The document discusses the growing cultural divide between Hispanic immigrants and established residents in Danbury, Connecticut, as the Hispanic population has increased significantly over the last decade. While some city leaders see the division as an economic issue that will lessen as immigrants assimilate, others believe the cultural gulf has left Danbury feeling like "two cities" that are growing apart. The article explores perspectives on both sides of the issue and efforts being made to promote unity in the divided community.

1. Photo: Carol Kaliff / Hearst Connecticut Media
1 City, 2 Cultures
Despite a growing number of Hispanics coming to Danbury,
assimilation has been minimal
By Rob Ryser | Published Aug. 10, 2014
© Hearst Connecticut Media Group
Danbury no longer is in the national spotlight for its war on illegal immigration.
Gone are the emotionally charged protests and demonstrations and the headlines about the Danbury 11 – the
day laborers whose racial profiling lawsuit forced the city to settle for $400,000.
Instead, an uneasy kind of truce has ensued between Hispanic newcomers and longtime Danbury residents on
a Main Street that immigrants built, a truce that has left the city divided not only by language and income
and geography, but by the sense that Danbury has become two cities that are growing apart.
“I definitely think there’s two cities – an inner city and a suburbia,” says Garrett Elias, a 35-year-old marketer
on his way into a large west side Stop & Shop, explaining why he no longer goes downtown. “For people who
go down to Main Street there isn't anything there anymore that tailors to non-immigrants, so for me and for
other people, there is no reason to go down there.”
Some city leaders, including seven-term Republican Mayor Mark Boughton, see the division less as a
Danbury problem of integration and more as a statewide problem of income disparity. But others say the gulf

2. between the immigrants and established residents is so pronounced the city can’t afford to wait for
Washington to resolve the national debate over illegal immigration before Danbury comes together.
“You end up with two different cultures living side by side that is not as strong as if they were united,” said
Dennis Elpern, Danbury's planning director. “You don’t want to create an underclass of people who are
poorly educated and discriminated against so that they can't get a job.”
The stakes are especially high in Danbury because of the city’s remarkable population growth. Some 8,000
Hispanics moved to Danbury in the last decade and now make up 25 percent of the city’s 83,000 people,
according to the U.S. Census.
The welcome they met hasn't always been a warm one.
“Nobody comes here because they want trouble,” says Elmer Palma, a Guatemalan native and a city
councilman who owns two restaurants in Danbury. “If we don't help these people who are isolated, they will
never come to us.”
Success stories such as Palma's are what everyone wants for immigrants in Danbury, Boughton says. But
Danbury is divided between those inspired by such stories and those who believe undocumented immigrants
have no right to be here.
“It’s not the immigrant community that we have a problem with – it’s the illegals who take jobs away from
our kids, " said Elise Marciano, who once led a group called the United States Citizens for Immigration Law
Enforcement. “They have taken over fast-food restaurant jobs and seasonal work that our teenagers don’t have
a chance to get.”
It’s an issue with which Boughton is well acquainted.
“Definitely, I have learned more about the issue of illegal immigration than probably any mayor in
Connecticut,” said the mayor, whose call to deputize state troopers as immigration agents led to protests by
immigrant-rights advocates. “We will help people become legal citizens with proper documentation any way
that we can, but it is a thorny and difficult issue for some people and I see both sides of it. I try to come down
in the middle.”

3. Many see the community divide as primarily economic, and therefore one that can be overcome as second-
generation immigrants pass through the school system.
The city has invested tens of millions over the last five years to expand its schools, where enrollment has
swelled from to 8,500 to 11,000 students in just 12 years, and where more than 40 languages are spoken.
As this generation of immigrants masters English and finds jobs, the argument runs, it will become invested in
and part of the community.
“If there is a separation it is based on economics, not race," said Eliamor Gonzalez, 18, who was born in
Connecticut to a mother from Mexico and father from Guatemala. “At the end of the day, we can all come
together as a community.”
The difficulty Hispanics face assimilating into the larger Danbury culture and the resistance some Danbury
residents feel toward them is not so different from that encountered by newcomers a century ago, when half
of the city’s 22,000 people were foreign-born.
In “Danbury’s Third Century,” authors William Devlin and Herbert Janick document 27 ethnic groups and
20 faith traditions in 1915 Danbury.
But while some of these groups faced discrimination and organized resistance – particularly Italians – Main
Street was a still a melting pot where everyone socialized and eventually assimilated.
Today’s Main Street no longer has that power, despite the effort of merchant groups and economic
development activists to make downtown a draw.
"There is a cultural divide here, whether it is insensitivity – or dare I say hatred – toward people who don’t
have a documented status or are not citizens,” said Carols Valenzuela, the executive director of the Hispanic
Center of Greater Danbury. “I do feel there is this great divide between the Anglos and the immigrant
community and it is tough to close that gap. I am not sure how to do it.”
Elpern, the planning director, said the city should not look to the government to solve a problem citizens
have solved themselves in the past.

4. “I am talking about interpersonal relationships between individuals,” he said. “I am talking about the way we
treat each other socially.
"We need to accept the fact that the immigrants are here and deal with it, because it is part of a historical
pattern,” Elpern said.
Advocates who teach English classes and organizers of faith-based ministries in Danbury agree.
“People create the dividing line,” said the Rev. Pat Kriss of the First Congregational Church, pointing to
members of congregations who have historically reached out to immigrant families to help them with housing
and social services. “There are those who want to be compassionate and those who aren’t aware of the need.”
The immigrant experience is defined by these positive relationships.
“I like it here,” said Diego Pulla, 33, from Ecuador, standing on Main Street with a dozen men waiting for
contractors to pull up and offer them a day’s work. “All people are different.”
Pulla said he has stayed in Danbury for eight years because he believes he has a future here. And he’s working
hard to fit in.
“I practice English with my kids,” he said.
Laura Cabrera, one of many moms watching their kids frolic at Candlewood Lake Park, met her husband of
eight years while working at a restaurant at the mall. He is an immigrant, she said, so she understands the
divide better than most.
“I see both sides,” said Cabrera, 34, putting her 4-month-old daughter into an infant carrier.
She said she has heard non-Hispanic Danbury residents say there is nothing for them downtown, but doesn’t
agree with the sentiment.
“I think that is just an excuse,” Cabrera said. “I think everybody should have a fair chance and everybody
should be welcome.”
Palma, the restaurateur and city councilman said a divided city cannot stand.
“We want to help the immigrants who are already here, because we cannot change that,” he said. “The people
who are not polarized but who have an open mind are the ones in the middle who can help us, because they
have a connection to the people we cannot reach.”
Ann Marie Somma contributed to this report.
rryser@newstimes.com; 203-731-3342.