Salinas, an information-services librarian. “This was the best way for the library to reach out to the Hispanic community and help them in a practical manner,” commented Salinas.

The broader issue, of course, is how Hispanic newcomers are assimilated into the community.

On that point, says city official Goar, “There is a need for a large-scale community awareness. We need to work together to  understand each other’s culture.”