Daily Headlines: August 31, 2015

* U.S.: In the decade since Hurricane Katrina ravaged through New Orleans, the booming Latino community has been instrumental in the city’s often-arduous reconstruction efforts.

* Caribbean: Could the tropical storm that recently ravaged the island if Hispaniola affect the hundreds of thousand of former Dominicans of Haitian background who are currently stateless?

* South America: More than 7000 Colombian nationals residing in Venezuela have fled across the border after President Nicolas Maduro on August 19th ordered the closure of several border posts in Táchira state.

* Brazil: The brother of an indigenous Guarani leader became the latest fatality in the bloody and violent land disputes involving small communities and large, wealthy landowners.

YouTube Source – WDSU News (“The Hispanic population in New Orleans took off after the storm and the boom has carried over to neighboring parishes, too.”)
 
Online Sources – BBC News, Fox News Latino, NBC News, USA TODAY, CBS News

Today's Video: Five years later

This month marks the five-year anniversary since Hurricane Katrina swept through the Gulf Coast of the U.S. leaving at least 1400 dead and devastation in its wake. Since then, the region including the city of New Orleans has undergone a major reconstruction effort that has included a major influx of Latinos and immigrants.

We will have more to say on the matter later this week. For the time being please check out the following video focusing on New Orleans' growing Latino population:

Online Sources - YouTube, ABC News

Quote of the Day: The aftermath of Katrina and immigration

“We were like the first to be cleaning all of the destruction up and all of the debris and all of the junk and all of the dirt and all of the mud…Now that there's hardly any work left, now they're arresting us all.”

--Isabel Aredo- a Peruvian immigrant in Biloxi, Mississippi- comments on the Latino immigrant influx to the Gulf States in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Two years after the storm ravaged New Orleans and several southeastern states, those areas are dealing with the consequences of thousands of immigrants that migrated to assist the reconstruction process.

(One recent QOTD looked at the impact of Latino immigrants on the cuisine in New Orleans).

Sources- The Clarion Ledger, Reuters, The Latin Americanist

Image- NPR (2005 image of “Jose Gandara and his partner (who) haul discarded refrigerators to the Jefferson Parrish landfill for $200 a day.”)