Monday Night Football on a big screen TV dominates Jessica Cartagena's living room in eastern Lorain County. But, tonight, her eye is drawn to another image, prominently displayed on the wall.
JESSICA CARTEGENA: That picture is El Morro in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Usually when you fly in, it's one of the first things that you see.
Jessica's father painted the scene from a memory of his homeland, and it's one of the ways that she and her husband Luis keep their family heritage prominent in their lives. Of course, being part of Northeast Ohio's fastest growing minority group, they're constantly quizzed about their roots by well-meaning friends and co-workers. Luis says that gets old after awhile.
LUIS CARTAGENA: You can only explain how much we eat rice and beans so many times.
JESSICA CARTAGENA: People always want to know the difference between Mexicans and Puerto Ricans, or "Do you make good guacamole?" I don't know any more about guacamole than you do! Once people get comfortable with you, they'll start asking those questions. Especially now, there's so much Latino-ism in the media --- everything from immigration to celebrities. And everyone gets lumped into one group, so they don't really understand.
The Puerto Ricans are the largest local Hispanic group with origins dating back to the late 1940s, when the National Tube Co. brought 500 to Lorain to do factory work. Carlos Chinchilla of the Cleveland-based Hispanic Alliance says, today, Lorain is one of three main clusters of Latino residents in the region.
CHINCHILLA: Lorain is predominately Puerto Rican. The Cleveland area here in the near west side, is a combination of people from many countries. And there's the community that lives in the vicinity of Geauga and Ashtabula counties --- they tend to be more Mexican.
Lorain is now home to over 23,000 Hispanic residents and Cuyahoga County boasts a population of over 56,000. A strong nursery industry in Lake, Geauga and Ashtabula Counties has attracted another 10,000 Latinos.
The potential impact of that diverse mix of Latin cultures was on display this past weekend at Convencion Hispana, held in Ohio City, near Cleveland's Hispanic enclave. A couple thousand people with roots in many countries gathered for a one-day event that featured workshops, job and college recruiters, and a keynote address by Judge Keila Cosme, the first Latina ever to serve on Ohio's Court of Appeals. Building economic influence was a big theme at the Convencion. Stephanie Mercado of the Northeast Ohio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce says one goal is to start a loan fund for the region's 2000 Hispanic-owned businesses.
MERCADO: We're looking to work with some local micro-lending institutions so that we can lend directly and work directly with those businesses in our community, because it's the largest-growing demographic.
Some of those businesses, like New Era Builders, are multi-million-dollar operations. Others, like Quintana & Son, are much more modest. Pedro Quintana came here as a refugee from Chile in 1976.
QUINTANA: I became a carpenter in 1982 and have been working as a carpenter for 30 years. We would like to be able to grow more and get into the commercial side.
Joe Lopez would like to help him. As a founding member of the newly minted Hispanic Contractors Association, Lopez says he'd like to see more people who look like Pedro Quintana on area construction sites.
LOPEZ: You know, when you think about all the opportunities that are coming down the pike in NEOhio --- you have casino work, you have road work, you have bridge work, you have hospital work --- you have a lot of work. And if you drive by these sites, you typically will not see a lot of Hispanics. You don't see them in the field with the tradesperson and you don't see them in the upper or middle management of the construction companies. There should be more integration of Hispanics in those roles. That's what we're trying to get to.
Jessica Cartegena looks into one of the faces of Northeast Ohio's Hispanic future.
JESSICA CARTAGENA: Her name is Noemi Cartagena and she's two year's old. She is bi-lingual, but lately more English is coming out of her mouth.
LUIS CARTAGENA: One of our biggest concerns is making sure that our daughter actually stays close to her culture, her Hispanic heritage. That's a big thing to us for her to be able to speak and understand Spanish, as well as English.
So, Luis and Jessica have been spending a lot of time at the library, renting out bi-lingual books and videos. That's the plan for now, as mother, father and daughter try to find a balance between their cultural heritage… and the changing image of that culture outside of their living room.
