By Tom Vandenack, Truth Staff
GOSHEN -- Andres Avila met the woman who would be his wife back in 1990, when both were working at a hotel here.
"She was working in the laundry when I started there in housekeeping," he remembered. "I said, 'Where are you from?'"
It turns out she was originally from Apan, a small city in the central Mexican state of Hidalgo, as was he, and they marveled at the coincidence. Who would've figured -- meeting someone from your Mexican hometown in Goshen, Ind., of all places?
These days, though, such occurrences have become commonplace. "Whenever we go to the store, we always find somebody (from Apan)," said Miguel Millan, another native of the city who now calls Goshen home.
No one keeps a precise count of the origins of the Hispanic population here -- most are Mexican and Mexican-American -- and, to be sure, they come from all corners of Latin America and the United States. But if the Hispanic population here has boomed, the population with roots in Apan, a city of some 60,000 in a zone where corn and barley are king, seems to have skyrocketed, at least relative to those with ties to other Mexican locales.
Sure, there are a lot of people here from Aguascalientes in Mexico.
"But it's not just one town, it's an entire state," said Alvaro Marquez, another Apan native here who recently formed the Hidalgo Community Center to unite people from Apan and Hidalgo.
Family networks
Despite it all, it's hardly a unique trend here. Many U.S. towns and cities with strong Hispanic populations can point to individual Mexican locales that seem to feed them with newcomers, says Juana Watson, senior adviser to the state's Commission on Hispanic and Latino Affairs. There are many from the state of Veracruz in Columbus, Ind., where she lives, for instance.
But it underscores the importance of family and Mexican hometown networks in immigration. Coupled with the strong demand here for labor, it also helps explain how the Hispanic population has been able to establish itself in Elkhart County.
"All it takes is one or two people to arrive from that town," said Watson. "They call their relatives and friends and you end up having entire villages."
Rafael Garnica, Apan's mayor, is well aware of the strong Apan presence in Elkhart County. He thinks there are up to 5,000 people from the city living here.
"Apan doesn't have industry so the population has to look for other places to work," he said in a phone interview. Some go to Pachuca, the capital of Hidalgo, some go to Mexico City and some come to Elkhart County, among other places.
Similarly, Palmira Venero, director of a Hidalgo government office that lends support to natives of the Mexican state living in the United States, says Clearwater, Fla.; Las Vegas; New York; California and Elkhart County are expatriate strongholds. Some 250,000 people in all from the Mexican state are living north of the border, she estimates.
'I love Goshen'
Avila, who came to Goshen in 1988, and Millan, who initially set foot in the city in 1989, were among the first from Apan to come to Elkhart County, bound and determined to find a better life. A friend already here from Chiapas, Mexico, sold Millan on the idea of Indiana while a cousin who spoke of job opportunities motivated Avila.
"He was here. That's why I came here," said Avila, who had been operating a small market back in Mexico but foresaw a limited future. "If he was in California, I would have gone there."
They depended on the help of family, friends and acquaintances already here for housing, to direct them to job opportunities, to teach them English, even to chauffeur them around. They also bonded emotionally, turning to each other as they struggled to make their way in a new land, sometimes with their children and other family members still in Mexico.
"There practically weren't any Hispanics," said Avila, now 50. "It was difficult for us because nobody spoke Spanish."
Even so, those first Apan arrivals told people back in Mexico of their experiences here -- and the jobs -- spurring them to move and establishing a pattern that would foretell future waves from the city.
Millan, now 48 and employed at a Goshen recreational vehicle manufacturer, returned to Mexico, sorted out his paperwork and came back with his entire family in 1992. There's been no looking back.
His four kids -- all but the youngest born in Mexico -- speak English as well as Spanish and his oldest, Rosa Maria, is a Ball State graduate now working in Chicago in graphic arts. He figures if the family had stayed in Mexico, Rosa Maria would probably have been able to aspire to no more than a grocery store job.
In 1998, Avila married the woman he met that day at the hotel, Alicia -- it's the second time for each -- and now operates a Goshen club, La Bamba. He's also an employee at a Nappanee RV manufacturer.
Back in Apan, the money sent by those now living and working in Elkhart County goes a long way, helping boost the quality of life for family still there and spurring the local economy, said Garnica. Venero, speaking of the importance of the expatriates to the Hidalgo economy, called them "our people," noting the $860 million they sent back last year alone.
But while they still have a soft spot for their native country, don't expect Avila or Millan to rush back, except for an occasional visit.
"We go to visit our family ... and that's it," said Avila. "Our life is here. This is home for us."
Millan is active in Goshen's Community Relations Commission and the board of the Maple City Health Care Clinic. He's also a diehard fan of the Goshen High School Redskins, no matter the sport. That's the alma mater of his oldest three kids and current school of his fourth.
"I love Goshen and I'm working to get Goshen better," he said.