is a town with a proud military heritage.
You see it on the name “Veterans Parkway” and the series of red, white and blue rectangular banners that line the side of the street on telephone poles along Route 136.
Here is a tribute to Pfc. Jesse Kessler. There is a flag honoring Sgt. Jason M. Berry.
You can read it on signs that point you to the Aviation Museum.
And you can feel it on the spacious
that dominated the local economy for much of its 76 years of existence.
Shuttered in 1993, the base was a casualty of post-Cold War budget cuts.
In many ways, according to some, the village of 13,000 people has never recovered.
Yet it is on the same Air Force base that the city’s best hope for rejuvenation may lie.
It is not in future military installations, but rather in institutions like the
Multicultural Community Center
, a facility that proudly proclaims that it serves the children of Mexican migrant farm workers.
Opened in 2010 and headed by the tenacious Martha Gonzalez, the facility serves about 70 children. Many of her charges have traveled to the area with their families from Texas and Florida, who work the summer months detasseling, and then harvesting, corn and other crops for companies like
.
Gonzalez explained that many of the migrants, lured by promises of full-time work,
for the children and lucrative pay, come hopeful of reaping a bonanza through their hard work.
Instead, many end up staying.
These unintentionally permanent residents make up part of the 262 percent increase in Latinos living in Rantoul in the past decade, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Whereas just 346 Latinos were in Rantoul in 2000, by 2010 that number had increased to 1,252.
The white numbers decreased by 1,664 during the same time, a dip of 17 percent, so the Latino growth played a significant role in the overall population remaining essentially stable.
A walk in downtown Rantoul provides a view of these Latino-owned businesses.
Two tax preparation businesses stand side by side on Garrard Street, just doors down from
, a mercado where customers can choose between 10 types of chile, buy red guava shaped like a log, send money to Mexico or learn about upcoming concerts.
Around the corner is
, another market.
And across the street is
, WKJR 1460 AM, the Spanish-language radio station that largely plays Mexican regional music. Run by DJ Jimmy Rodriguez, the station attracts between 15,000 to 20,000 listeners, he said.
Gaston Perez, owner of
, one of the tax preparation services, said many of the shops, like his, opened in the past four years.
Gonzalez said many of the non-Latino community has not welcomed their new neighbors. She called many of the workers isolated, saying that the long-term residents of Rantoul need to understand the community is not the same one as it was 30 years ago.
Indeed, more than half of the people we asked where the Cherry Orchard apartment complex on the village’s outskirts that had decidedly sub-standard housing for migrant workers, could not tell us where it was.
Others held a different perspective.
Victor Torres is a Chicago transplant and former car salesman who opened takeaway restaurant
with his wife in December. A native of the Pilsen neighborhood, Torres explained that he moved to nearby Paxton because he wanted a safer and slower pace of life for his wife and three of his four sons (The oldest, who is now 25 years old, remained in Chicago.).
Torres said he has no problems with members of the local community, noting that town officials have helped him get the permits necessary to open the restaurant and to purchase two nearby buildings.
“The police are spreading the word about the business,” he said. “Everyone we talk to, they’re glad we’re investing in the area.”
For
the surging numbers of Latinos convinced him to move his family and photography business from Champaign to Rantoul six months ago.
“I’m here basically because of the Latino community,” said Williams, who estimated that 60 percent of his
business comes from Latino customers. “The Latinos were the only ones who were keeping me in the business.”
We don’t yet know, but intend to find out, whether Williams is part of a segment, perhaps growing, of Rantoul that understands the future well being of their village is far more tied to the fate of those who come and stay and others like them than in an earlier, more homogeneous, more military-oriented time.
Omar Robles has documented more of Rantoul’s emerging Latino community in this photo gallery.