NEWPORT – Newport has a large Hispanic and Latino population, many of whom are first or second-generation immigrants who speak little English and work in the city’s bustling tourism and hospitality industry. Over the past four years, Conexión Latina Newport has served as a bridge and support for these Newporters, hoping to create a sense of community for this often underserved population.
“That sense of belonging, I think, is really tremendous, it gives you that confidence to say ‘OK, this is my city, now I can fight for the things I really need’,” Conexión Latina co-founder Rebekah Rosen-Gomez said. “Newport has been celebrating the Irish community for I don’t know how many hundred years for being the first workforce here and they settled here and raised their families here and we continue to celebrate them, which is awesome, but now its time to celebrate the new workforce and the new community of Hispanics who are now raising their families here.”
Many of these workers have families with children who go to local schools. Within the Newport Public School District, 37.8% of the student population are identified as Hispanic, and 18.8% of the district are identified as Multilingual Learners, meaning English is not their first language. Newport has the third most Hispanic and multilingual students in the state behind Providence and Central Falls.
“You don’t get a burger or a sandwich in this town that hasn’t been touched by a Brown hand, I don’t think,” Board of Directors chair Ella Davila Auchincloss said. “They are a community that is constantly working and constantly trying to build a good life for themselves. They are a community that has overcome a lot of hardship to be here and I think that they are often unseen and unnoticed and I think they are as worthy of any community here of garnering respect for their contribution.”
Connecting women with women
Through the organization’s work with this community, Gomez said the organization encountered several women who, in addition to moving to a new country with a completely different language, were balancing a career and motherhood, sticking these women in a cycle of isolation with no time for themselves or socialization. To help empower and support these women, the organization developed a year-long empowerment program for these Spanish-speaking women, called Mujeres Poderosas, which celebrated the culmination of the program with its first cohort on Monday. Through monthly meetings, 11 women attended lectures on leadership and self-care, created vision boards, and most importantly, created a bond with one another, Gomes said.
“They created such a wonderful bond between each other, which is really the thing I wanted the most,” Gomez said. “I wanted them to create friendships and create relationships that were going to support them through all of these difficult times that anybody goes through, not to mention someone who just got to this country or doesn’t understand the language.”
Now, not only do these women have new friends, but they also have more confidence in advocating for themselves and representing themselves in places through municipal government.
“Our primary focus here is to develop their leadership so that someday, in the hopefully not-too-distant future, you don’t need a Conexión Latina in Newport, because this is a community that has become a real part of what is happening here in Newport,” Auchincloss said. “Even though Hispanic culture is thought of as machismo and somewhat patriarchal, this is a matriarchal culture and these women, we believe, are really the key to shifting how they see themselves as a part of the community.”
Building a community
One of the initial cohort members, Mirsa Lopez, described in Spanish her experience participating in the program with The Newport Daily News. Lopez, a single mother, came to Newport about five years ago with her two children.
“My experience in Conexión Latina was very beautiful because I learned many things,” Lopez said. “I was informed about things I never knew before and I was also able to meet new people and became a very social person.”
The first cohort has now become ambassadors for the organization, Gomez said, and has started recommending women for the program’s next cohort. In addition to programs like Mujeres Poderosas, Conexión Latina has been working to increase the visibility and sense of community belonging of the city’s Hispanic and Latin population through events like the Newport Hispanic Festival.
“We want to create more events like that, not only for the (Hispanic) community, but for the rest of Newport to really get to know them and get to understand that they’re not just here to work, they’re here to raise their families and they have a beautiful culture and beautiful things to share and really want to be partners in being a part of a city and being a part of a community,” Gomez said.
This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Conexión Latina Newport grows sense of community for Hispanic residents
Amanda Smith is a dedicated U.S. correspondent with a passion for uncovering the stories that shape the nation. With a background in political science, she provides in-depth analysis and insightful commentary on domestic affairs, ensuring readers are well-informed about the latest developments across the United States.
