Monday, May 27, 2013

'Part Of The Community': Oklahoma's Latinos Rebuild After Tornado : Code Switch : NPR

'Part Of The Community': Oklahoma's Latinos Rebuild After Tornado : Code Switch : NPR: Pastor Chano Najera calls out T-shirt sizes in Spanglish to volunteers waiting for their uniforms.

It's easy to spot Najera in this crowd — just look for the cowboy hat. He preaches in Spanish at Templo De Alabanza in Oklahoma City. On this morning, though, he's wrangling a group of young Latino volunteers as they wheel cases of water bottles onto trucks headed for Moore, Okla., where an EF-5 tornado ripped through neighborhoods last week, but spared Najera's home.

Najera was born in Mexico and has lived in Oklahoma for more than three decades — long enough to know which tornado tips are especially worth preaching: "Go buy a safe box!" he says. "Keep the most important papers and documents and whatever they have in the safe box."

Then, he says, find a space under the floor board of your home and "bury it."