密歇根新闻广播 庆祝西密歇根的Hispanics文化传承

The city of Holland in West Michigan has certainly made its Dutch heritage known. If the name alone isn't enough for you, the city has held an annual Tulip Time Festival, celebrating all things Dutch for the last 86 years.

But there's a sizeable Hispanic community in Holland. The latest census¹ numbers indicate Hispanics make up 23% of the city's population.

That's why the city is leading many area groups in a joint² effort to collect and share the oral histories of Holland's Hispanic Americans.

City of Holland Human/International Relations Manager Esther Fifelski tells us that their oral history project Nuestra Comunidad Hispana - "our Hispanic community" - invites members of the Hispanic community to share their stories as part of National Hispanic Heritage month.

"We're hoping to … gather the stories, put together a profile, and then celebrate them at our [Latin Americans United for Progress] dinner in November," Fifelski says.

Sister Noella Poinsette of Outreach and Social Justice at St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church in Holland tells us that the parish is between 55 and 60 percent Hispanic, and also that it is the most diverse parish in the whole Grand Rapids Diocese.

She says she's always been passionate³ about working with diverse populations, and is excited to be working with Nuestra Comunidad Hispana.

Poinsette says that many of the stories they've collected so far are hopeful tales of families working hard as migrant laborers⁴, "but believing in education and so making that possible for their children and grandchildren."

Migrant, immigrant and seasonal⁵ workers have been the backbone⁶ of the agricultural industry for decades, harvesting everything from our sugar beets⁷ and peaches to cherries and apples.

It's estimated that in the next 10 to 15 years West Michigan may well have the largest number of Latinos in the state.

Ruben Martinez, director of the Julian Samora Research Institute at Michigan State University, tells us that the boom in Latino population really kicked off a little under a century ago.

"It really began to take off in the 1930s. Farmers in West Michigan had been using migrant and seasonal workers for some decades before that, but Latinos did not come in any sizeable numbers until about the 1930s and began to … settle out of the migrant stream probably in good numbers in the '40s."

He says that Michigan is historically a "family-friendly state," meaning that farmers were set up to host entire families during work seasons, and until only a couple decades ago the majority of Latino workers who migrated did so with their families.

According to Martinez, scores of Mexicans sought refuge in South Texas during the Mexican Revolution. He tells us that Michigan's migrant workforce⁸ was largely comprised of those refugees and the following generations born in Texas.

Martinez says the migrant worker population in West Michigan is much smaller than it once was, decreasing in line with the rise of automation and mechanization in the agricultural industry.

The majority of those workers now are single males from Florida and individuals with an H-2A Visa, according to Martinez.

1 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。

2 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

3 passionate   

adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的

参考例句：

• He is said to be the most passionate man.据说他是最有激情的人。
• He is very passionate about the project.他对那个项目非常热心。

4 laborers   

n.体力劳动者，工人( laborer的名词复数 )；（熟练工人的）辅助工

参考例句：

• Laborers were trained to handle 50-ton compactors and giant cranes. 工人们接受操作五十吨压土机和巨型起重机的训练。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Wage-labour rests exclusively on competition between the laborers. 雇佣劳动完全是建立在工人的自相竞争之上的。 来自英汉非文学 - 共产党宣言

5 seasonal   

adj.季节的，季节性的

参考例句：

• The town relies on the seasonal tourist industry for jobs.这个城镇依靠季节性旅游业提供就业机会。
• The hors d'oeuvre is seasonal vegetables.餐前小吃是应时蔬菜。

6 backbone   

n.脊骨，脊柱，骨干；刚毅，骨气

参考例句：

• The Chinese people have backbone.中国人民有骨气。
• The backbone is an articulate structure.脊椎骨是一种关节相连的结构。

7 beets   

甜菜( beet的名词复数 )； 甜菜根； （因愤怒、难堪或觉得热而）脸红

参考例句：

• Beets are Hank's favorite vegetable. 甜菜根是汉克最爱吃的蔬菜。
• In this enlargement, barley, alfalfa, and sugar beets can be differentiated. 在这张放大的照片上，大麦，苜蓿和甜菜都能被区分开。

8 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。