Let us all come together to bridge the gaps that divide

The nonprofit Unidos Bridging Community, prominently featured in a story in last Friday’s News-Register, has been providing support services to Yamhill County’s large and diverse Latino population for almost 15 years.

Its stated mission is serving as a bridge between the roughly 17% of county residents identifying as Latino and about 76% identifying as Anglo, thus helping the Latino segment participate more fairly and fully in “work, education, recreation, political and community activity.”

In service of that mission, it has established a law enforcement liaison program, sponsored cross-cultural training for school, business and government entities, conducted classes to facilitate citizenship, and helped constituents connect with social, medical, legal, occupational and educational resources.

In the main, Unidos has worked with a web of other local agencies, like Lutheran Family Services, Virginia Garcia and Yamhill Community Care, to quietly achieve its aims behind the scenes. It has generated little public fanfare in that regard.

But occasionally, social and political eruptions like the George Floyd killing, the immigration crackdowns associated with both Donald Trump’s terms, the recent Good and Pretti slayings in Minneapolis and the recent emergency declaration push triggered by invasive ICE activity, have thrust it into a more contentious limelight.

In fact, Unidos had its roots in such a disruption — an attempt by Catholic Church leaders, ultimately thwarted, to close Dayton’s San Martin de Porres Mission and Church in 2010.

In May 2011, San Martin hosted a conference that planted the seeds. Those seeds began to sprout at a conference held in December 2011 at McMinnville Cooperative Ministries and to more fully flower during a series of subsequent meetings early the following year.

But as its name suggests, Unidos Bridging Community has kept a laser focus on uniting, not dividing. It has consistently sought to build bridges across the chasms that might otherwise divide us.

We see no reasonable basis to criticize its rich legacy of outreach to the local Latino community. Its advocacy for its core constituency doesn’t materially differ from those of local chambers of commerce, veterans’ organizations, housing agencies, feeding programs or legal aid providers.

One factor many people seem to miss is the fact Yamhill County is actually one of Oregon’s more racially and ethnically diverse.

In addition to co-hosting one of the state’s major Native American tribes, it boasts the second-highest Latino percentage in the Willamette Valley and one of the highest statewide. It also ranks eighth in Asian heritage and fifth in African American heritage among the state’s 36 counties, according to the 2020 census.

Though more than 95% of its residents hold American citizenship, census figures show, more than 8% were born outside the U.S.

In large measure, those numbers suggest the foreign-born among us have stayed, sunk roots and achieved citizenship. And there is every reason to think those coming behind them will as well.

That being the case, we think we can use all the bridging we can get. And in this case, we are getting it at virtually no cost to the taxpayer, as the burden is being assumed by a voluntary nonprofit, not being thrust as a tax-supported layer of local government.

In a 2023 editorial on this topic, we asserted, “Cross-pollination broadens our understanding, thus serving to break down barriers and build bridges with our neighbors. We are all the better for the experience.”

And we feel just as strongly today — if not more so, in the face of recent events — that we did then.

We have a rich array of fellow residents in these parts. It’s time we learned to embrace them, even when their backgrounds differ in significant respects from ours.