Couldn't help but be struct by the parallels between this description of Irish professor O Muchadha of Famine immigrants to the what I know of Salvadoran and other Central and South American immigrants to the Washington DC area:
However, surviving the voyage was not the end of the hardship for Famine emigrants. In fact, for most, it was just the beginning of a new chapter of desolation.
“A great number of these emigrants had never previously ventured outside their own local areas,” says Dr Ó Murchadha. “Suddenly, they found themselves transported thousands of miles away: from a rural to an urban landscape, to a very alien social environment where the inhabitants didn’t speak the same language and, frequently, showed a deep loathing for their Irishness and their Catholicism. This was bewildering and devastating to them.”
Read more: http://www.irishcentral.com/news/New-facts-about-Great-Famine-emigration-out-of-Ireland--revealed-139540423.html#ixzz1mw3NmfZi
