An entire month of activities related to the Hispanic Heritage has just been celebrated throughout the United States, from September 15 to October 15. In Lawrence, last Friday 11, Hispanic Week executives celebrated the occasion by honoring different people of different nationalities residing in the area, who have left a positive mark behind them.
We congratulate the Hispanic Week directive for being the only ones who decided to highlight the achievements of Hispanics who, years ago, arrived in a city that was being abandoned by hundreds of its residents due to the lack of jobs by closing the factories that were the livelihood of thousands.
Many miss the Lawrence they abandoned and criticize Hispanics for rebuilding it in their own way. Would you criticize them?
This is happening in a city where, according to the 2010 census, it has a population of 76,377 inhabitants and is estimated to have increased to 96,892 in 2019.
This total is made up of Colombians, Cubans, Dominicans, Ecuadorians, Spaniards, Guatemalans, Hondurans, Mexicans, Nicaraguans, Paraguayans, Peruvians, Puerto Ricans, Salvadorans, and Venezuelans, who form 75% of citizens who speak Spanish in Lawrence, with the majority of them, Dominicans, making a total of 47% of the population.
Many companies hold talks, presentations and fun events as well as educational for their employees and the general public. This is the moment that the attention of the country is directed to the positive roles and achievements of Latin Americans, which, incidentally, are many.
Apart from this month, the media and the general public seem to be set to the opposite. Whether border protection or undocumented immigrants, we rarely hear or read a story dealing with our successes.
Today, Latinos are more than 20% of the total population of the United States, but they have also moved to positions where it is possible to influence the development of the country. Among them we can mention the Costa Rican astronaut Franklin Chang Díaz; Rafael Reif, appointed Rector of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2012; Sonia Sotomayor, born in the Bronx, New York, of Puerto Rican descent, first Latina and third woman to be a judge of the Supreme Court of Justice of the United States and Mexican Jorge Ramos, considered the most influential Latin journalist in the United States, for just mention four.
We have contributed not only to the specialties mentioned above; Miami, Florida has become the banking capital of the Latin American continent thanks to the increase in the Spanish-speaking population there. Our colleges and universities continue to graduate Spanish-speaking students every year who are in charge of large corporations and occupy high-level places in commerce and industry while they are examples for our youth.
We will keep that image of success in mind while dealing with negativity. Our contributions should not be indicated only one month in the whole year.
