Recent Latin Americans in Vancouver: Unyielding Diverse Needs Versus Insufficient Services
by Aranzazu Recalde (15):
“Salvadorans constitute the biggest group, followed by Mexicans, and finally Guatemalans. From 1983–1986 Salvadorans accounted for over 50 percent of all North and Central American immigrants, and from 1986–1993 they still represented the largest proportion – over 40 percent until 1992. These arrivals contributed to the more than three hundred people per year from 1986– 1992, reaching a maximum of 572 in 1991 and 439 in 1992″
I had seen this stat before I came to Vancouver, but I had yet to meet Latin Americans until Sat. Lisa and I were at a garage sale and we met two Argentinean women. They told me the largest group here in Vancouver was Salvadorians. They told us they lived on the Eastside. That is the “bad” part of the city. We haven’t even been downtown yet. We hope to go soon, but Lisa has been busy with teaching and when she has a free day we are trying to get our lives in order before I start school. At church we also met a woman who goes to El Salvador every summer to do mission work with Emmanuel Baptist Church. It was great to meet her because she knows some of the local Salvadorian restaurants. Lisa and I are also excited to meet the Arabic community in town. I saw a Lebanese restaurant in town that we hope to visit soon. Something interesting that we have experience is that foreigners do not staff most of the restaurants we go to. Like the Mexican restaurant we went to yesterday was all staffed by Canadians. I didn’t get to go to the kitchen, maybe that is where the foreigners were?
