Disasters hit home for many still regrouping from Harvey
Angel Lajara, still recovering from the water Hurricane Harvey dumped on his home, watched in horror this week as another monster storm pounded his native Puerto Rico.
Hurricane Maria, still raging through the Caribbean Thursday, left most of the island without power and Lajara had not yet been able to speak to his relatives to know if they’re OK.
“I suffered here with Harvey and now this,” said Lajara, the 46-year-old owner of Tex Chick, a Puerto Rican restaurant in Montrose.
For Tina Arreguin, anxiety already had turned to grief. The Houston woman’s 25-year-old nephew, an engineer, was discovered dead Wednesday in the rubble of a Mexico City building after the country’s most damaging earthquake in 32 years wrought more than 233 fatalities.
Across the Houston region thousands of residents, still reeling from Harvey’s damage themselves, were shaken once more as natural disaster upon natural disaster seemed to strike practically every place they consider home.
Houston has the biggest Mexican-born population in the country after Los Angeles and Chicago, more than 600,000, according to federal statistics, and a sizeable Carribbean population. Some 30,000 Puerto Ricans live here.
Nature’s latest streak of destruction, coming as carpets were still being stripped from
houses around Houston and many residents remained in shelters, seemed particularly cruel. Puerto Ricans and others from the Caribbean region had just witnessed Hurricane Irma tear through and around their homelands; here, now, was another, as recovery had barely begun.
It all comes at a difficult time for many from the afflicted areas.
‘Enormous stress’
Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, is struggling with a crippling debt crisis that has sent thousands to the mainland.
And for many Hispanic immigrants from elsewhere, the political climate in the U.S. already has them feeling unwelcome and vulnerable.
President Donald Trump has said he wants to curb legal immigration and deport all those here illegally. His administration this month rescinded a temporary work permit for young immigrants who came here illegally as children. And the Texas Legislature has passed a law allowing police to inquire about immigration status,
which critics said would lead to racial profiling, though a federal judge has since temporarily halted it.
“There are no longer safe groups and safe spaces ... The community is under enormous stress,” said Tony Payan, director of the Mexico Center at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. “Now your house is flooded, your family is under siege, and you have relatives back home that need help.”
Routine citizenship drives this week turned suddenly into one-stop shop emergency set-ups, said Claudia OrtegaHogue, Texas director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund.
“The community was devastated, uncertain, scared. People were being kicked out of their apartments,” Ortega-Hogue said. “When the earthquake happened, we were at a citizenship drive, and calls began coming in about what was the Mexican consulate’s phone number, who can they talk
to.”
She said many didn’t know where to turn for help and were afraid to ask.
“As the trusted messenger, we had to tell them it’s OK to talk to authorities, to get assistance,” she said. “This is the first time I’ve ever experienced having to think outside our roles but really as a way of providing service of all levels.”
Stepping up to help
A citizenship drive this weekend will feature representatives from FEMA, she said.
The consul general of Mexico in Houston, Oscar Rodríguez Cabrera, urged those seeking information after the earthquake to call a toll-free government number, 1-855-463-6395. He asked people to donate to the Mexican Red Cross.
“We’re worried,” he said. “We haven’t even finished getting out of Harvey and now we’re hit with this.”
Ana Beaven, co-owner of Cuchara in Montrose, said she’s been fundraising for Harvey and now is switching to Mexico. Portions of her restaurant’s proceeds will go to Topos Mexico, a world-famous volunteer rescue group. The Mexico City native, who was there when an earlier earthquake struck this month, said it all feels a bit apocalyptic.
The only bright side, she said, is the way everyone is jumping in to help.
“Everyone stood up to help in Houston, and now in Mexico as well,” Beaven said. “Most people are still really good in general.”