I got my butt kicked into the 21st century
last week. It happened on my road trip up the east side of the US, from Hobe Sound in south Florida to
Katonah, just north of New York City.
I don’t do this often enough, and when the opportunity comes along I always try to route myself through North Carolina, ‘The Land of the Long Leaf Pine” and land of my birth.
A few miles after crossing the NC/SC border I took at left at Lumberton NC and headed up Rte 211 to Red Springs, Raeford – destination Chapel Hill. Two-lane blacktop all the way. I love it.
As the miles ticked by I started to see interesting signs, like “Se habla Espanol” -“Iglesia Santa Maria”. When I was in school at UNC the state was pretty much 100% black and white and while I had trouble with the accent at times, English was the first and only language. Now this?
“What gives?” I asked my friend Sharon who has lived in Kinston NC long enough that I think of her as a native. Her reply opened my eyes.
“North Carolina is home to the fastest-growing Hispanic population in the country. That's right -- not CA, or AZ, or TX, or NM. The Old North State. I sit on an advocacy task force for our Community Health Center with at least two Hispanic members and two Hispanic staff people; all of our public agencies have Spanish-speaking staff; several churches now hold a Spanish-language service to their Sunday rosters.
Kinston is typical, and this is a town of only 24,000 people. More than 5 years ago, I was driving cross country to a meeting in Wilmington and rounded the curve between Beulaville and Chinquapin -- and nearly had a wreck. St. James Baptist Church had morphed into Iglesias Santiago. The state legislature is practically under siege to reverse a law it passed four years ago granting in-state tuition at state educational institutions (including Blue Heaven) to the American-born children of illegal immigrants. So that's what gives.
A friend and ex-colleague who lives in Chapel Hill added, “ ALL the service people -- plumbers, painters, electricians, yard maintenance--are hispanic. A working knowledge of Spanish is becoming vital. Why NC? This a builder's mecca and one of the fastest growing states in the nation. NC passed NJ last year as the tenth most populous and Raleigh is the new Seattle, a magnet for young people. As a realtor said, "We are the new Florida (for retirees)."
The melting pot of our grand parents is bubbling all over again,
in every corner of the country. I
imagine on my next trip there I’ll be having salsa with my hush puppies.
