Wilfredo León arrived in Greenville in the 1980's and the city has never been the same. This is the story of how a Puerto Rican man became Latino, and grew to love and build a new community. Wilfredo was born in Ponce, but spent his childhood in the capital city of San Juan, Puerto Rico. When he was 14, he moved to live with his grandparents in San German.  Wilfredo was drawn to the familial atmosphere of the entire community “everyone knew my family, and my family’s heritage. I have blue eyes so people could look at me and know I was a León.” Wilfredo then went to the University of Puerto Rico in Mayagüez for engineering, which he recalls was very similar to Clemson University.

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In the early 1980’s, his career with Digital Equipment Corporation brought him from the island to the contiguous 48 states, where he worked in Phoenix and Boston. Among these large, diverse population, the future owner of the Latino Newspaper says that he really did not see himself as Latino - “I was just a regular guy.” When his company wanted to move him to South Carolina, however, he had some misgivings.  During his childhood in the 1960’s Wilfredo remembers seeing broadcasts of the Civil Rights Movement in the South. “I was concerned. I didn’t want myself or my family exposed to racist anything, or to those emotions and ignorance.” He mentioned this to his corporate office, and they offered for him to visit South Carolina before deciding. In 1985, Wilfredo committed to move himself, his wife, two kids and two dogs to South Carolina. “August 20th, 1985. That’s when I became Latino,” he said.

What part of the moving process could suddenly adjust one’s cultural identity? When completing his HR orientation in Greenville, Wilfredo remembers that he was shown a box on his documents that said “Latino,” and was told that if he checked that box, it would help his company with their diversity numbers. He complied, and suddenly assumed an identity both real and artificially construed. That was when Wilfredo became concerned with seeking out and becoming a part of the Latino community.

Contrary to the violent and hateful TV images from his childhood, the culture and people of 1980s South Carolina actually reminded him of his home. “People were very friendly,” he recalled. “We lived in a nice neighborhood and people came over to give us gifts when we moved in, and it was very green like Puerto Rico. I enjoyed everything, but at the same time, I was looking for my connection to Latinos.”

For Wilfredo, the most painful thing to leave behind in Puerto Rico was the sense of closeness with his family and friends...and of course the beach. At Christmas, colder weather made traditional Puerto Rican and Hispanic rituals impossible, such as outside celebrations, pig roasts with all the neighbors, and going door to door for las posadas.  His family had returned to P.R. one Christmas, and though he told them and himself that he would be fine, he found himself buying a plane ticket one day after work, to return to the island.

At first, he didn’t find many Hispanic community members in Greenville until he attended Spanish Mass at St. Mary’s Catholic Church. He connected with the congregation, which was dominated by Colombians at the time, and was able to make many friends. Now that Greenville was becoming home, Wilfredo’s career trajectory was about to take an unexpected turn. How did an engineer come to start a newspaper? He credits his family’s strong social conscience.

In Puerto Rico, Wilfredo’s mother was a business woman who owned a restaurant and several country inns. The family was well educated and prosperous, and his mother never turned anyone away who was in need. If people came to the restaurant but could not pay, they would still eat. If someone needed a place to stay, they could stay. When a heavily pregnant mother was stranded by her husband at one of her inns, the family took her in and cared for her. One day Wilfredo saw the woman leave in a taxi. Upon returning several days later, and no longer pregnant, she revealed that she had given her baby away to the hospital janitor. The family searched for the infant and the janitor released the child to them willingly. “That baby is now my adopted sister,” he said. “That was the environment that molded me, and created my social conscience” - one in which extreme generosity and attention to the needs of others comes full circle to recreate love and community.

Now that Wilfredo is the Greenville purchasing director at Digital Equipment Corporation, he was befriended by a Honduran woman named Sulema. She identified Wilfredo as a Latino with greater economic resources than the average member of the Hispanic community, and decided to take him on a personal tour of a side of Greenville that he had never seen.“She showed me places where Latinos lived that I could  not believe. We talked to people about the issues affecting them.” Wilfredo intuited that effective help was a matter of awareness. He talked with American and Hispanic community leaders and settled on a  printed periodical in Spanish to provide accurate information, strategies for a better life, and issues affecting their community. The Latino Newspaper began printing in February of 1996 - the first Spanish language paper in the state of South Carolina.

