Steel and Identity: Mexicans and Puerto Ricans in Lorain, OH

The recruited Puerto Rican workers and their families had a difficult time building a community in South Lorain.  The number of Puerto Ricans skyrocketed in the area.  (Note the maps above).  By 1951, after the inital recruitment process in 1948,  the National Tube Company refused to hire any more Puerto Ricans, claiming a language barrier.  The city and state even advertised in Puerto Rican newspapers that Lorain was unable to absord any more Puerto Rican labor. Even a Mayor's Committee on Puerto Rican affairs was establbished in 1950. 

Nonetheless, the Neighborhood House Association began a series of workshops for Puerto Ricans targeting their language, driving habits, housing, and health.  

According to a "Report to the Community Welfare Council on the Puerto Ricans in Lorain, Ohio" by George Haley in 1952, a divide existed between the Mexican and Puerto Rican communities:

"It is strange that there is no close connectio nbetween the Mexican and Puerto Rican colonies.  There is every reason for a close relationship to exist: they speak the same language and have a similar cultural heritage.  Yet it is not difficult to find reasons for the distance kept between them.  The Mexicans have lived here longer and have had more time to adjust to our community. Even during the days of more intensive migration, they came in smaller numbers than the Puerto Ricans.  They were therefore more easily assimilated.  By now, they feel they are part of the 'old guard.' They consider the Puerto Ricans to be boisterous upstarts who are endangering the postion of the Mexicans in the community.  They fear that the general public might classify any Spanish speaking person as a Puerto Rican.  This is undesirable because of the bad reputation of the Puerto Ricans...There is another reason for the distance maintained between the two colonies.  The Puerto Ricans are citizens of the United States, while the Mexicans came here as immigrants subject to naturalizatio nlaws.  A certain amount of jealousy exists because of this, and it is often aggravated by the Puerto Rican who points out this difference too loudly in a bar." (Haley, 5-6)

What does the above author, George Haley, mean by "our community?" Who might have been the audience (included in the welfare council)?