Latinos in Baldwin County
By Angela Grace Caine
The Latino worker has always played a major part in the workforce of Baldwin county Alabama. From the strawberry farms in the north to the construction and hospitality jobs in the south, lower Alabama would simply not function properly without its Hispanic workforce. Interestingly enough, this demand for Latin American workers remains high in spite of any and all attempts at immigration reform. Whether it be Republicans or Democrats, it doesn’t seem to matter. Both side recognize the valuable workers that come from south and Central America.
In addition, the economic developers and job creators of Baldwin county would like to be even more aggressive in bringing new jobs to their communities. In order to bring more agricultural, manufacturing, and hospitality jobs to the gulf coast, Alabama will need even more skilled and unskilled workers. Thus, Hispanics of all kinds and skill sets will be necessary to help drive Alabama’s economic growth.
The downside is that the Latino community along the gulf coast does not appear to have the same levels of support and representation commensurate with their large and ever-growing numbers. Their issues are under represented on a local, state and federal level. This causes the Hispanic community to remain largely vulnerable to things like discrimination, injustice, poverty, fair access to healthcare and isolation. In fact, instead of Alabama Latinos becoming a more visible part of the community, it appears that they remain the “strong but silent” community. This puts Latinos at risk when they get injured, arrested, or simply need help. The author of this article has long represented foreign nationals in the state of Alabama. Whether it’s executives from Germany who work at Mercedes or the migrant farm worker from Guanajuato in Bay Minette, our office has provided legal support and advice to this community for over 20 years.
A large part of our time is spent educating Alabama elected officials from City, County and State, to judges, law enforcement and financial institutions on the unique needs of this important community. Our services have included assisting in the transportation of the deceased back to their homes and families in Mexico and prosecuting their wrongdoers when they have injured or killed our Hispanic brothers, as well as assisting Latino entrepreneurs in setting up small businesses and shops. Our office has a unique understanding of what it feels like to be an ex pat in the USA and particularly in the state of Alabama. We can assist our clients in English, German, Spanish, and French, and more importantly we understand cross-border transactions and foreign legal systems. Our goal is to provide seamless support across all legal matters and in all languages.
We look forward to continuing our support of Alabama Latino citizens and helping them fully integrate into the fabric of Alabama life.
About the Editor and Translator
Lessie Correa graduated from California State University, at Long Beach, with a B.A. in Liberal Arts with a concentration on Mexican-American Studies. She held a Bilingual, Spanish-English, Credential for Kindergarten through 12th grade. She taught in Los Angeles School District at three different elementary schools. Her last five years there, she taught in the Bilingual High Ability Gifted Program at Euclid Elementary.
In 1994, she moved to Tallahassee and decided to teach at George W. Munroe Elementary School in Quincy, Gadsden County. The summers of 2001 and 2002 she was awarded a scholarship to study in Spain. She attended Universidad de Salamanca in Salamanca, Spain to master teaching bilingual students.
She retired in 2013
