[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 33 (Wednesday, March 22, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E391]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         COMMENDING THE WISCONSIN HISPANIC CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. GERALD D. KLECZKA

                              of wisconsin

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 22, 2000

  Mr. KLECZKA. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to 
commend the Wisconsin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, which I'm proud to 
say is located in my district, for the outstanding job it has done to 
help Milwaukee's Hispanic community thrive. I would like to especially 
note the work of one of its leaders, Maria Monreal-Cameron, President 
of the Chamber. Her ceaseless energy and countless efforts on behalf of 
the Hispanic community in Milwaukee serve as a model to all those 
concerned with the improvement of civil life. The following is an 
article extolling Ms. Monreal-Cameron's efforts from the March 16th 
issue of The Wall Street Journal that I would like to submit for 
inclusion in the Record.

             [From the Wall Street Journal, Mar. 16, 2000]

             In the Land of Bratwurst, a New Hispanic Boom


  In a Big Population Shift, Latino Immigrants Flock To Towns in the 
                                Midwest

                          (By Paulette Thomas)

       Milwaukee--Better known for beer and bratwurst, this city 
     has dozens of Mexican restaurants and watering holes 
     stretching block after block of low-slung buildings on the 
     Hispanic south side.
       Groceries distribute not one but three local Hispanic 
     newspapers. A Yellow Pages for Hispanic businesses runs to 
     300 pages. Last year, Hispanic magazine rated Milwaukee the 
     seventh-best city in America for Hispanics.
       Milwaukee?
       Hispanic immigrants and their descendants are fanning out 
     and settling into Midwestern towns, far from the border 
     regions and metropolitan centers more renowned as Latino 
     hubs. ``Vision Latina'' began publishing last year for 
     Nebraska Hispanics. Kansas City, Mo., and Cleveland have 
     thriving Hispanic communities.
       While about 60% of the U.S. Hispanic population, 18 million 
     people, live in 10 major metropolitan areas, about 13 million 
     Hispanics reside in second-tier cities across the U.S. Though 
     little noticed, ``that dispersal is one of the big stories of 
     the 1990s,'' says Michael Fix, director of immigration 
     studies for the Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C., think 
     tank.
       Many immigrants find second-tier cities more hospitable to 
     newcomers than bigger cities, with affordable homes, decent 
     public schools and job opportunities, particularly in 
     Midwestern meatpacking plants, factories and foundries.
       Once a family gets a foothold, others follow. That 
     migration, dating back to the 1930s, has created a pool of 
     Hispanics that represents about 4% of the Milwaukee 
     population, leaving a deep imprint on the shores of Lake 
     Michigan.
       Across Wisconsin, the Hispanic population has tripled since 
     1980, to 185,000. ``Milwaukee feels like home,'' says 
     Gianfranco Tessaro, who moved from Peru to Milwaukee in 1981, 
     following a brother, who met him at the airport with a pair 
     of thick-soled shoes for the snow. Like most of the new 
     Hispanic arrivals, Mr. Tessaro quickly found a low-skilled 
     job. He started in a sheet-metal factory, cleaning and doing 
     odd jobs. Since then, he married a Midwesterner, raised two 
     sons, and now owns his own business, Inspired Artisans Ltd., 
     which sells liturgical art and renovates churches.
       Isolation of the first Hispanic Midwesterners has turned 
     into community: ``When I grew up in Boulder, there was one 
     other Hispanic family,'' says Loren Aragon, who is 33. Today, 
     Mr. Aragon lives in Milwaukee and works for his brother's 
     thriving firm, Site Temporaries Inc., which places temporary 
     workers, nearly all Puerto Rican immigrants, in light 
     industrial jobs. About 600 a week pile into buses, along with 
     translators on staff, who help pave the way. He supplies 
     companies with lists of Spanish translations for words such 
     as ``breakroom'' or ``restroom,'' if they like.
       With Wisconsin unemployment hovering around 3%, the 
     foundries and factories of Milwaukee--home of Harley-Davidson 
     Inc., Quad Graphics and a large J.C. Penney Co. distribution 
     center--have given an especially warm welcome to the Hispanic 
