Until the Koreans came, eating out in Annandale was a big bore. They have brought life and vibrancy to Annandale's once moribund city center.
-Ms. Liz
Mofo Wrote:
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> Vince(1) Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > sorry to break your hearts....no one is beling
> > "overrun"....
>
>
> Contrast that with Northern Virginia, where the
> Spanish-speaking population is close to a majority
> in some neighborhoods and a growing number of
> officeholders are creating Hispanic advisory
> groups and looking for ways to finesse the
> immigration issue.
>
> In the Fairfax County town of Herndon, where more
> than one-fourth of the residents are Hispanic,
> officials agonized for months last year over plans
> to build a community center for hundreds of
> Hispanic day-laborers, many of them in the United
> States illegally. After the center was approved,
> non-Hispanic voters turned out in droves and
> ousted the council - a reminder that while
> Hispanic numbers are growing, resentment and fear
> about Spanish-speaking immigrants remain
> politically potent.
>
> Gasta?aga, a "Latino by marriage" whose husband is
> a painting contractor in Richmond, argues that
> such anti-immigrant victories are produced by a
> reflexive "fear of others" and are likely to
> generate a backlash that will be felt as Hispanic
> numbers grow.
>
> Along Backlick Road from Springfield to Annandale,
> signs of Northern Virginia's explosive immigrant
> influx are unmistakable. At Brookfield Plaza, a
> strip mall just south of the Capital Beltway, La
> Hacienda Restaurant and Sports Bar sits alongside
> the Shri Krishna Grocery, which in turn sits
> alongside Food Corner II, where the menu's
> featured dishes are Afghan Kabobs and Peruvian
> Rotisserie Chicken.
>
> Nearby, shoppers can meander from Esther's West
> African Fashions to the Dong Nam Vietnamese
> supermarket and then on to Nataraj Books and
> Gifts, an Indian bookstore. A mile or so up the
> street, the parking lot is almost always full at
> el Grande Supermercado, a superstore of Hispanic,
> Middle Eastern and Asian cuisine.
>
> Similar pockets of international commerce have
> sprung up across Fairfax County and the rest of
> Northern Virginia in recent years. And no wonder:
> Roughly one-fourth of Northern Virginia's 2
> million-plus residents are either Hispanic or
> Asian, according to federal estimates.
>
>
http://hamptonroads.com/node/159561