ORLANDO SENTINEL October 28, 2007 New center stands as tribute to work of 4 nunsGabrielle Finley, Sentinel Staff Writer Nobody in Apopka wanted anything to do with Arcadio Espinosa. The 23-year-old was notorious in the town's immigrant community, known as a menace and troublemaker.
If he wasn't high on drugs, he was drunk, or both.
Espinosa picked fights and destroyed town dances -- hosted by nuns.
He didn't know they -- Sisters Cathy Gorman, Ann Kendrick, Gail Grimes and Teresa McElwee -- would soon be his biggest allies.
"I call them my crazy nuns," said Espinosa, now 43. "My life was very complicated at that time. They are the ones that changed my life."
He is not alone. Hundreds of other immigrants can attest that the sisters helped them push for better lives. The nuns would celebrate as residents cleared life's hurdles.
On Saturday the community had the chance to celebrate the sisters' accomplishments in return. After decades of fundraising and applying for grants, the nuns have moved from a cramped, storefront office to a spacious building.
Despite Saturday's rain showers, families and friends crowded the new center's foyer and hallways.
"They have a lot to celebrate and they are so grateful," Hope CommUnity Center staff member Minerva Colon said of the crowd.
"They're going to come no matter what."
The nuns could only take a few steps before they were snatched into hugs and kisses.
Small groups of people toured the center, while children and teenagers whirled through the building.
Other rooms were packed with people eating the hot dogs and hamburgers that were being grilled beneath the building's awning.
Working toward solutions
In the early 1970s, the sisters established the Farmworker Association, which caters to the needs of the mostly Hispanic migrant families in Apopka. They started a credit union and a never-ending list of programs to help underrepresented, poor and disadvantaged people.
But the heart of their legacy isn't so much in the programs or the grants.
It is in the chances they gave to people who felt they had none.
During a drunken fog in church, Espinosa got his chance.
The nuns were looking for someone to help out with the youth ministry, and Espinosa, tired of his life, decided he wanted to help.
"They told me I was welcome to come," Espinosa said. "It was a great feeling."
The sisters are in it for the long haul. So long, in fact, that generations of families have come to know them, said Rossie Thomas, who has worked with the nuns since they came to Apopka.
That was evident a few months ago, when a woman who had been mentored as a child by Sister Ann walked into the office.
"A lady came in with her teenage child. She got married and raised a family and Sister Ann remembered her," Thomas said. Sister Ann greeted the child the same way she used to greet the mother, Thomas said.
With the nuns' help, Espinosa made changes and got involved in the community, leaving drugs and alcohol behind.
During his work with the nuns, Espinosa met his wife and now has three children -- 13, 11 and 6.
With a family to support, he started a small lawn-care service.
But when the nuns need him, he is there.
"I could be dead or in jail," Espinosa said. "Who knows. I'm still here. So if the nuns are still here, I'll be here with them. It's simple."
|