{"id":62017,"date":"2011-05-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-05-16T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-professor-finds-comfort-in-states-cultural-shift\/"},"modified":"2011-05-16T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-05-16T00:00:00","slug":"uri-professor-finds-comfort-in-states-cultural-shift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2011\/05\/uri-professor-finds-comfort-in-states-cultural-shift\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 professor finds comfort in state\u2019s cultural shift"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tLandscape has changed for Hispanics in last decade<\/p>\n


\nKINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 May 16, 2011 \u2013 When Rosa Maria Pegueros first moved to Rhode Island from Los Angeles 18 year ago, life in her new surroundings was far different than it is today.<\/p>\n


\nWhen she first arrived at the 溏心vlog免费B站, the history and women\u2019s studies professor saw her classes filled with mostly white students mixed with a few black students. Hispanic students were few and far between, and the Latino student organizations on campus were only just beginning to form.<\/p>\n


\nAccording to University data for the fall 2010 semester, the Hispanic student population at 溏心vlog免费B站 now accounts for nearly 6 percent of the overall student population, making it the highest percentage among minority students. This mirrors a trend that has seen the Latino population in Rhode Island grow by 43.9 percent in the last decade. Hispanics now make up 12.4 percent of the state\u2019s population.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThe influx of Hispanics to Rhode Island seemed slow and steady when I came in 1993 through 2000,\u201d said Pegueros, who lives in Providence. \u201cThen it picked up. I began to notice the busboys in restaurants were Central American.\u201d

\nEventually she noticed more and more of the cooks hailed from Central America. <\/p>\n


\n\u201cOn Brook Street near Brown University, there is a bagel place,\u201d Pegueros said. \u201cThe guys who run the shop are all Latin. They have a funny mix, because they sell Latin food and bagels (which associated with Jewish culture).\u201d<\/p>\n


\nOver time, more and more businesses took on a Hispanic feel. When she arrived in the state, there were few places like the Sanchez Mexican Market, a spot that helped her feel connected to her Latino culture. Her mother is from El Salvador, and her father was Mexican-American, born in San Francisco.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cNow I can go to Atwells Avenue for the Mexican delicatessen, and it makes life more comfortable,\u201d Pegueros said. <\/p>\n


\n\tThe changes have had significant impact in the political landscape as well. During the last decade, Rhode Island\u2019s overall population only grew by 0.4 percent, despite the influx of Hispanics. Without the growth of the Latin population, Rhode Island would have lost one of its two seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.<\/p>\n


\nIn January, Angel Taveras made history when he was sworn in as the first Hispanic mayor in Providence\u2019s history. <\/p>\n


\n\u201cHis election was encouraging, but even more surprising than his election was his nomination in the first place,\u201d Pegueros said. \u201cWhen he won the Democratic nomination, it was certain he would win the mayoral race. He did a tremendous amount of legwork. He personally came to my door.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nPegueros said Taveras was an example of how Hispanics can succeed in the country. The son of immigrants from the Dominican Republic, Taveras graduated from Harvard University before going to law school at Georgetown University.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cHe\u2019s not a yahoo. He is a very smart guy and the city believed in him,\u201d Pegueros said.<\/p>\n


\n\tStill, she wasn\u2019t sure how the voters would respond when Taveras said he felt drastic measures would need to be taken in the Providence school system to address the city\u2019s budget crisis. In February, Taveras announced the firing of 1,900 city teachers, though the actual number was reduced to 119 this month.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cRhode Island is a union state. I believe in collective bargaining,\u201d Pegueros said. \u201cBut he was up front and said, \u2018This is affecting me. I came out of public schools as a student. We have a hurricane 5 level disaster.\u2019 He was honest about, and maybe it made people realize he didn\u2019t have a choice. <\/p>\n


\n\u201cI feel there is a real confidence in his leadership,\u201d Pegueros said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just that he won, but he won by such a majority. That speaks to the acceptance of him, and of minority leadership in general.\u201d <\/p>\n


\nPictured above

\nProfessor Rosa Maria Pegueros has seen the Hispanic population change both

\nthe cultural and political landscape in Rhode Island during the last decade.

\nPhoto by Michael Salerno.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Landscape has changed for Hispanics in last decade KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 May 16, 2011 \u2013 When Rosa Maria Pegueros first moved to Rhode Island from Los Angeles 18 year ago, life in her new surroundings was far different than it is today. When she first arrived at the 溏心vlog免费B站, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62019,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}