Lynn Latinos organize downtown cleanup

LYNN – Almost 300 members of Lynn’s Latino community are taking pride in their city by organizing and participating in a cleanup Saturday of the downtown area.The multi-lingual cleanup will begin at 8:30 a.m. Saturday in front of Lynn City Hall and make its way downtown toward North Shore Community College, ending at around 5 p.m. Volunteers are invited to sign up ahead of time to attend in shifts.Lynn activist Juan Gonzalez organized the cleanup as a way to create activism in the city’s sometimes solitary Latino community, which can be isolated from the rest of Lynn because of language and cultural barriers.”It’s difficult, because the Latino is a person who says it’s important to give, but in the United States they fear losing their cultures and traditions and so they don’t get involved,” he said.But Gonzalez, who advocates for integration among Lynn’s diverse residents by publishing a regular bilingual magazine “Without Borders,” among other projects, knocked on doors of Spanish-speaking downtown businesses and homes to sign up to 300 volunteers.He argued that Lynn’s newest residents can only expect to get out of the city what they put into it.”Many of them tell me, ‘Juan, we don’t have time,’ and I understand that point, but we are trying to teach them that we have to give something back to the community, too,” he said.Gonzalez’s wife, Yajaira Sagastume, said it can be tough at first to get Latino immigrants involved in civic life, because many are timid. But once people take that initial step, they’re more likely to continue being active members of their community, she said.”Oftentimes they don’t know how easy it is to lend a hand,” she said.Gonzalez said Saturday’s cleanup, which is open to anyone who wants to attend, symbolizes a shift in perception among Lynn’s Latinos that they can take responsibility for their city.”We have an opportunity in the U.S., and we have to take advantage of it and support each other,” he said.Amber Parcher can be reached at [email protected] YOU GO Anyone can attend the cleanup Saturday, which begins 8:30 a.m. at 3 City Hall Square in Lynn and goes until 5:30 p.m. Volunteers can attend in shifts. To RSVP, visit www.withoutbordersmagazine.com/300/ to sign up, or email Juan Gonzalez at [email protected].