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For Latino immigrants, money transfers to homelands are a regular living expense
Local workers support family members with money earned in Gainesville industries
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Salvador Reyes, owner of the Los Alacranes bodega in Gainesville, said some 50 to 60 Latino immigrants come in weekly to send money to family in their native countries. Guatemala is the destination for most remittances sent from his grocery, Reyes said, with Mexico the second most common country.
When nightfall comes, the door chime at the bodega rings and rings as Latino immigrants from the local barrio enter. Many are men in their 20s, 30s and 40s, stopping by the neighborhood grocery on the way home from a hard day’s work at construction sites or poultry plants. The shelves at Tienda Los Alacranes are lined with equal part snacks and staples, the refrigerators with cerveza and the cashier’s counter with lotto tickets, headache medicine and other last-second buys.