This resource for the Hispanic community was well-timed. The warm and carefree attitude towards cultures that had welcomed Wilfredo in the 1980s was shifting in a disturbing direction. “In the late 1990s and 2000’s,” he recalls, “the tide started changing.” In Hilton Head, people began pushing for ordinances to block business licenses and apartment rentals for those without a social security number. In the late 2000’s bills enacted stricter laws for potential employers of undocumented immigrants, and there was even debate about whether transporting such aliens in one’s personal vehicle was allowable. The entire country became far more conservative towards immigrants, and Wilfredo followed this public current into fighting for Latino rights on a state level.

His numerous areas of impact center around a Hispanic community that is integrated with local resources, vocal about its rights, and empowered to succeed.As the founder and board chair of Foothills Minority Supplier Development Council, he ensured that large corporations were purchasing at least 5% of their inventory from minority owned companies. He and other advocates successfully campaigned against a bill that would have made English the official language of  South Carolina. He was a member of the governors Latino Task Force in 1999, assessing the pressing needs of Latinos by moderating town hall meetings across the state. Though the report and recommendations of the task force led directly to the diversification of the state’s Commission on Minority Affairs, giving it power to affect policy for all minorities and ensuring equal minority representation on the board. He assisted the Department of Education in purchasing software that translated important documents for parents and students into 27 different languages to better serve all international students. The Greenville council of Hispanic faith leaders which he initiated, still meets monthly, and empowers pastors to care for the comprehensive needs of their congregants through resource awareness. Wilfredo’s footprint in South Carolina will continue to benefit the Latino community into the future, not to mention the Hispanic Alliance, where he has served several years as a board member.

When reflecting on Hispanic heritage, Wilfredo takes a historical perspective.  “The entire country,” he emphasizes, “needs to be mindful that the nation is made of people that came from many different places - recognizing the contribution of all groups, including Latinos.”

Wilfredo could write a captivating history of South Carolina, emphasizing little known facts about the Hispanic contributions to our state. He told the story of the first European settlement in South Carolina, which failed after the settlers died in conflicts with Native Americans. They were Spanish, founding the community of Santa Elena, the capital of Spanish Florida, on modern day Parris Island. He also pointed out that The State one of the premier newspapers in South Carolina was founded by two hispanic brothers by the name of Dominguez. A monument still stands to them just outside our state capitol building.

Possessing a strong sense of the origins of Hispanic peoples in the area also provides Wilfredo with uncommon wisdom for how to form and preserve this heritage for the future. He believes that the answer to building and honoring our own local heritage rests within our school system by educating and modeling a positive Hispanic image for our young people. He would like to see Hispanic Heritage Month emphasized in our school system, allowing children of all backgrounds to grow up in a community where everyone celebrates diversity.

“The best thing that can happen is for someone else to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month beside Hispanic Alliance.” Wilfred explains that it is expected to celebrate one’s own culture, but that when the majority group in a community is the one leading the celebration of Hispanics, this is proof that everyone recognizes their value to the local community. Wilfredo is impressed with the Greenville Library System’s leadership in honoring Hispanic Heritage and providing hands on learning for young people. He envisions Hispanic organizations in a new role of Hispanic heritage consultants and teachers for the celebrations of community wide institutions, but not as the foremost “master of ceremony” for Hispanic Heritage Month.

His desire for young people to see their heritage broadly celebrated is personal.  When asked about the pressure on Hispanics to assimilate to the dominant culture, he responded that, “assimilation is a personal choice,” but that integration simply happens on its own over time. “My father is Wilfredo Sr., I am Wilfredo, my son is Wilfredo, and my grandson, who was raised in a household that does not speak Spanish...is Logan.”  With a grandfather who has literally documented the triumphs and tragedies of Hispanics in South Carolina for the past three decades, there should be no anxiety that Logan can become a man with a strong and positive understanding of his Hispanic Heritage. It is the hope for all our young people.