thedailytimes.com : Your 24/7 news source

KNOXVILLE — Groups representing Hispanic immigrants in East Tennessee joined together Friday in downtown Knoxville to explain their missions and outline their goals to members of other civic-minded groups in the community.

It is safe to say everyone present had an accent — the native East Tennesseans as well as the Hispanics.

The meeting was sponsored by the East Tennessee Foundation and initiated by Gladys Pineda, chair of the Latino Task Force of CEDnet (Community Economic Development Network of East Tennessee).

The Latino Task Force is dedicated to linking Hispanics with businesses and organizations in hopes of unifying to create a stronger community through organizations such as the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, helping to bring banking services and developing leadership within the Latino community. It established the Heroes Banquet for Latino Leaders and Allies that is held in July in Knoxville.

Jeannine Fort De La Torre Ugarte, with the Latino Task Force, said the group is about breaking barriers and building bridges.

"The Latino Task Force is like an antenna imbedded in the community. What is going on? What can we do? How can we solve? Where should we work? With whom do we need to work?"

There was a common theme to the presentations: It's past time to wonder if there is a need in the community to deal with changes wrought by immigration. The need is now and Hispanic leaders are forming organizations to help immigrants deal with issues of education, language, housing, jobs and bureaucracy.

Here to stay

"It's not a question of whether Tennessee will embrace immigrants -- it's a matter of how and when," said Stephen Fotopulos, executive director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRCC).

Fotopulos is of Greek ancestry and his group serves immigrants from all nations, but the Nashville-based group mostly works with Spanish-speaking newcomers, because they are far and away the majority of new immigrants in the state.

Between 1990 and 2000, Tennessee's Hispanic community grew by 278 percent from 31,075 to 123,838, according to Census data. That does not include the undocumented population estimated at 100,000, and the numbers have continued to climb over the past eight years.

TIRCC was formed in 2001 as a grass-roots operation established to help immigrants and refugees defend their rights and be recognized as positive contributors to the state.

Rosie Noriega, chair of Centro Hispano de East Tennessee, recalled that after she moved to Tellico Village she used to look for fellow Spanish speakers when she shopped at Wal-Mart. She just enjoyed speaking to someone in her native tongue.

"Now, I don't have to look. We're everywhere," Noriega said.

The vision of Centro Hispano is to create a community center where Hispanics would be welcomed by a bilingual staff to help them bridge language and cultural barriers that prevent them from meeting their most basic needs ranging from housing to health care.

Loida Velazquez is education coordinator for HoLa Hora Latina, the oldest grass-roots Latino nonprofit in the area.

It is perhaps best known for the annual HoLa Festival Celebrating Hispanic Heritage that drew 10,000 people in September to Market Square in Knoxville.

Three waves

Velazquez put the Hispanic experience in East Tennessee in historical perspective. She said Hispanic immigrants come from 23 countries and arrived in three major waves.

The first came in the early 1970s when employers responded to affirmative action legislation and brought in an educated class of professionals from Latin America to the U.S.

The second and largest wave was in the '90s when migrant workers, mainly from Mexico and Central America, came for agricultural jobs and were followed by people in construction and service positions.

They came to work in Florida and the Carolinas, and some put down roots in East Tennessee.

The third wave started about eight years ago as a response to the second.

"This third wave is formed by people that are coming here because they have one quality that is desired. They are bilingual," Velazquez said.

They are employed by banks, schools, hospitals — any organization that needs to be able to serve the second wave and its growing families.

"We live in a global world and the global world has gotten here (to East Tennessee), and it is important to take advantage of opportunities."

Sharing the load

Lourdes Garza is director of the Hispanic Ministry Office of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Knoxville, one of the earliest organizations to serve Hispanic immigrants in the area. She said that as new organizations have formed to fill specific needs, the ministry office has been able to share some of the load with others.

"We're very often the first contact, still, and we're very happy to be able to refer people out and concentrate more on our pastoral ministry that we are meant to be," Garza said.

Jeanet Berruecos Xicohtencatl is director of Latino Ministries in the Knoxville District of the United Methodist Church that advocates for Latinos in the area. She has been here a year and sees more to do.

"We have many positive gains, but I also have to say that we have not gotten, yet, to the point where the American society in East Tennessee acknowledges and accepts the Latino community," she said.

She mentioned four areas that are among the most serious problems facing Latinos: health care, education, housing and obtaining a drivers license.

"As leaders in our community ... and as children of God, we have a lot to do in our effort to get an equal society in East Tennessee," Xicohtencatl said.