Transcript for the Youtube Video

Introduction:
Nosotros los latinos somos enfermeras, oficiales, profesores, constructores, estudiantes, doctores y
bailarines. Somos morenos, blancos, amarillos, y negros. Hablamos ingls, espaol, francs, y portugus.
Somos una poblacin diversa y hermosa que est transformando ciudades a travs de los Estados
Unidos. Representamos el grupo ms grande de minoras en la nacin y formamos una ntima parte de
la vida y de la economa de esta nacin.

Interview:
Francisco: My name is Francisco Ojeda. I arrived to Worcester in 1969.
Interviewer: What made you come to Worcester?
Francisco: I was raised in New York, in Brooklyn, I didnt think it was a good area to raise my family so I
decided to come to Worcester for a change.
Interviewer: What connection did you have to come to Worcester?
Francisco: I knew people from where I had lived before in Brooklyn. I had friends that lived here from
my childhood that were originally from Brooklyn.
Interviewer: What was your first impression of this city?
Francisco: My first impression that I noticed was that this city was very quiet. It was very quiet and I
adapted fairly quickly because I liked to do activities during the summer like fishing and I noticed that I
could go to lakes to fish and I found that I when I would fish, I would catch the same fishes as if I were in
Puerto Rico. I was delighted with the city.
Interviewer: What was your purpose to come to the city?
Francisco: I did come for a purpose to this city because I was a maintenance mechanic and I tried to find
many jobs, but I couldnt find a job in the area that I had experience in. I noticed that there were very
few Puerto Ricans that spoke English and since I spoke English fairly well, I was asked if I wanted to get
involved with the community. I was practically in love with the city, in love with what I had to do and I
was fascinated in helping the Hispanic community with their struggle.
Interviewer: You said that you like to help, what other things.
Francisco: Well when I came, I came prepared because I had my own problems in New York like with
addiction and I came prepared and rehabilitated and I saw that the need in Worcester was immense
because there were no programs for Hispanics. The kids that needed help in Spanish didnt have any and
I tried to create a program of rehabilitation and counseling. I was fortunate to find funding and I created
the first Hispanic program here in Worcester. I was the one that organized it.

Interviewer: What was that program?

Francisco: Primera Parada, First Stop, that program would prepare you individually to continue your
rehabilitation where from there they could go to another more intense program. I was very active when
creating the ALPA organization. I was one of the first organizers to create the organization with a
number of people that were dedicated in supporting our community.
Interviewer: Have Hispanics been treated well by the people of Worcester?
Francisco: Well, my people received me well. The people that did not receive us well were the
politicians because our demands were a constant battle and there was a lot of confrontations due to the
amount of money that we needed to raise for our cause. One case that we had was when I wanted to
open Primera Parada and I wanted to change the location, originally on Main Street, to one of the
properties of Catholic Charities, they went against me. It was a struggle to change the program to
another location.