The Latino Migration Experience in North Carolina: New Roots in the Old North State

1 PRESERVING OUR HERITAGE, PROMOTING OUR FUTURE: What’s at Stake in Alamance County and Beyond

Chapter One Preserving Our Heritage, Promoting Our Future what’s at stake in alamance county and beyond Red banners with the slogan “Preserving our heritage, promoting our future” line the streets leading to the courthouse in Graham, county seat of the Piedmont county of Alamance. Graham resembles other North Carolina downtowns, with a courthouse on a hill at the center of a traffic circle, an old movie theater, and a 1950s-­ style diner where one can imagine cops from the county jail a block away drinking coffee. A number of furniture stores, largely absent of customers, sell dressers and tables that have now become antiques, revealing a bygone heyday when North Carolina companies dominated the national furniture industry . Nearby, abandoned textile mills a city block in length are now vacant and in stages of disrepair after textile companies have closed down or moved operations to Asia and Mexico in the past fifteen years. Downtown Graham is a quaint historic reminder of a manufacturing economy, all but abandoned at the turn of the twenty-­ first century by retailers who have chosen to relocate to the Wal-­ Mart plaza or the mall miles away in the city of Burlington. A part of the city that in many ways had been abandoned became ground zero for controversy over immigration in North Carolina. In May 2009, “Lady Liberty” was sentenced to five days in jail and two years of probation for disorderly conduct in Graham. Under the long robe, gold crown, and torch of the Ellis Island icon was Audrey Schwankl, a woman who had dressed in the guise of the Statue of Liberty in order to protest the treatment of Latino migrants in Alamance County. On Heritage banner flies over the city of Graham. 15  preserving our heritage April 8, she had been arrested along with six other individuals for her part in a peaceful demonstration in front of the Alamance County Federal Detention Center that ended after protesters attempted to enter the jail. Protesters were angered about a law enforcement initiative known as the 287(g) program that resulted in the deportation of immigrants in the county. In front of the jail that day were also counter-­ protesters who held up signs in support of the sheriff’s “tough on illegal immigration” stance. The clash of immigrant supporters and detractors drew national media coverage and resulted in the seven arrests. The root of the controversy that landed Lady Liberty in jail comes to light about a mile west of downtown where the textile factories begin and Graham’s heritage banners end. On Webb Avenue, amid the ruins of factories, the bright flags of Mexico and El Salvador preserve a different heritage of Latinos who have migrated to the area over the past thirty years. On Webb Avenue, the Latino presence is especially apparent: more than twenty businesses are owned by Spanish speakers , while most other businesses— ​ junk auto dealers, thrift stores, and money lending services— ​ advertise in Spanish. One mile to the north on Church Street and Graham Hopedale Road, there are more than twenty-­ two Spanish-­ speaking businesses, including restaurants with names like El Taquito de Oro (The Little Golden Taco) and La Cocina (The Kitchen). Latino families have bought or rented old mill houses in the residential neighborhoods that connect to the main road with the factories. On a two-­ mile stretch of Webb Avenue, one can buy chorizo sausage, fresh-­ baked bolillos (white rolls), jicama fruit, or de-­ spined prickly pear cactus, a favorite vegetable in Mexico. A restaurant sells authentic Salvadorian pupusas, a cornmeal and cheese staple. Stores advertise bands that perform mariachi music at weddings or deejays to play music at quinceañera fiestas. Other stores offer to send an immigrant ’s wages back to Latin America through wiring services like GiroMex and Western Union. What was once a declining neighborhood has been revitalized by Latino migrants over the past decade. In the space of thirty years, Alamance County has become the location of a rapidly expanding Latino population. Latino migrants arrived first as seasonal agricultural laborers and later as workers in local factories or construction workers in the nearby Triad cities of Winston- preserving our heritage 16­ Salem, Greensboro, and High Point and the Triangle cities of Chapel Hill, Durham, and Raleigh. The bulk of migration to Alamance occurred between 1990 and 2005. In 1990, less than 1 percent (736 people) of the total...