Transcripts

SPEAKER: In the city of Worthington, more than 40% of its residents identify as Hispanic or Latino, but many people do not know their stories. One Worthington woman decided it was time to change that, especially given President Trump's hardline stance on immigrants from Mexico. She's documenting the stories of immigrant voices from southwestern Minnesota, including those living in the shadows. Riham Feshir reports.

RIHAM FESHIR: Andrea Duarte-Alonso meets me in a coffee shop in downtown Worthington. She was still a teenager when she first heard then-candidate Donald Trump call Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists. As a Latina herself, she knew it wasn't true.

ANDREA DUARTE-ALONSO: Who does he think Mexicans are? So that was another way for me to debunk that and be like, that's just bull crap. Like, what he's saying is not true. And our people are very different.

RIHAM FESHIR: It's part of the reason why Duarte-Alonso, now 23, created a website called Stories from Unheard Voices. It's a collection of profiles about immigrants in the Worthington region. She began the project with a focus on the Latinx community, but she's expanding it to more immigrants from all over the world. OK, it started recording. I'm going to put this--

In our interviews, Duarte-Alonso focuses on individual stories. She says, the point is to empower immigrants and children of immigrants to own their narrative. She's gathered a dozen stories and published about half so far. Duarte-Alonso was inspired by Green Card Voices, a Minnesota-based nonprofit that's been documenting stories of foreign born Americans for the past few years. Her project, however, doesn't leave out undocumented immigrants, many of whom have avoided sharing their stories publicly.

ANDREA DUARTE-ALONSO: My whole point of the Stories from Unheard Voices is to allow folks to feel human, to feel like they're more than just undocumented. They're more than just an immigrant. They're an actual human being with feelings, with emotions, who are more than just these other identities that they have.

RIHAM FESHIR: Not only has she learned about people in her own community, but she's revisiting parts of her childhood and she's discussing race and identity in ways she never thought about before. Duarte-Alonso's family is from Mexico. She was born in Dodge City, Kansas. And she moved around the Midwest throughout her childhood before ending up in Worthington. As a light-skinned Latina, she says, she had privileges growing up that others in her community didn't. And she remembers navigating her rural American identity along with other friends who were the children of immigrants.

ANDREA DUARTE-ALONSO: A lot of folks talk about not being blank enough. I'm not Latina enough. I'm not White enough. And we were always put in between. And most of us didn't have support to help us balance this out and ask ourselves, why is this happening.

RIHAM FESHIR: With her project, Duarte-Alonso hopes to give first generation immigrants a space to discuss these issues on a deeper level.

ELYZABETH CORIOLAN: I just wish we appreciated our diversity as much as we exploit them.

RIHAM FESHIR: In an interview Duarte-Alonso shared with us, Elyzabeth Coriolan talked to her about the growth of immigrant communities and the cultural diversity they bring. But Coriolan adds that it was still a struggle for her to live in Worthington as a Haitian American.

ELYZABETH CORIOLAN: We have such a diverse environment around us in so many different cultures that we can appreciate their art, their food, their language, their people. But in the same sense, we hide them just so the Caucasians don't feel uncomfortable.

RIHAM FESHIR: Worthington and its 13,000 residents have been in the National spotlight lately. A recent Washington Post article portrayed a community resentful of the surge of unaccompanied minors from Mexico. Other media coverage has focused on how immigrants have boosted the town's economy and kept schools from shutting down.

While all those things are true, Duarte-Alonso says, these articles often leave out the humanity of its subjects. Why did they come here? What were they escaping from? And how did their journeys shape the lives of their children? Duarte-Alonso says, she hopes her project, Stories from Unheard Voices, fills the gaps and gives immigrants the chance to tell their own complex stories, including their struggles and triumphs. Riham Feshir, MPR News, Worthington.