Quote:
Originally Posted by JMT
There's another Mexican grocery store in my neighborhood that seems to be doing fine. I buy my Coca-Cola there all the time because it's imported from Mexico and is sweetened with cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. And it's in glass bottles instead of plastic. It's so good! They also have pineapple and mango soda from Mexico that's really good. 
At any rate, the Kroger in my neighborhood has a pretty large Hispanic section (they also have Mexican Coca-Cola) and that might be why the aforementioned supermercado went out of business. I noticed that the Kroger in Fountain City doesn't have as large of a Hispanic section as the Kroger in my neighborhood even though they're just a couple of miles apart.
I don't know why Hispanics haven't flocked to Knoxville the way they have to Memphis and Nashville, or even Morristown. There are certainly more here than when I first came here 15 years ago, but nothing like in other cities in the region. Nolensville Road in Nashville is almost exclusively Spanish-speaking these days, it seems. Knoxville doesn't really have any neighborhoods that are dominated by Hispanics. |
The Latinos tend to concentrate their communities in areas where there are available jobs that many of the locals don't want. They are hard workers and will do just about any honest job to make a living.
It has typically been the pattern for part of a family to immigrate to the US (the expense limits who and how many enter the US at a time) , get settled, make a decent wage, save everything they can, and then pay the fees to bring additional family members to the US. In our area they have been dubbed the "poor middle class" because they do make a middle class living, but because they are supporting so many extended family members both in the US and Mexico, the islands and Latin America, they remain poor by our standards here.
The main industry in my town and surrounding area is poultry production, both farming and processing. There are very few locals who would choose to work at either the poultry farms or in the processing plants. It is hot, hard, stinking, disgusting work and locals seem to look for work there when there is just no other choice. Youngsters in high school are urged to graduate or be threatened with the prospect of working in the chicken plants!
The Hispanics in our community see these jobs as an avenue out of poverty and hope for their children to have an education, clean safe water, and some quality of life in their future. They make tremendous sacrifices to be here, work hard and provide for their family, their wives' family, their extended families, and close friends who are considered family.
In talking with, and getting to know, some of these families while teaching ESL children, I have been impressed and touched by their dedication to the extended family and the nuclear unit within their immediate families. They would do anything for their children's future and their happiness.
If discrimination does not prevent them from progressing in our society, the contolled legal immigrantion of Hispanics offers much to any community.
(Sorry, that this has gotten off the track of the OP's topic.
)
Welcome to City-Data.com forum! Make sure to register - it's free and very quick! You have to register before you can post and participate in our discussions with 400,000 other registered members. User profiles and some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your free account you will be able to customize many options, you will have the full access to over 14,000 posts/day about local topics and you will see fewer ads. Within the last few months our forum was cited in an article in 15 newspaper and in a story on AOL's homepage.
08-29-2008, 09:21 AM
Linear Mode
