Central American immigrants build a community

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Friday, Feb. 20, 2004 | 10:31 a.m.

Two banks and an airline from El Salvador will begin doing business locally in the coming months, Eduardo Lopez Rajo, incoming president of the Central American Coalition, said Thursday.

At the same time, Hispanic leaders at the coalitition meeting were quick to note that the news was only the latest in a recent series of events involving the countries from the region south of Mexico and their private and public sectors, as the local population of immigrants from those countries grows.

They said those communities are building their sense of cultural identity in a Hispanic population dominated by Mexicans, while also putting down roots here.

"We create a life here while at the same time maintaining a certain nostalgia for our homelands," said Wes Lopez, who works with the coalition.

"We're creating our own identity and making our presence felt, both here in Clark County and back in Central America ... where they see we need banks to send money home, airlines to take us there and back and political representation," Lopez said.

The Las Vegas Valley is home to about 360,000 Hispanics, according to census estimates. Though about 70 percent of that population is Mexican, nearly 20 percent -- and growing -- hails from the different Central American countries.

Lopez Rajo said building economic relationships with Central America helps the local immigrant community.

"We're trying to draw investment and bring services to the community, in order to build economic power, which then leads to political power," he said.

The banks and airline are an example.

One bank -- Banco Agricola Comercial -- should be open by April, he said. Banco de Comercio is slated to open by the end of the year. And Taca International will launch two weekly flights to El Salvador, with connecting flights to the rest of Latin America, in June, officials said.

Other recent events include the opening of another Salvadoran bank -- BancoSal -- and a consulate from that country, both in the last month. The consulate will begin offering passports via the Internet on March 1, Oscar Benavides, the Salvadoran consul, said. With El Salvador, Las Vegas now has two consulates, the other being Mexico's.

Guatemala has recently named an honorary consul and vice consul, often the first step to establishing a permanent diplomatic presence.

And Nicaragua, since November, has begun sending consular officials from Los Angeles to Las Vegas every three months. Only two years ago, the consul had never been in Nevada, Lopez said.

The common denominator in these developments is community groups made up of immigrants from each country, he said. Consular officials often travel to the valley with help from local travel agencies, or eat free at local restaurants that are owned by local immigrants. These efforts are coordinated by the different groups.