Alma Contreras remembers how hard it was to connect with people in rural western Minnesota when she came from Mexico 16 years ago after her husband was hired by a large local dairy operation.

Those memories drive her to help other immigrants coming to the region. She volunteered for years to help other new arrivals navigate life in America, from understanding the school or medical system to getting registration tabs at the motor vehicle department.

She works now as associate director for Conexiones, a nonprofit based in nearby Morris that helps build ties between residents and new immigrants in Swift and Stevens counties. She takes that commitment a step further in her job as a full-time paraprofessional in the Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg schools.

“I feel like in the beginning, when I arrive here, I don’t have a lot of support. I have to learn on my own,” she recalled during a recent evening as about a dozen mostly Mexican families gathered in the Kerkhoven school gymnasium for a family fun night put on by Conexiones. 

Conexiones offers a variety of classes from finance to winter survival. But on this night the goal was simply to have fun and build ties that might lead to deeper relationships in the future.

As the kids tossed balloons, shot baskets and kicked soccer balls parents watched and mingled. Contreras, 40, moved among them like the straw stirring a drink. Everyone knows her and they know if they have a problem she can help find an answer.

“For the families who have that support in the beginning, it kind of gives them confidence,” she said. “We [Conexiones] give them that confidence that if they need it, we will help them.”

Conexiones doesn’t get involved in immigrant legal issues but works to help new arrivals “feel like this is their home,” said Autumn Macias, the group’s executive director.

People who came here on a work visa planning to stay a couple of years are now settled in the community, she added. “I think a lot of people are putting down roots and are really becoming part of the community and don’t intend to go back to their home countries.”

The U.S. Census Bureau says Hispanic people make up 7 percent of the population of Swift County and 12 percent of Stevens County. Macias believes the Hispanic population is significantly undercounted.

Enrollment data from the Minnesota Department of Education for 2025 shows Hispanic students make up 18.5 percent of the student population in Stevens County and 14 percent in Swift County. 

‘Afraid of what we don’t know’

Contreras is one of those immigrants who put down roots in the town of Murdock. After 16 years, she’s a United States citizen and proud to call this small town home.

“I like that it’s a small town, and I really love the school, because my kids went here to school. And I feel like it’s a good place to raise kids. It’s quiet and peaceful and I like the people. I don’t feel like a stranger here,” she said. “I know almost everybody, and almost everybody knows me.”

But right now, though, as immigration politics roil the country there’s fear of upheaval in these small towns.

“We are afraid of what we don’t know, because we don’t know what could happen,” said Contreras.

Even people here with proper documents are feeling stressed.

“We are more afraid of doing things wrong,” said Contreras explaining how people constantly check to make sure all the lights work on their vehicle and that they carefully follow the laws. “You are always stressed for that. You’re always taking care of everything to make sure that you are being a good citizen.”

Macias, 28, notes that immigrant workers fill jobs in agriculture and manufacturing and then companies are actively recruiting people in Mexico to come here. “I don’t know where our communities would be if we didn’t have the immigrant community here.”

The number of new arrivals has recently slowed to a trickle, but Conexiones plans to keep building bridges. It’s often as simple as getting to know your neighbor.

“If I have a neighbor who’s from Mexico and I bring them over an apple pie, and we start that connection, and they bring me over some tamales,” said Macias. “I feel like knowing someone on a personal level can change how you feel on a broader level. So they’re not just ‘those Mexicans’. It’s like, ‘that’s my Mexican neighbor, and she’s a good person’."

Contreras fields a lot of texts and calls with questions at all hours, but she doesn’t mind because she feels the work is building a stronger, more connected community, and people know Conexiones will try to find an answer.

“We don’t have all the answers,” she added, “but we will try to look for it and give them the connection to the resource that they need.”

Collected from Minnesota Public Radio News. View original source here.