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We're an immigrant community from Latin America, living/working/socializing in Dover, Wharton, Rockaway, Mine Hill, Victory Gardens Parsippany, & Morristown. We speak Spanish, English, Portuguese, Indigenous and Creole languages. We're Christian, Catholic, or Agnostic & congregate at church. We also congregate in dance clubs, soccer fields, rivers, lakes, pools & the beach but lack transportation and affordable access to expensive "public" pools, lakes here in "Lakeland", & the Jersey Shore. The libraries lack Spanish-speaking librarians and programming that would be welcoming to us. We often get healthcare at clinics and hospital emergency rooms.
We have a shared history of escaping oppressive governments and poverty in Latin America. We're resourceful and entrepreneurial; talented salsa dancers from Colombia and Puerto Rico have started dance school businesses, while others have established Latin American restaurants. We're muralists without access to public spaces that permit murals. Some have unauthorized immigrant status. We're a young community that often doesn't know our own history because it isn't taught in schools nor celebrated in local theaters or arts programs. Food, language, music, dance, and a shared colonization and migration history bond us. Many of us are Christian/Catholic though some follow a Liberation Theology
We lack access to federally-funded financial aid such as SNAP, Social Security benefits, and housing vouchers because of immigrant status, misinformation, illiteracy, lack of public transportation, or language barriers. We sublet rooms in our rented homes because of a lack of affordable housing, share rides to school for kids because of a lack of busing, and share rides to work due to the dire lack of public transportation. We're a working class & middle class community of domestic workers, factory workers, tax drivers, and some professionals with kids in overcrowded schools and limited access to affordable, quality healthcare. We live in flood zones & the environment is not protected.
My working class immigrant community is in the 25th legislative district but the concerns and power of upper-class Bernardsville residents drown out ours. Our state legislators ignore us, especially those of us in Dover. Dover is the poorest community in Dover while Bernardsville is one of the wealthiest in the entire state. We have more in common with Parsippany and should be in the same legislative district as other communities in Morris County with significant working-class immigrant populations.
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