Real Immigration Stories in RI

It's so rare that we get to hear real immigration stories, we thought it might be interesting to share some of those here. In them you will find situations that can happen to anyone, and the ways in which these immigrants handled their circumstances.

If you need assistance with an immigration matter in RI, a naturalization certificate or the citizenship process, please do not hesitate to contact our office for a consultation.


Faces of immigration in R.I.
January 16, 2011
By Karen Lee Ziner

José Marcano traveled from Venezuela in 1989 to run the Boston Marathon. Leading up to the race from Hopkinton, Mass., to Boston, Marcano made friends and contacts.

Inspired by what he learned, Marcano said, “I saw a better opportunity here in America.”

In 1991, Marcano left law school in Caracas. He quit his internship at the Supreme Court in Venezuela. Then 28, Marcano banked on his hopes and abilities.

Five years later, Marcano was an established painting and construction contractor in Rhode Island, adding to the surge in Hispanic-owned businesses and Latino economic power in Rhode Island. In fact, Hispanic-owned businesses in Rhode Island increased nearly 69 percent between 2002 and 2007, Census data show.

Marcano started at the bottom, but proved an avid learner.

Among his first jobs was at a machine shop, taking parts off a conveyer belt and packing them into boxes.

Among his first friends was a Dominican woman, Josefina Rosario, known as “Doña Fefa,” or mother of the community.

Rosario rented a room to Marcano in her South Side triple-decker, where so many immigrants — many of them Dominican — had come before him. When new immigrants arrived, Rosario would board them while her children bunked on the floor. She fed them, cared for them, helped them navigate their new world. (Rosario now lives in Warwick.)

“I lived at Fefa’s house for three months. We shared food. She gave me the history of how people came to America,” Marcano said, including the dozens of Dominicans she sponsored to the U.S. Rosario also passed on the wisdom she gained as the owner of Fefa’s Market, formerly on Broad Street across from Roger Williams Park.

“She was one of the top people who inspired me to go into business,” Marcano said.

He also met other Venezuelans, many of whom settled in Central Falls, and with whom he maintains ties.

While running on Blackstone Boulevard in Providence one day, Marcano met a contractor, who hired him to paint houses in upscale neighborhoods in exchange for training.

“I learned all the particulars” of quality painting, he said, from prep work to products. He learned about Rhode Island business regulations, licenses, permits and insurance.

Meanwhile, Marcano learned English, and later earned a certificate in international business from what was then Bryant College.

He built his company, JM Painting & Plastering in Cranston, from a one-man shop to nearly two dozen employees at its peak. The tanked economy and a financial loss suffered when a developer failed to pay him forced him to lay off some workers. JM was awarded “Hispanic Business of the Year” by the Rhode Island Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in 2007.

He and his girlfriend, Ingrid Lima, have recently taken over The Water’s Edge Café on Broad Street in Pawtuxet Village, a cheerful pastry and coffee shop with raspberry-colored walls.

Last June, Marcano became a U.S. citizen.

“I cried,” Marcano said, “because my dream came true in this country.” Inside

• A look at how some of Rhode Island’s largest ethnic groups got here.

•Maps showing where some of the groups live.

•We also ask some prominent Rhode Islanders whether they prefer the term “Hispanic” or “Latino.” A10, 11

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