A Year After Katrina, Hispanics More Common in The Big Easy

August 29, 2006
Source: HispanicBusiness.com

One of the biggest changes to the complexion of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast a year after Hurricane Katrina hit has been the greater prominence of Hispanics.

New Orleans and the southernmost portions of Mississippi and Alabama were never as strongly identified with their Hispanic populations as were Texas and Florida, which bracket the area. But in the wake of the disaster a year ago, the wave of Hispanic faces – many of them workers taking advantage of the area's rebuilding boom – has become one of the most-remarked upon transformations.

"Those Mexicans do a good job," said one woman speaking in a coffee shop whose conversation was overheard by Deborah Halter of the National Catholic Reporter. "Oh, yeah, they're real hard-working. And I don't mind saying it. You try to help your own people, but they don't wanna work. So to hell with 'em. I say if the Hispanics wanna work hard and do a good job, we oughtta hire 'em."

Early in the city's recovery, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said one of his worries was that the city was going to be "overrun by Mexican workers." He later backed off that, much as he had his more widely reported remark that the New Orleans should remain "a chocolate city," adding that he welcomed all workers who were putting the battered city back together.

Others, of course, were more welcoming from the start. Commentator Linda Chavez, after asking what happened to the Hispanics living in and around New Orleans before Katrina, noted that she saw them returning after the blow.

"Wherever they went to escape the storm, they're back -- because there is work to be done, and they are eager to do dirty jobs that many others shun," she wrote last September.

That the Hispanic workforce is doing much of the heavy lifting in the rebuilding is widely acknowledged. And that many, especially among the undocumented workers, are being taken advantage of is a common refrain.

"We continue to be concerned about the reconstruction efforts taking place in the Gulf Coast," said Janet Murguía, president and CEO of the National Council of La Raza, in a statement on Katrina's first anniversary. "There is rampant exploitation of workers engaged in the rebuilding effort, who continue to report working in dangerous conditions without protective equipment, without adequate housing, and sometimes without getting paid. There is a great deal of work ahead which must involve national and local leadership in order to ensure that people who wish to return home to the Gulf Coast can be part of the rebuilding effort, and to ensure that all of those engaged in rebuilding are treated with the fairness and respect they deserve."

How many came back, and how many new arrivals are Hispanic, has yet to be accurately counted. New Orleans' population remains less than half the size it was before Katrina, with the greatest exodus among African Americans, who have gone from about two-thirds to a half of the population. As a result, even if the number of Hispanics remained the same, their presence would be more pronounced. And their population did not remain stable.

In a June report, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that through December, the percent of Hispanics in the New Orleans metro area had grown from 5.8 percent of the total population to 6.2 percent. In actual numbers of new residents, the gain was 14,000 Hispanics.

Anecdotal information suggests there are well more than 14,000 new Hispanics in the New Orleans area, and many more than that throughout the Gulf Coast.

In a series of stories published Aug. 20, the Biloxi, Mississippi Clarion-Ledger estimated the Hispanic population there alone had blossomed from around 15,000 pre-Katrina to as much as 40,000 today.

"There are small signs of culture change - such as the arrival of more fresh beans and jalapenos at Wal-Mart - and there could be a proliferation of Hispanic-owned businesses, Spanish-speaking congregations, Latino neighborhoods and bilingual classrooms," wrote that paper's Julie Goodman.

Which suggests that the population may not be itinerant.

Ms. Goodman writes of one Honduran immigrant who hopes to stay in his new community. "In 10 years, I'd like to have my own small company, so my family can work for me," she quotes Wilbur Herrera. But later in the same piece, she notes a feeling among many in the community that while they appreciate the workforce, they hope the workers don't stay.

"I'm glad they're here, but in a way, a lot of us wish they'd go home. ... They're changing the Coast," she quotes one construction worker.

Ironically, they already were.

Based on the U.S. Census, the Hispanic population in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana had risen by 209 percent, 148 percent and 16 percent respectively just between 1990 and 2000. "The Honduran Consulate, for example, estimated that up to 140,000 Hondurans and their descendants lived in and around New Orleans alone, representing the largest Latino subgroup in that area and the largest Honduran population outside Honduras," according to the NCLR report, "In the Eye of the Storm: How the Government and Private Response to Hurricane Katrina Failed Latinos."

And why were they there?

"A large number of Hondurans moved to the New Orleans area after Hurricane Mitch in 1998, drawn primarily to jobs in construction and hospitality."