It would be hard to find a group that has been hit harder by the recession than the latino community. Already vulnerable, their jobs in the construction and service industry have been the first to go. Language barriers and immigration status put many safety net services out of reach. Many families live in a continuous survival mode.
Most of the latinos here in the DC Metro area are from El Salvador. Salvadorans began coming here in large numbers in the early eighties when their brutal civil war was ravaging the countryside. Most of the immigrants that came were the rural poor and came only with the clothes on their back.
Upon arriving in DC they were not prepared for the different, far more complicated social setting and DC was not equipped to help these people who came escaping unspeakable horrors. Because of the U.S.’s involvement in El Salvador under Reagan, it was not allowed to provide them refugee status–much like the situation with the millions of Iraqi refugees today.
This piece highlights the work of three organizations that support the Latino community in the DC area. Their work goes largely unnoticed, yet they provide enormous support–sometimes life-saving support to the Latino community.
