BETHLEHEM, Pa. — La fortaleza de la fuerza del Lehigh Valley.
Sharing stories of strength and determination, descendants of local Latino trailblazers opened up about their legacies while educating others on researching their genealogy at a community event organized by PBS39.
"Estoy Aqui: Finding Your Roots in the Lehigh Valley" was held on Thursday evening at Univest Public Media Center, home to Lehigh Valley Public Media.
LVPM consists of PBS39, 91.3 WLVR Radio, and LehighValleyNews.com.
The panelists from the Latino community also discussed the hurdles and injustices they faced and how they overcame those adversities.
Allentown City Communications Director Genesis Ortega moderated the panel discussion.
She was joined by seven panelists: Myrna Rivera, Hispanic Center Lehigh Valley board of directors; Nancy Matos Gonzalez, retired district judge; Iris Cintron, retired Bethlehem Area School District educator; Doris Correll, former director of field experiences and ESL certifying officer at Moravian University; Julio Guridy, executive director of Allentown Housing Authority; Roy Ortiz, founder of the Lynfield Community Center; and Christian Maldonado, a Freedom High School senior.
'Roots' book, building a legacy
The panelists' families have deep roots in the Lehigh Valley and are part of a new initiative, "Latino Roots of Bethlehem: Latino Influencers of Bethlehem (1940-1950)."
The project, which will be printed as a limited-edition book, highlights the achievements of 25 Latinos.
Northampton Community College spearheads the "Roots" project,which is partly funded by a $5,500 grant from PPL Foundation.
It will be used in Bethlehem Area School District classrooms, where 45.3% of students identify as Hispanic or Latino.
Many members of Thursday night's audience and the panelists at the "Estoy Aqui" event are featured in the "Roots" book, including Correll and Rivera's fathers, who were co-founders of the Puerto Rican Beneficial Society.
It was established in 1952 by Ralph Lopez, Guillermo Lopez, Ismael Garcia and Juan Nalin Rodriguez.
Correll's father, Nalin Rodriguez, worked at Bethlehem Steel and was among the men who noticed the need for Puerto Ricans, who migrated to the city in the late 1940s, largely from Patillas and Corozal, to have a place to unite.
Rodriguez and the society's founders often would assist new families in the city with living arrangements and other tasks, such as registering to vote and finding employment.
"He felt that the Mexicans have their club, the Hungarians have their club, we need a club of our own," Correll told the crowd. "And so the four gentlemen put up their houses to pay to buy the Beneficial Society.
"Buying the society was a really dangerous venture, and I remember that my mom was not happy. Mom would often say, 'If you would just collect all the money you have out in the street that people owe you, we would be rich.'
"And he would say, 'We're already rich. We have children, we have property.' So that's the kind of man he was. He did for others."
Facing adversity, honoring a mother
During the thought-provoking conversation, Gonzalez, who was Pennsylvania's first Latina district judge, spoke out about the challenges she faced early in her career.
For her part in Bethlehem's history — Gonzalez retired in 2022 after serving as a district judge in the city for 30 years — she also will be featured in the "Roots" book.
She credits her mother, who, as a young girl, had to forgo an education to work with her family on a coffee plantation in Puerto Rico.
Later in life, her mother became the manager of the plantation and throughout Gonzalez's life displayed an admirable work ethic.
" She's very resourceful and just finds a way to do things," Gonzalez said.
As the youngest member on the panel, Christian Maldonado, whose parents hail from Puerto Rico, talked about relocating to the city from New Jersey in 2017.
Gonzalez remarked on the prejudices his grandfather, who moved from Puerto Rico to the States in the 1950s, faced.
"I am fortunate enough to live in a time that is a lot more accepting and tolerant of people who may come from different cultures or speak different languages," Maldonado said.
"In the way that I've experienced [prejudice], it's never in a direct sense. It's kind of the way that people brush you off. It's statements that, if you call them on it, they will say they were joking.
"Thankfully, that's nowhere near as bad as some of the verbal or even physical abuses that my grandparents had to go through when they came here."
Rubén Blades and Natalie Morales
Before the panel, the 100 attendees watched the "Latin Roots" episode of "Finding Your Roots," a popular PBS series hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr.
On "Finding Your Roots," now in its 11th season, Gates and a team of genealogists trace the ancestry of famous people such as actresses Sharon Stone, Allen High school graduate Amanda Seyfried and Spanish chef José Andrés.
The ancestry of Latinos can be traced to Indigenous peoples, Europeans, Africans and Asians, making it one of the most diverse groups globally.
In the "Latin Roots" episode, which first aired on PBS in February, Gates traced the roots of Panamanian singer Rubén Blades and Puerto Rican and Brazilian broadcast journalist Natalie Morales.
As on most "Roots" episodes, both Blades and Morales learned shocking family history.
Blades, 76, was astonished to find out his biological grandfather on his father's side wasn't who he had thought he was.
His real grandfather is Ricardo Miró, a famous Panamanian poet, who in the 1800s wrote about the natural beauty of his homeland and its people.
" This is gonna be a bomb in Panama," Blades, a 12-time Grammy Award winner and influential songwriter, said on the episode. "That's a bomb for me."
Through the Miró tree, Blades also is related to another notable poet, Amelia Denis de Icaza, the first woman to publish poetry in Panama.
Gates also revealed that on his mother's side, Blades' third-great-grandfather was a slave owner.
The "Tiburon" singer also found out he was a distant cousin of filmmaker Ava DuVernay.
"Seeing the 'Roots' show, it should resonate in all of us to learn more about where we came from, where our parents came from, and where we fit into all this."Brazilian broadcast journalist Natalie Morales
During the coronavirus pandemic, Rivera wrote a book for her family members titled "Living La Vida Lopez."
Her father, Ralph Lopez, was host of the first Spanish radio show in the Lehigh Valley, and years later, a Spanish feature show on WFMZ-TV Channel 69.
He also owned Ralph's Cleaners in Bethlehem until 1999.
She filled the book with photos and family recipes, but also found out surprising things about her ancestry while conducting her DNA research.
"Seeing the 'Roots' show, it should resonate in all of us to learn more about where we came from, where our parents came from, and where we fit into all this," Rivera said.
Puerto Rican dishes, upcoming documentary
After the conversation, attendees mingled and dined on Puerto Rican staple dishes — deliciously flavored pernil, pollo guisado, guineos en escabeche, arroz con gandules and pastelillos.
The delicacies were catered by staff at the Puerto Rican Beneficial Society, who helped organize the cultural celebration.
The "Finding Your Roots" event was organized by staff from PBS39 and a committee, and local advocates Angela Baio, Toni Fernández, Hilda Gonzalez, Javier Diaz, Guillermo Lopez and Rivera.
Diaz's late mother, Delia Rivera Diaz, also will be featured in the "Roots" book for her work as an award-winning editor and producer at PBS39 and with state Sen. Lisa Boscola as an advocate for the Latino community.
Javier Diaz continues her legacy as the director of video and broadcast content at LVPM.
"Over the years, we've gone away with our commitment to the Latino community, but we're changing that now, and it starts tonight," Diaz told the audience.
As part of PBS39's future lineup, he shared news about an upcoming documentary that will highlight the achievements of Latinos, the fastest-growing demographic in the Lehigh Valley.
For the project, guests at the "Roots" celebration filmed segments inside one of the studios, where they were asked a series of questions on their hopes and experiences within the Latino community.
