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<DIV>I wonder, when did we (Riverdale Park) annex that strip off Edmonston
Road. As far as I know that is not Riverdale Park, but Edmonston. Am
I wrong, or is the reporter guilty of not doing his/her research, yet
again?></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 5/3/2009 6:21:34 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
dwightrholmes@gmail.com writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>Impact
Resonates With Mexican Enclave in Md.<BR><BR>By N.C. Aizenman<BR>Washington
Post Staff Writer<BR>Sunday, May 3,
2009<BR><BR>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/02/AR2009050202108.html<BR><BR>Turn
onto a quiet side street called Edmonston Road in the Prince<BR>George's
County town of Riverdale Park and you could almost be
in<BR>Mexico.<BR><BR>Shopkeepers have festooned the slightly shabby brick
bungalows lining<BR>the street with exuberant signs painted in the red, green
and white of<BR>Mexico's flag. The Discocentro Mexicano offers cowboy boots
from<BR>northern Mexico alongside racks of CDs by Mexican bands. At the
San<BR>Jose Grocery, three-foot statues of Catholic saints are stacked
above<BR>the produce aisle.<BR><BR>And perhaps nowhere in the Washington
region has the impact of the<BR>swine flu originating in Mexico reverberated
with greater force this<BR>week than along this half-mile stretch.<BR><BR>At
Comunicar Travel and Tax Services, in a small house painted<BR>electric blue
and decorated with posters of airplanes, requests from<BR>Mexican immigrants
seeking to book summer trips home have nearly<BR>ceased over the past several
days. Instead, the agency's two travel<BR>consultants have been fielding calls
from clients who already bought<BR>tickets and want to postpone their flights
without incurring fees.<BR><BR>"This is the time of year when we sell families
their summer travel<BR>packages," said the agency's manager, Ruddy Hernandez,
standing with a<BR>worried look in the empty office one recent morning. "If
this<BR>continues much longer it will be a big problem."<BR><BR>Branching out
to other customers is not an easy option, Hernandez<BR>said. Although many of
the region's estimated 47,000 Mexican<BR>immigrants are scattered among other,
larger immigrant communities,<BR>Riverdale Park has emerged over the past two
decades as a rare Mexican<BR>enclave. So almost all of Comunicar's clients are
Mexican immigrants.<BR><BR>At least one business does appear to be booming
along Edmonston Road:<BR>the sale of phone cards to Mexicans anxious to check
on relatives back<BR>home.<BR><BR>"Aha, aha. ¿Y como esta la niña?" -- "And
how's the little girl?" --<BR>Fernando Andrades, 25, a welder on a lunch
break, shouted tensely into<BR>his cellphone on a recent afternoon. He was
standing in the parking<BR>lot of Discocentro, where he'd just bought a $25
phone card so he<BR>could call his brother in Mexico's Tabasco
state.<BR><BR>Andrades's expression relaxed. "My brother says his daughter is
fine,"<BR>he said, flipping the phone shut.<BR><BR>But the sense of relief
came at a price. "Normally I spend about $50<BR>to call my relatives twice a
week," said Andrades as he walked into<BR>the Sirenita Mexican Restaurant next
door. "Now I'm spending $100 a<BR>week to call them daily."<BR><BR>Still,
compared with Jesus Joel, 40, one of the prep cooks at the<BR>restaurant,
Andrades seemed almost neglectful of his family: Joel said<BR>he was calling
his wife and three children in Mexico City about four<BR>times a day. "It's so
hard to be away from them at a time like this,"<BR>said Joel as he chopped
beef for a fajita.<BR><BR>Although Joel's family remains healthy, he said
there were other<BR>reasons for concern. "My son works at a bank, and they've
closed it,<BR>so he's missing a lot of work, and my daughters are missing
their<BR>classes at school," he said. "Also, they tell me that there's been
a<BR>run on the shops, so there's a shortage of everything --
vegetables,<BR>medicine and worst of all, face masks. Just imagine. My wife
hasn't<BR>been able to find face masks!"<BR><BR>Elizabeth Mejia, 36, the cook,
clucked her tongue sympathetically.<BR><BR>"This is all we talk about these
days," she said with a grim smile.<BR><BR>A few blocks down, the conversation
in the kitchen of El Taco Azteca<BR>was even more alarming.<BR><BR>"I just
heard my little niece has that flu," Mariella Jacome, 23, told<BR>Rosalba
Vazquez, 31, as the waitresses piled takeout food into<BR>Styrofoam
containers.<BR><BR>"Really?" said Vazquez, her eyes widening.<BR><BR>Jacome's
9-month-old niece lives in Guatemala, where there have been<BR>no official
reports of swine flu infections. But she was certain that<BR>was the
diagnosis.<BR><BR>"She's been sick for 15 days and in the hospital for eight
days,"<BR>Jacome said. "At first they thought it was asthma. Now they know
it's<BR>that flu. . . . But thank God she's doing better. They've just
taken<BR>her off the oxygen."<BR><BR>Like others on Edmonston Road, Jacome and
Vazquez also worried that it<BR>was only a matter of time before swine flu
reached Riverdale Park,<BR>given how many Mexican immigrants live
there.<BR><BR>A few in town have started looking for face masks. Andrades,
the<BR>welder, is one of about two dozen people who spent $30 to get a
flu<BR>vaccination this week at a private clinic that mostly serves
Mexican<BR>immigrants -- even though the medical assistant there said
she<BR>repeatedly warns patients that the vaccine does not protect
against<BR>swine flu.<BR><BR>However, most denizens of the street seemed to
adopt the fatalistic<BR>view of Jacome and Vazquez.<BR><BR>"You never know
when the virus will reach you. So there's nothing to<BR>do," Jacome said with
a resigned sigh.<BR><BR>"Yes. Nothing but to wait," Vazquez
agreed.<BR>_______________________________________________<BR>TownTalk mailing
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only<BR>http://riverdale-park.org/mailman/listinfo/towntalk<BR><BR>For more
information about Riverdale Park, visit
http://www.riverdaleparkmd.info</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>