I compile many inspirational notes in this text. Mostly marked with mud after not having time to remove my work gloves. As if short sentences full of abbreviations, suggesting perhaps the start of a fire asking to see a light, many of my ideas come while fulfilling my work duties as a ceramic assistant in the workshops of Mario Industries. I want and must preserve the mysterious miracle – the immense benefit of an eight-hour working day dialoguing in soliloquy with this millennial material. I no longer remember who removes the asperities anymore, but it has been a whole therapy for me to return to dust which I was created. Anyway, I already know what to do and I will do it. I’m Yalily Romero. I once heard that a summary of a life is expected where it shines and what is best shines as work experience. However, how boring it would be if I were to speak well about me, with me! So let us lose ourselves among the hundreds of thousands of millions of us who can consciously live and learn more about what has been at the feet of our elders.
There are more than 759,000 Hispanics or Latinos in Virginia. Can you believe this? It is very interesting that one in four businesses in the U.S. belong to an immigrant. The family attachment of Latinos contributes to the success of their companies. This is the case of Yudel Martinez and Magda Salgado, owners of the Eleggua-To, a jewelry store on Williamson Road, which is one of the areas most occupied by Latino businesses in Roanoke. This is a necessary stop in my opinion. The Tunero, a couple of Cuban nationals and naturalized Americans, share valuable stories and perspectives of life, and their children Yudel and Manuel Alejandro are always at the center of many of them. The father graduated from Fine Arts at the National School of Art, a ceramist painter, sculptor and muralist, and Magda, a Law graduate was a practicing lawyer for many years.
Upon their arrival to Roanoke in 2000, they built a wooden building with a polycarbonate roof panel where they offered handy repairs in the back of the old Happy’s Flea Market on Saturdays and Sundays.
Magda says their children were having a hard time adapting to the cold in the outdoors, but they made it through. Happy’s is where they started what is now a family business. They had a necessary impulse to rent an office from realtors Hall Associates, tuning it immediately into an improvised jewelry store. With each little profit, they continued investing in better work tools, and overtime their sacrifice paid off when they noticed the number of clients was increasing. Their clients grew and now they refer to them as friends and family.
They have immense gratitude to God. By moving to Roanoke, they have been able to provide their children with the opportunity to graduate from Salem City Schools and college. Now 26 and 18, their children are chemical and computer engineers.
Their design is unique and they seem to generate fresh and valuable options, breaking the commercial standards and giving reason to why they are among the preferred jewelers in the area. This Cuban family says Roanoke has been an ideal place for them to raise their children and they have encouraged their children to move in the same direction. Also contributing to the large Latino community that has established along the Williamson Rd during the past 20 years, are multiple family businesses from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Colombia. These Latino-owned businesses offer a variety of products and services, sharing many of the traditions of their Hispanic Heritage while also contributing to the economy of this region.
Another group of entrepreneurs who represent the hard-labor Latino workforce in Southwest Virginia is those who work in construction. Melvin Hernandez from Honduras graduated in Agronomy and now oversees his company dedicated to remodeling and painting houses. He says from the moment that he came to Virginia, its vegetation, the peacefulness of the place and the open road to education, delighted him. He spent his first years in Maryland and later in Orlando and those locations have provided reference for his opinion of Virginia. With more than 20 years of experience, Hernandez shared the vision for his company, which is to enable city development and created jobs for many. Latinos and Americans can be summed up in one word – expansión or expansion.
From Colombia, the youngest of all interviewed, Andres Saldarriaga, 28, manages Hernandez’s company. He came here to find the means to support his two children in Colombia and at the same time to help his parents who were living in Roanoke. Saldarriaga, who doesn’t mind hard work, likes music and practices the sport of racquetball, winning in tournaments sponsored by nearby cities. He has a collective dream with his parents of designing their own house and wants to be a viewed as a contributing to this region. He is a “very real boy” with dreams and real expectations like any other.
Finally, from Colombia, the land that produced the Pony Balones malt that I love so much is Gerardo Saldarriaga. He is a chef who at some point became the owner of his own restaurant and now works with Hernandez in his company. He came to this country because he considered it one of the most prosperous and fertile places to start. This is a common thought for many of us Latinos. Saldarriago says his strongest desire after many years of being here is “to compensate this great country of the United States for the fact of welcoming so many Latino immigrants.” That comes from a feeling of love in reciprocity, a recognition of the values that historically have made the USA, a nation with open arms.
Our Latino population is expected to keep growing across America. We the people are, includes Latino immigrants. It should not be difficult to see us in a homogeneous block. Let’s accept our local colors, let’s be stronger with love for the sake of our children and all.
Tags: At the Feet of Our Elders
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