Pascagoula Mississippi Press, MS
As many as 30,000 residents of the Gulf Coast are now celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. It began on Sept. 15, the anniversary of independence for five Latin American countries -- Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.
Andy Guerra, the new president of the Gulf Coast Latin-American Association in Biloxi (porlatinos@yahoo.com), said he strove to be bilingual as a kid "to better myself for future generations," but was first told by his American teachers not to speak Spanish in school and by his Mexican-born abuela (grandmother), not to speak English at home.
It ended up making him a bit gun shy until he became an adult. An 18-year veteran of the U.S. Army and the National Guard, he's now Harrison County Safety and Environmental Officer.
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