Before arriving in Columbus a year ago, the brothers planted pine seedlings in North Carolina for a few months. Fidel said they planned to return in a year to their home outside Matamoros, a stone's throw from Brownsville, Texas. A loss of community Even with higher wages, cleaner work and the comforts of furnished apartments, life in a Midwestern city has its drawbacks for Latino migrants. The agricultural camps, generally provided by employers, can be more comfortable. Almost no one in the larger community speaks Spanish, making it difficult for them to blend into city life.
Conflicts sometimes happen anyway, often because of cultural differences.
Latinos, for example, tend to socialize outdoors and often share apartments with relatively large numbers of relatives or friends. Conflict resolution for them is to move. Mario, a drywaller living at Village Brook, misses the familiarity of Mexico. I feel like people are always watching me, checking me out. Sometimes, Americans wrongly assume that Latinos who speak little English understand little, too.