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    • Language barriers slow Latino community’s recovery from storm
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    Language barriers slow Latino community’s recovery from storm

    Harry Posted on

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    SWANNANOA – Two men removed broken, mud-covered cars from Joaquin Orellana’s Swannanoa tire shop late on a Tuesday in October.

    While they worked, a bucket loader removed tons of debris and materials from the ruins of Orellana’s home, right next to his shop.

    While Orellana and his volunteers worked at his store on the other side of town, Abraham Miranda-Gonzalez, his wife, his 11-year-old son and his son’s friend stood in line at the first distribution site, where people spoke Spanish.

    His son’s friend was the only one of them who spoke both English and Spanish fluently. Miranda-Gonzalez had come to rely on him for help finding resources. Earlier that day, the 12-year-old helped them understand how to apply for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

    The growing community of Mexicans and Central Americans in Swannanoa faces unique challenges as it begins to recover from Tropical Storm Helene.

    Residents also face uncertainty about resources while dealing with language barriers that make accessing important information difficult.

    While Orellana addresses these struggles with the help of friends, family and community support, others like Miranda-Gonzalez find themselves on the outskirts of a community they hoped to be a part of.

    Latino presence growing in Swannanoa

    Orellana, who spent 24 years in Buncombe County, said he has seen how Swannanoa has changed over the years.

    He said he started the tire shop 10 years ago, “when the Latino community here was still growing.”

    In North Carolina, between 2010 and 2020, the state’s Hispanic population grew by nearly 320,000 new residents, according to Carolina Demographics, a research organization at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; this was the largest increase of any racial or ethnic group in a decade. .

    The number of businesses owned by Hispanic members of the community appears to be on the rise in that time, according to Fernando Uribe, who has run a Mexican restaurant in Swannanoa for the past 12 years.

    Uribe moved to Swannanoa from Texas 15 years ago to pursue his dream of owning his own restaurant and turned it into a family business after meeting his wife.

    When he first started, he felt like it was one of the only Latino-owned businesses. He has seen this change over the years.

    “Eventually, I started to see stores opening, primarily automotive, but then more diverse businesses,” Uribe said. “I had a feeling it was going to continue to grow until the hurricane.”

    He said his restaurant suffered almost no damage. He prays every morning before going to work and has a deep sense of faith. He believes this keeps him and his family safe.

    But he sees and hears the stories of other business owners every day.

    “We are such a small community that we all know each other very well. I try to keep them afloat and keep their morale high.”

    Even though the business environment has flattened, he has hope.

    Uribe said watching the redevelopment from his restaurant feels like watching businesses emerge, like they’re starting over, just like when they first opened.

    Storm leaves family unwelcome in Swannanoa

    Originally from Mexico, Miranda-Gonzalez moved to Swannanoa two years ago with the promise of work and support from relatives. But things changed after the storm.

    “The relatives I rented from have become cold,” he said. “It’s like they don’t want us there anymore.”

    Miranda-Gonzalez and her family are struggling to find resources and figure out what to do next.

    On Tuesday, they attended a local distribution event where they were able to pick up basic necessities. “We needed this,” he said.

    Miranda-Gonzalez does not speak English fluently, making it difficult to know where to turn for help.

    “It’s hard to ask for help when you don’t know the language,” he said.

    He and his wife were just starting to establish their lives in Swannanoa when the storm hit.

    “We lost our savings and now we don’t know what to do except continue looking for work,” he said.

    Miranda-Gonzalez has faced resistance and even racism in some places. “Somewhere they asked me why I came to a country where I was so foreign,” he said.

    For more than a week after the storm, his wife was unable to contact her family in Mexico.

    “We couldn’t let them know we were okay,” he said. “We didn’t know when that would change because most of the information we could get was word of mouth and we didn’t know a lot of people.”

    Despite these challenges, there were glimmers of support.

    They found help finding distribution locations through his son’s friend.

    His family was also able to shower at a factory where he and others worked.

    He said some of the other workers at the plant did the same, and through them he was able to share some information about resources.

    For Miranda-Gonzalez, the storm wasn’t just a weather event; It was a turning point that left him feeling unwelcome in the community he once hoped to call home.

    “I feel like I’m falling behind,” he said. “Our biggest priority right now is finding a job and a new place to live.”

    Despite the devastation, hope remains for the Salvadoran tire shop owner

    While Orellana lost both his home and his job, he received strong community support.

    “Our Latino community here is small,” he said, “but we’ve seen everyone come together despite everything that’s going on.”

    He pointed to the frame of his mother’s mobile home as he walked through the ruins of his home, which was submerged in 10 to 11 feet of water.

    “The flood completely destroyed his home, but he was in El Salvador at the time and that was a blessing,” he said.

    Flood waters left stains on the upper part of the roof. Orellana remembers how he and his brother-in-law left the house and watched the water rise by the church up the street.

    “We just stood there and I was in complete shock watching the waters swallow everything,” he said. “I had moments where I froze for days and forgot what I was doing.”

    In the days after the flood, neighbors helped Orellana and his brother-in-law clean the house.

    She said the community’s ongoing support — food, resources and cleaning help — has also helped her cope with the shock.

    A local church offered to demolish his house at no cost when it became clear that it could not be saved.

    Orellana was able to apply for federal aid with the help of his daughters, who translated for him.

    In front of the tire shop next door to Orellana’s house, cars covered in muddy water, broken and destroyed, were lined up.

    “We lost all our tools and more than 20 cars, but the shop itself is still standing,” he said. “That’s what matters.”

    With shelter secured and some basic necessities available, Orellana turned his focus to reopening the store.

    He and his siblings spent the day working to clean up, with the help of friends hauling debris and trucks from the garage.

    Still standing in front of a mud-filled bay, Orellana remains optimistic.

    “Maybe we will go back to work in two months,” he said.

    As he spoke, Orellana’s mother and brothers joined him. Her sister said her mother was crying because she lost her mobile home.

    “We’re fine,” he assured her. “We’re still here and we have each other.”

    This story has been updated to correct a misspelling of Joaquin Orellano’s name.

    Harry
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