(Latino History Project of Worcester)
Worcester has had an ever present Latino community as far back as the 1840’s. This is mainly due to the large role that Worcester colleges have played in the Latino community. A year after opening its doors in 1843, the College of the Holy Cross admitted the first Latin American student to its campus, John Iznaga, who arrived from Cuba on July 22, 1844. Another Worcester college that played an important role in Worcester’s Latino community was Dr. Clarence Jones. Dr. Jones was a professor at Clark University who during the late 1920s was the United States’s leading authority on US-South American trade due to the time he spent surveying the economic geography of the region. These two important institutions played an important role in Worester’s Latino community. One man who made a big impact on the Worcester community as a whole as well as the Latino community in Worcester was Stephen Salisbury III. Mr. Salisbury was the son of a wealthy landowner who served as a member of the Massachusetts State Senate, the president of the Worcester National Bank, a trustee of both the Worcester City Hospital and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and was the founder of the Worcester Art Museum. What may be more noble than any of those career accomplishments is the relationship between the Salisbury and the Casares family. The Casares family, from Mérida, Mexico established a life-long friendship with the Salisbury family visiting each other often. Two of the Casares children even studied at Holy Cross. When the Casares family returned to Worcester, they left behind mementos and maintained ongoing connections with the Worcester community and its institutions. Another man who made a great impact on the Latin community of Worcester was Rev. Gerald Dosher of the Worcester Diocese. In 1958, he was appointed to assist the Spanish-speaking Catholics of Worcester County. Under his supervision and Pastor Cales’ presidency, the Spanish Society (Sociedad Hispánica) was founded in February of 1959. In 1961, Rev. Gerald Durosher, a Spanish speaker who spent nine months in 1957 studying in Puerto Rico, estimated that about 400 Puerto Ricans lived in Worcester County: 50 in Worcester, 140 in Southbridge, and 70-80 in Leominster. This does not even compare to the 42,000 Hispanics that live in Worcester today.
Worcester has come a long way with Latinos with the Green Island neighborhood having a thriving Latino community with the neighborhood being almost 47% Latino. Today you can walk down Millbury Street in Green Island and be surrounded by Latin culture. From the mouthwatering food emitting from restaurants all down the street. Birria, a spicy and savory Mexican beef stew, from El Dorado and pastelitos de pollo, a Puerto Rican street food staple of a turnover filled with chicken, from El Rincon. It is very important for these restaurants to stay in Green Island rather than a McDonalds or another chain restaurant to keep the tradition of immigrant and minority owned restaurants in the neighborhood alive.
Works Cited
Current foreign-born population statistics of Green Island from Social Explorer
“History of Latinos.” Latino History Project, https://www.latinohistoryworcester.org/history-of-latinos.html.
“Iglesia Apostólica De La Fe En Cristo Jesús.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 5 Dec. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iglesia_Apost%C3%B3lica_de_la_Fe_en_Cristo_Jes%C3%BAs.
“Menu for El Rincon Criollo.” Yelp, https://www.yelp.com/menu/el-rincon-criollo-worcester.
“Sirved.” Sirved Mobile Solutions, https://www.sirved.com/restaurant/worcester-massachusetts-usa/el-dorado-mexican-grill/330269/menus.