Posted on 02/28/2008 1:29:16 PM PST by 3AngelaD
Anchor: PROJECT IMMIGRATION FOCUSES ON A COMMUNITY WITH A VERY HIGH CONCENTRATION OF IMMIGRANTS FROM EL SALVADOR... ANDREA MCCARREN TAKES US THERE.
Andrea McCarren: THIS IS CHIRILAGUA, WHERE SPANISH IS WIDELY SPOKEN. RESTAURANTS FEATURE FOODS TYPICAL OF LATIN AMERICA AND LIVELY MUSIC DRIFTS FROM PASSING CARS AS WELL AS BUSINESSES.
Evelin Urrutia/Salvadoran Immigrant: "When I get here, I just feel like I'm arriving to El Salvador. Everyone speaks Spanish. Almost every face you see is a Spanish person. The music is loud."
TRACK: STORE SHELVES ARE LINED WITH TRADITIONAL SALVADORAN FOODS. SIGNS IN SPANISH ADVERTISE EVERYTHING FROM HAIRCUTS, TO TAX PREPARATIONS, TO PHONE CARDS.
BUT CHIRILAGUA IS - NOT - IN CENTRAL AMERICA, BUT IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA. OUTSIDERS REFER TO IT AS ARLANDRIA.
Andrea McCarren: There are now more Chirilaguans in Northern Virginia than in El Salvador. About 20,000 residents here, compared to fewer than 10,000 in El Salvador.
TRACK: THE NEIGHBORHOOD EARNED ITS NICKNAME AFTER SEVERAL FAMILIES IMMIGRATED HERE FROM THE SMALL TOWN OF CHIRILAGUA, EL SALVADOR. POLITICAL TURMOIL AND THE CIVIL WAR OF THE 1980'S DROVE THEM OUT.
TRACK: WHEN SHOP OWNER MARITZA CANAS ARRIVED WITH HER PARENTS 25 YEARS AGO, SHE IMMEDIATELY RECOGNIZED SOME OF HER NEIGHBORS FROM EL SALVADOR.
Maritza Canas: "People from Chirilagua, they know each other, they know me and they know my family."
TRACK: THE MERINO FAMILY OPENED ONE OF THE FIRST SALVADORAN BUSINESSES HERE AND RECRUITED FRIENDS AND RELATIVES TO FOLLOW THEM TO VIRGINIA.
Nery Merino/El Pulgarcito Restaurant: "So we say okay come over here. We are all your friends right here."
TRACK: THE AREA HAS SINCE BEEN A MAGNET FOR IMMIGRANTS. IN FACT, LIKE MANY NORTHERN VIRGINIA NEIGHBORHOODS, CHIRILAGUA IS CHANGING; ITS RESIDENTS, FACING A NEW WAVE OF IMMIGRANTS-FROM HONDURAS!
(Excerpt) Read more at wjla.com ...
Macaca!
Are these the Washington Elites own private illegals?
Out Of Control!
No one has had the political will to cancel parole and send them back yet.
They do keep out the Mexicans though.
The test scores keep falling, that’s for sure.
Press ‘one’ for.........????????
They'd be soon replaced by Mexicans who would charge double to help move them out and back "down home".
But..but..Geraldo says they are all learning English, they want to assimilate, they don’t commit crimes, their loyalty is to America. Goodness. Could Geraldo be..gasp..wrong?
where exactly is this? it’s not culmore.
To any and all of the that are truly immigrants and not illegal criminal trespassers I say welcome! We look forward to helping you to settle in, learn our language and add your own special flavor to the great melting pot that is our Great Nation.
To the illegals I have noting to say but go away - you have no right to be here and no right to any of the benefits rightly afforded to those of your former contrymen who did the right thing and immigrated legally.
If you asked him directly I think he’d say he doesn’t speak for the El Salvadorans ~
“THIS IS CHIRILAGUA, WHERE SPANISH IS WIDELY SPOKEN. RESTAURANTS FEATURE FOODS TYPICAL OF LATIN AMERICA AND LIVELY MUSIC DRIFTS FROM PASSING CARS AS WELL AS BUSINESSES.”
“Lively music”.
Riiiiight.
This is in the extreme northern section of Alexandria, at the Arlington-Alexandria boundary, about a mile south of the Pentagon. Specifically, south of South Glebe Road and West of Mount Vernon Avenue.
Yes, wonder if fred barns house help lives there?
The Salvadorans disaster parole was over a long time ago. It was only for eighteen months unless jorge signed an extension and did not tell anyone.
They are not learning the language and they are not melting. They have created a little ghetto for themselves and do not mix, even with other Spanish-speakers. They send most of their money home and live on public assistance, in public housing. The vast majority of them came here illegally and were granted “parole” by our insufferably stupid government because of conditions in their home hell hole, and new Salvadoran illegals arrive every day. There is some kind of travel service from the border at Laredo.
No, the joke's on us.
It has been extended repeatedly, most recently last fall.
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