As of 2016<\/a>, only Mexico and Germany had more foreign-born residents in Greenville than Colombia\u2019s 619, and Kearns, a native of Colombia herself, simply wanted to know why.<\/p>\n Sofia Kearns, front left, and Ingrid Ramos \u201920, front right, pose with research project supporters, from left, associate professor of Spanish Stephanie Knouse, director of undergraduate research Erik Ching, executive director for community-engaged learning Mike Winiski and professor of Spanish Linda Barlett<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cWhen I came to Furman 24 years ago, I heard that there was a very big Colombian population here. Then I heard they were connected to the textile industry\u201d she said. \u201cThis last spring, talking with (executive director for community-engaged learning) Mike Winiski and (Furman director of undergraduate research) Erik Ching, I said \u2018I really want to do something with this. Would you support me?\u2019 And they said absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n But she couldn\u2019t do it alone, and this wasn\u2019t a project for any undergraduate researcher. It was exactly the project for Ramos, however.<\/p>\n \u201cI was super excited. I was a freshman trying to figure lots of things out, but if you get an opportunity you don\u2019t miss it,\u201d Ramos, a Greenville native, said. \u201cMy goal is to work with Hispanics in the future, in any way, just to participate and know more about them. This was a perfect mixture for me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIngrid came highly recommended to me by two colleagues, but I wasn\u2019t really sure about her because she was so young. Usually for these projects we want seniors,\u201d Kearns said. \u201cSo I thought, \u2018OK, let\u2019s see how it goes.\u2019 And it turns out it was absolutely wonderful, because she\u2019s Hispanic but from another group. She\u2019s of Mexican origin, so her perspective and mine\u2013we have to put them together and learn from each other.\u201d<\/p>\n The two spent much of the summer driving around the Greenville area, often to Simpsonville, to video record interviews that sometimes were more than an hour long.<\/p>\n \u201cIngrid would set up the camera. We used some of the questions, but the most important thing was allowing the person to tell their own story,\u201d Kearns said.<\/p>\n Like many of his countrymen, Tob\u00f3n was recruited to help American companies revive their dying mills. Eventually dubbing themselves \u201clos pioneros\u201d\u2014the pioneers\u2014 they were expert weavers and loom technicians, and those skills made them a bit of a hot commodity.<\/p>\n Tob\u00f3n worked first in Rhode Island before moving to Greenville to take a job at the largest textile mill under one roof in the world<\/a>, the Woodside mill, where he stayed for 18 years until it closed. He went on to work for more 16 more years at two other mills in the Upstate until they, too, were shuttered.<\/p>\n Los pioneros stayed because they made far more money than they would have made back home, but not without tradeoffs. Families were often separated for years, and they lived in social isolation compounded by language barriers, racism and fear of deportation until most achieved citizenship in 1986 thanks to the Immigration Reform and Control Act<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce they were here they were given a visa for one year. When that was up, (the\u00a0companies) said \u2018there\u2019s plenty of work for you,\u2019 but they didn\u2019t do anything about their visas,\u201d Kearns said. \u201cThey did get overtime pay. That\u2019s how some of them actually made quite a bit of money. Sometimes they didn\u2019t want to work overtime, and the director would come and knock on their door on a Saturday morning and say, \u2018we need people.’\u201d<\/p>\n The overtime was lucrative, but it added another barrier to integrating into society. No free time and never being around anyone but each other made learning English difficult. It also turned seemingly simple things like vending machines into vexing challenges.<\/p>\n \u201cThey wanted to learn English, but they worked so many hours they\u2019d fall asleep in class and finally said \u2018forget it,\u2019\u201d Kearns said. \u201cWe heard many funny stories of linguistic confusion. Due to total lack of experience with vending machines, they were afraid to use them. One day someone went to the machine to try to get a coke and saw the word \u2018dime.\u2019 Because this word means \u2018tell me\u2019 in Spanish, this person got close to the machine and told it in Spanish that he wanted a coke.\u201d<\/p>\n The Colombians are still are much more comfortable communicating in Spanish. Ramos being bi-lingual was critical to the project.<\/p>\n \u201cI have this perspective of what life in Greenville is like and the hardships that my community faces, so I wanted to learn the perspective of another Hispanic group,\u201d she said. \u201cA lot of the stories they told about not being able to understand or feeling like they were isolated, I related to that from having a Mexican perspective. There\u2019s a lot of differences, but sometimes both communities don\u2019t acknowledge how similar the history is.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Sofia](\"https:\/\/news.furman.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/DSCN7295FurmanSponsors.jpg\")