Celebrating 100 years of Latino history in Lorain: A Turning Point

Описание: In the shadow of idle steel plants along the shores of Lake Erie, Lorain's Vine Avenue is itself a shadow of what it once was.

However, when Eileen Torres drives by Vine today, the fond memories come flooding back.

"Vine Avenue was the heart and soul of South Lorain," said Torres, a longtime resident and president of The Hispanic Fund, a non-profit advocacy group.

Vine Avenue is considered the birthplace of Lorain's Latino community more than a century ago.

When Lorain's steel mill recruited thousands of workers from Puerto Rico and Mexico beginning in 1921 right after World War I, their families settled around a four-block area of Vine Avenue and East 30th Street, where they found comfort at Sacred Heart Chapel.

"This was a whole new culture for our parents," recalls Cookie Arroyo, 71, a Lorain native. "They left their families behind, their culture. They left the weather. It was totally different," she said.

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