Hispanics have long history in Valley

By ELISE FRANCO

Hispanics were drawn to the Mahoning Valley because of work opportunities, the speaker said.

YOUNGSTOWN — Hispanics have been a dominant part of the Mahoning Valley for decades, a Hispanic expert told a YSU crowd.

“Hispanics have been immigrating here since the early 20th century. The steel mill industry brought thousands of families up north,” Dr. Alvaro Ramirez, professor at St. Mary’s College of California, said Friday night.

Speaking to about 250 people attending the 2008 Hispanic Heritage Celebration in Youngstown State University’s Kilcawley Center, Ramirez recounted his family’s immigration journey from Michoacan, Mexico, to Youngstown’s West Side in the 1960s. They got on a bus and rode for three days into Ohio, he said.

When they arrived, they looked up at the tall buildings and thought, “Are we in New York?”

That was the difference between life in Ramirez’s hometown and how life could be for him in Youngstown.

“It was like we went from the Middle Ages to modern living,” he said.

Ramirez, who graduated from Youngstown State University in 1982, said many Hispanics who settled in the Valley were only planning on passing through. His uncle, along with others, came through Youngstown on their way to Pittsburgh to find work.

“He found a job, and stayed here,” Ramirez said. “This was the pattern of thousands of immigrants over the years.”

He said many of his friends in California don’t realize the size of the Latino population in the Youngstown area, so they joke with him when he says he’s coming home for a family reunion.

“My friends [in California] used to ask me, ‘How did you end up in Ohio?’” he said. “And I would tell them it all had to do with the Mexican Revolution of 1910 and the booming steel industry.”

Life for Hispanics in the Valley wasn’t always easy though, Ramirez said. The 1920s brought the Great Depression and what some called “The Decade of Betrayal.” That name was coined by Latinos because many Americans blamed them for the prolonged economic downturn, even though they’d been prominent in the work force for many years.

With the 1980s came more economic contraction and job losses for steel workers, many of whom were Hispanics, Ramirez said.

“The community has shown resilience in the face of that latest economic catastrophe,” he said. “Many immigrants don’t establish roots in Youngstown now, but they’ve still helped revitalize Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley,” and are here to stay.

Hispanic Heritage Month began Monday. Friday’s event also included a flamenco, a musical performance by the Esparra-Gonzalez family and awards to 26 young people to celebrate their academic achievements, community work and leadership abilities.