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Local News - January 2004 |
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Hispanic store owner offers extra services |
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Breaking Barriers By SARAH GRANO, Staff Writer ———————————— Stores catering to Hispanic customers have started to appear all over Lincolnton, and many of them have more to offer than Costa Rican food and magazines written in Spanish. “I help people translate, and I help people figure out papers for immigration and court,” said Miguel Loria, owner of La Libertad. Loria does not charge for his services. He has even traveled as far as Charlotte to help Lincolnton residents. “I like to do it,” he said. “I like to help people.” He sees around three people a day who need help understanding documents that come in the mail or traffic tickets they received. Lorena Torres, who was born in Lincolnton, opened her store, Hispanica Multi-Services, in 2000. “Hispanics would come to my house before I had an office,” Torres said. “There’s a big need.” Torres translates for her clients and fills out tax information. She also helps them deal with legal issues regarding immigration. “These people would give anything to be legal residents,” Torres said. “They would pay whatever they needed to pay to become legal residents. Unfortunately the law does not allow them to, period.” Torres has connections to attorneys in both Lincolnton and Charlotte who help with her customer’s legal difficulties. “It’s not that they want to be illegal and not obey the law. It’s a matter of survival,” Torres said. “If you have a family to feed, and you have children to take care of, and you can’t do it in your own country, you’re going to go and take care of your family wherever you need to.” Every three months Torres has a Costa Rican attorney visit Lincolnton in order to help her clients do things they can’t do in the United States, such as get divorces and buy Costa Rican property. Torres thinks Lincolnton has one of the largest populations of Costa Ricans in the world. When Torres’ family first moved to Lincolnton in the 1970s they were one of the only Hispanic families in town. Now Lincolnton has a population that includes a large number of Mexicans and Argentineans. Stores have popped up throughout the county trying to serve the needs of the growing Hispanic population. “Each person from each country looks for their home made products,” said Torres. “It’s like an American looks for Kraft mayonnaise in another country.” ————— Staff Writer Sarah Grano can be reached at 704-735-3031 or sgrano@ltnews.com
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© 2001 Lincoln Times-News |
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