Guatemalan group praises Lynn mayor

LYNN – Vilma Rey is proud to know the Guatemalan flag flew next to City Hall two weeks ago, but she said that unity gesture cannot quite hide complexities surrounding the debate over Guatemalans immigrating to the United States.Lynn?s growing Guatemalan community?s growth went relatively unnoticed until the city got swept up in this summer?s national debate over immigrant youth arriving in the United States. Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy detailed concerns about “unaccompanied minors” during a trip to Washington, but she also won praise this month from a Guatemalan civic organization “for her outstanding support during the last five years in the civic activities of the Guatemalan community.”Guatemaltecos en Accion Inc.?s appreciation award presentation to Kennedy paralleled the raising of the Central American nation?s flag on Sept. 9 outside City Hall. The flag flew through Sept. 15 – Guatemalan independence day.During her mayoral tenure, Kennedy has made a practice of raising flags representing different nationalities and populations living in Lynn. The flags fly on a City Hall Square pole not as tall as the one flying the American flag.Kennedy, in a text statement, said Guatemaltecos en Accion?s award “…signifies the ongoing mutual respect between me and the members of Lynn?s Guatemalan community.”Marta Chavez has lived in the United States for 10 years and helps support her children, ages 7 and 10, by working as a cashier at McDonald?s. She said she wants what most Americans want for their family – a job, good health care and good schools.With deep poverty shrouding her homeland, Chavez said women do not have opportunities to work in Guatemala.?We don?t have a chance. For me, it?s better here,” Chavez said.Rey moved from Guatemala to the United States 44 years ago. She works part time in the farmers market open Thursdays in Central Square. She said immigration supporters do not sufficiently stress the hard work that awaits an immigrant who wants to succeed in the United States.?You can make a lot of money, but you have to work,” she said.She said anti-immigrant arguments downplay a level of hardship in Guatemala that is unimaginable, she said, to some Americans.?I consider myself in the middle-class. I?m still poor – but the poor – they are nothing,” she said.Local community organization Neighbor to Neighbor is hosting an immigrant unity and fund-raising evening tonight at St. Michael?s Hall from 7 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.?We are all immigrants, we are all newcomers, in a sense, so we should embrace newcomers,” Neighbor to Neighbor organizer Lissy Romanow said.