     workers. When Allen Edmonds Shoe Corp. couldn't fill jobs at 
     its factory in northern Ozaukee County, it moved some of its 
     operations to a facility on the south side of Milwaukee. Now, 
     nearly all of its employees there are Hispanic, and most walk 
     to their jobs. Strolling out after Friday's regular short 
     shift, manager Sue Samson describes turnover at the facility 
     in one word: ``None.''
       A wariness of government has kept many Hispanics 
     underground and without political voice. Hispanic leaders 
     believe the census bureau has woefully undercounted the 
     number of Hispanics in Milwaukee. Only 7% of the registered 
     Hispanics voted in the past general election. Milwaukee has 
     elected only two Hispanics to public office, Circuit Judge 
     Elsa Lamelas and State Rep. Pedro Colon. Without a unified 
     voice, Mr. Colon warned in a recent speech, ``The south side 
     will continue to decay.''
       Often a community is galvanized by a single energetic 
     force, and in Milwaukee's Hispanic quarters it is 54-year-old 
     Maria Monreal-Cameron. Presiding from a cluttered office in 
     an incubator of mostly Hispanic businesses, a floor below 
     Allen Edmonds, she is nominally the president of the 
     Wisconsin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, but her mission is to 
     advance Hispanic people through every means she knows.
       As a child in Wisconsin, Ms. Monreal-Cameron often woke up 
     to find strangers huddled under blankets on her living room 
     floor. They were families from Mexico and Puerto Rico, 
     journeying for work in the factories of Milwaukee. Her 
     parents, Mexican immigrants themselves, never turned away the 
     new arrivals.
       As an adult, she began joining local community boards when 
     her youngest of six children was grown. She now is active on 
     18, often the first Hispanic representative.
       She plays matchmaker with banks and businesses, acts as 
     informal adviser to local entrepreneurs, and presses her 
     political contacts for improvements on the south side. She 
     successfully took on the political establishment in a fight 
     to upgrade the Sixth Street Viaduct, a ratty-looking 99-year-
     old bridge over the channel and industrial section that 
     separates the Hispanic south side from Milwaukee's downtown. 
     ``It's the gateway to our community,'' she says.
       She also helped secure government grants for the incubator, 
     the Milwaukee Enterprise Center, with 25 small firms, mostly 
     Hispanic. Their numbers include people like Roberto Fuentez, 
     a former migrant worker who now has a small machine tooling 
     shop. ``This is something that doesn't take a lot of 
     education, but you need some training,'' he says, sauntering 
     past his machines.
       Adalberto Olivares, a local Vietnam veteran, wanted to 
     start a trucking business on a small loan from a former 
     employer. ``Al was leasing one truck,'' she says. ``I said, 
     `You know what? Let's get going here, let's make it happen.' 
     '' She persuaded him to move his business into the incubator, 
     and helped him get financing. He now has a fleet of 23 
     trucks, 12 of which are owner-operated.
       Ms. Monreal-Cameron rolls her eyes at the inevitable 
     stereotyping she encounters. A human-resources person from a 
     local hotel called Ms. Monreal-Cameron blurting, ``I need 
     housemaids.'' Ms. Monreal-Cameron responded that the chamber 
     isn't a placement service, but she knew several executives 
     who would be fine human-resource candidates. ``She hung up on 
     me,'' Ms. Monreal-Cameron says.

 The New Melting Pot--Ranked by percentage increase of immigrants from 
                            1995 to 1999 \1\

        State                                                    Growth
1. North Carolina....................................................73
2. Nevada............................................................60
3. Kansas............................................................54
4. Indiana...........................................................50
5. Minnesota.........................................................43
6. Virginia..........................................................40
7. Maryland..........................................................39
8. Arizona...........................................................35
9. Utah..............................................................31
10. Oregon...........................................................26
\1\ For states with a foreign-born population of at least 50,000 in 
1995. Source: Urban Institute




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