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Willmar changes before the eyes of a journalist PDF Print E-mail
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Written by Oscar Bohorquez and Marian Sanchez   
Wednesday, 03 February 2010 11:34

A passion for writing led Gregg Aamot to discover a vocation for a new journalism in the world, referred as to social journalism. More than 20 years researching, understanding and creating collective awareness about the trends and transformations that immigration waves have had from the days when the first Norwegians, Danes, Germans and Swedish immigrants among others came to Willmar and Minnesota for the first time.


Gregg’s interest for immigrant communities starts on his own family at an early age; he wondered how would have been the arrival of his Danish and Norwegian grandparents and Great grandparents to Minnesota. A passion that eventually becomes a vocation when, as a newspaper reporter for the West Central Tribune in 1992 decided to undertake the problematic faced back then, by  a large segment of the Latino population in the houses of Elm Lane. "The situation was critical; the mobile homes where they lived were very poor; we had conversations with the owner of the trailer park, aiming to improve the housing conditions. It was a very difficult time, I had interpreters while visiting the trailers, which gave us a better understanding of the community needs; I wrote and reported the conditions experienced by this neighborhood of Willmar "says Gregg.


For 10 years Gregg focused his writings on political refugees and immigrants, knowledge that gave him the chance to meet and interact with other cultures. With the passing of the years, the author had written extensively about the new comers and their life experiences. By the time he was working as an AP reporter he had the change of travelling to Brazil, Guatemala and the Middle East among others. The important material he had gathered trough the years were significant pieces of history. One of his colleagues mentioned the possibility of having these experiences written in a Book, a complex undertaking though, which gave birth to a master piece “The new Minnesotans”; an enlightening book about the immigration cycles of American history and the magnificent stories of the people who were part if it.

 The New Minnesotans explores many cultural aspects of the Hmong, Somali, Ethiopian, Latin, Burmese, Togolese, Iranian and Iberian communities. After this long journey, at some point of his life Gregg longed for coming back to his natal Willmar. It was thus, he returned home with his wife Jeanne and their now four year son Manny who was born in Guatemala.

From the perspective of this talented journalist "Willmar has done an excellent job assimilating other cultures, “when I go to the games I see Latinos, Anglos and Somali playing sports together, I see that there is interaction, not perfect yet, but I know that in the course of time people will make a greater effort to learn about other cultures and interact with each other, "says GreggGregg is currently a professor of journalism, culture and media at Ridgewater College and continued working for other print media. He is also the author of several articles and publications. Definitively, his book The New Minnesotans is a reflection of our past, present and future of our next generations.

"As a journalist I think is fascinating to meet people from other countries and sit with them, learn their stories, develop a relationship in order to explain that to people, to tell my stories is a privilege." Gregg says

 

Last Updated ( Monday, 08 February 2010 17:20 )
 

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