On the surface, White City is an unincorporated rural area in Jackson County, just east of Medford, Oregon. Like other southern Oregon towns, it’s known for its warm weather and has undergone a rise in population over the past decade. A closer look sheds light on the ethnic division that has existed in the area with increased Latino migration in the 1980s. As of 2007, nearly 29 percent of the population self-identifies as Latino, well over 1,700 individuals. Despite making up a large portion of the population in White City, the Latino community has gone underrepresented at community events and in local institutions. This lack of inclusion prompted Rural Development Initiatives (RDI) to begin working with Latinos through its Latino Leadership program to help people in White City initiate changes at community events, so that they reflect the true colors of the local cultures.

One of White City’s most established celebrations is the annual Memorial Day parade. Until 2007, there was little to no representation of the Latino community in the parade. However, all of that changed when a connection was made at an intercultural luncheon sponsored by the Ford Family Foundation and facilitated by RDI. Norma Montaño and her two sisters, Olimpia and Ana, had been interested in integrating the Latino presence into White City community events for some time. “We had been trying to connect with the mainstream culture for many years,” says Norma, “but just hadn’t found the right opening.” The right opening turned out to be an encounter between the Montaño sisters and White City’s Community Activities Coordinator, Kristin Howell, at the luncheon, where participants from English-language and Spanish-language leadership training programs shared food and ideas for the community. There, over spaghetti and Caesar salad, Howell stood up and said to Norma Montaño, “I need to talk to you, I’ve been trying to connect with the Latino community for years and haven’t been able to.”

After some discussion, coordination, and concentrated hard work, Howell and the Montaño sisters developed a plan to incorporate the Latino culture into the upcoming Memorial Day parade. For the first time ever since its inception, the May 26 parade included Latino music, dress, and dancers. Norma Montaño reflected that the experience “was very emotional, sharing our culture with the other groups in White City.” And when asked how the Latino presence was accepted after so many years of not being included, she responded in Spanish, “I felt very accepted; our participation was greatly valued and appreciated.”

This first foray into organizing the parade and the parade itself were successful, and since then Norma Montaño, who works for a low-cost health clinic originally created to serve Jackson County’s migrant population but now serving the entire county, has been asked to weave Latino culture into a parade in Ashland, Oregon. She is helping to organize a talent show for Latino youth, and plans to put together a community-wide event in honor of Mexican Independence Day each September.

The key was the connection. Montaño recalls that “Kristin and my family were both looking for the moment to connect with the other’s culture and felt frustrated that we weren’t getting through. If it weren’t for that luncheon, who knows how much longer it would have taken to find each other.” The Montaños and Kristin Howell increased their social capital—that is, the number and strength of ties in their community—and more importantly created a bond to achieve mutual goals across a cultural divide.