City Latinos, others rally to help Puerto Rico, Mexico recovery

Thousand of dollars raised for Red Cross relief efforts

When the earth shook in Mexico City, it rattled the nerves of Mexican-Americans in Milwaukee.

And as the humanitarian crisis deepens in a Puerto Rico devastated by Hurricane Maria, it heightens the anxiety of Cream City Ricans, heart-broken by the devastation of their island paradise and fearful for the safety of loved ones still there.

“We pray every day,” said Emilio Lopez, who was finally able to communicate with relatives in Ponce after six days of apprehension.

“They survived the hurricane, now they have to deal with the aftermath.”

The fallout from both disasters has propelled Milwaukee Latinos into action — from ordinary citizens to business leaders to taco truck vendors — mobilizing efforts to send help to their motherlands.

“We have communities with strong ties to both Puerto Rico and Mexico, so we feel a collective responsibility,” said Ricardo Diaz, executive director of the United Community Center.

Diaz joined other Latino business, government and organization leaders Thursday for a news conference at City Hall to announce the burgeoning efforts, which sprang up at El Rey supermarkets on Friday, followed by an assemblage of taco trucks over the weekend on Cesar Chavez Drive.

“We’re thinking of our employees and others who have families who are suffering,” Marco Santos of the El Tapatio food truck group, said of the Saturday and Sunday campaign broadcast live by WJTI Radio Caliente 97.9 FM and 1460 AM.

Restaurants, including Tres Hermanos, Fiesta Garibaldi and Taqueria El Cabrito, supplied trucks from Taqueria El Cabrito, El Tapatio, El Charrito and other vendors in the effort that raised more than $33,000 for both Puerto Rico and Mexico Red Cross relief, Santos said.

More than $31,000 was raised last weekend through donations from customers at El Rey supermarkets, and matching funds from the business and Western Union, El Rey owner Ernesto Villarreal said.

El Rey is also seeking donations of food in cooperation with El Conquistador Latino Newspaper.

The monetary fund drive will go through Sunday and the food drive indefinitely, with proceeds from both drives going to Puerto Rico and Mexico through the Red Cross, Villarreal said.

“Our priority is to get help to the people who need it as soon as possible,” he said.

“Even before the earthquake, people in many parts of Mexico City were living day-to-day,” working at places that have been closed or destroyed, Villarreal said.

“There’s food available, but they don’t have the money to buy it because they can’t go to work,” he said.

Other efforts include a benefit scheduled for Oct. 21 and 22 by El Conquistador, and a “music telethon” in the works for October by the United Community Center and other partners.

At the news conference Thursday, Ald. José Pérez said it was difficult “watching helplessly as the massive storm ravaged a special place I know intimately with great memories and love.”

Perez stressed that the 3.4 million people on the island are U.S. citizens who are “facing a human catastrophe of epic proportions.”

“The frightened and crying children we watched on the news in the days after Maria struck are our children,” Pérez said. “Those leveled schools and hospitals and churches we saw are our buildings. Those flooded neighborhoods filled with devastation are our neighborhoods.”

Julian Adem, the Mexican consul to Milwaukee, urged people to send donations through the consulate instead of shipping supplies themselves, and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said it was critical to act quickly.

“It requires those of us who live in Milwaukee to do what we can,” Barrett said, adding that the mayor’s office is helping to coordinate local relief efforts.

Still, Latinos in Milwaukee worry about the welfare of loved ones and others in the disaster-ravaged areas.

“I’m planning to go down there, but I’m afraid the places I see won’t be the same,” said Edmundo Perez of Milwaukee, whose sister and mother live in Mexico City.

After seven nerveracking days, Jose Acevedo of Milwaukee finally got word that his 83-yearold father who lives in Hatillo, Puerto Rico, and other family on the island survived the hurricane.

Nonetheless, the loss of power and the increasing scarcity of food and water in his boyhood home still leaves him, at best, uncertain.