Transcripts

SPEAKER: Most rural communities in Minnesota have seen a population decline over the years, but not Long Prairie. The town about an hour north of Saint Cloud is home to about 3,400 people. It's actually grown over the past two decades, mostly because of Hispanic immigrants. Riham Feshir recently paid a visit.

RIHAM FESHIR: When Juan Chavez went to school in Long Prairie in 1999, he was only one of four Hispanic students, and it was hard for him to feel included.

JUAN CHAVEZ: Yeah. And it was hard because they don't accept you.

RIHAM FESHIR: His family moved from Mexico in 1993, when his father got a job at one of the meatpacking plants in Long Prairie.

JUAN CHAVEZ: I think it's pretty calm. I mean, you can go out of your house, like in the nights, and it's safe.

RIHAM FESHIR: Now, the family owns a restaurant downtown. Taqueria Chavez opened six years ago after Chavez's father was killed on a visit to Mexico.

JUAN CHAVEZ: My mom was like, really depressed, but she likes to cook a lot. Thought that doing something for her so she can-- she doesn't have to be like, in the house all the time thinking of my dad.

RIHAM FESHIR: Taqueria Chavez is one of two Mexican restaurants in downtown Long Prairie. Next door, there's a Mexican bakery. Another Mexican grocery store is a few blocks away. The businesses illustrate a trend the city has seen over the past decade. Hispanic-owned businesses have replaced boarded up shops downtown.

There you could find a Hispanic Barber and Hispanic-owned apartment buildings. The city recently received a permit application for a new Puerto Rican restaurant that's planning to open downtown. Among the colorful signs advertising Hispanic foods and merchandise is a bar that displayed a sign saying, stop the invasion. Secure our borders.

One of the other business owners told me that that sign has been up there for years. Most of the people I talked with were happy with the diversity. And it's something that Mayor Don Rasmussen is proud of and talks about often.

DON RASMUSSEN: If we did not have the people in this city that we have today, the immigrants that have come here, we could put a padlock on every door downtown Long Prairie, and lock up the houses and say goodbye. Because there would be nothing left.

RIHAM FESHIR: A 2017 report from the Minnesota State Demographic Center found that the population in rural communities declined in the 2000s. At the same time, urban areas grew. Rasmussen is eager to point out the ways that Long Prairie has defied that norm.

DON RASMUSSEN: Here's the old hospital. And this is a senior center here. That was that other grocery store.

RIHAM FESHIR: Over the past 20 years, jobs in the meatpacking plants have attracted a large number of Hispanic immigrants to Long Prairie. In 2000, Hispanics and Latinos made up 9% of the city's population. That number jumped to 32% in 2016, the most recent census data.

Long Prairie's situation is similar to Worthington, which has attracted attention for its immigrant-fueled growth in recent years as well. Now, Long Prairie is starting to get that same kind of publicity, something that bothers Melissa Kolstad, who's lived there since 1979. Kolstad owned a clothing shop downtown for five years. She says there are many long-time business owners that tried to keep their doors open, but lacked support from city and business leaders, which she says focused their energy on big businesses like Walmart and Coburn's.

MELISSA KOLSTAD: I feel like it was almost detrimental to the business owners, the local business owners, and non-immigrant business owners for the hard work and the dedication that they have had all the years they've fought to keep their doors open in Long Prairie.

RIHAM FESHIR: Kolstad agrees, however, that without the immigrant population and young people moving into the town, the school system would have suffered. Enrollment at the Long Prairie Gray Eagle School District dropped by almost 1/3 over a nine-year period. The district saw budget cuts and layoffs as a result. Now, superintendent John Kriging says it's back up to about 900 students, and the kindergarten class is 55% Hispanic, a tipping point for the district.

JOHN KRIGING: The influx of immigrant students has certainly benefited the school, because we basically refilled many of the classrooms and provided additional funding for the school district, and we are much, much better off than what we were.

RIHAM FESHIR: To cope with the new realities, teachers are learning Spanish to try to communicate better with the students. Riham Feshir, Minnesota Public Radio News, Long Prairie.