Adaptación

    The process of adaptation can take months, years or a lifetime. Some of us might never fully adapt, but we learn to negotiate new landscapes, cultures, and traditions. In the process, we make our own traditions, we make decisions that are informed by the concerns and needs of our community, we hold on to our identities and language—always a difficult task—while we accept and adapt to the new environment. As we grow up in the new environment, we become adults, students, teachers, parents, and some of us now call Ohio home. Many of the participants in this first chapter, informed by their own personal experiences, try to make the transition for others a little better. They do this in their daily lives at school, work and social gatherings.

     The interviews in this section include participants that were born on the East and West coasts, in other parts of the Midwest, Puerto Rico and Mexico. Whether born in the United States or not, these participants narrate the shock of moving to Ohio, a state that is very different than the place they left. Worthy of mention is the fact that those born in U.S. were as shocked by the absence of Latinos and Spanish as those of us that moved from other countries. All five interviews here show that, in big or small ways, Latinos want others like them to survive and thrive in this state.