At the beginning of the year, a group by the name of Unidos Somos Mas (United We Are More) was formed in the Darlington area in order to look at some of the larger issues facing the Hispanic community.
    “The goal of this group is to have Hispanics dealing with Hispanic issues, proactively,” said Tony Ruesga, organizer of the group.
    The group is made up of leaders in the Hispanic community that plan to tackle the job of resolving the Hispanic community’s issues, and then hopefully begin to eventually contribute more to the overall Darlington community as a whole.
    Ruesga identified the three biggest issues that the group has decided to focus on initially as: immigration & identification, learning English and healthcare.
    So far the group has been organizing group trips to the Mexican and Honduran consulates in order to get local Hispanics properly identified. The trip is free of charge to anyone wishing to be included, although contributions for gas are appreciated. Thus far, the group has trips set up for March 23 and 26.
    The group also set up a meeting at the end of February

with an immigration lawyer present, so any individuals with questions about immigration or how to follow the process, could learn more.
The group is also working on establishing local classes for individuals to learn English and is currently trying to find a location to hold the classes, as well as volunteers.
    On the healthcare topic, Ruesga said the group has been largely in support of the free clinic coming to Darlington, which became available starting Feb. 18.
    “With this group, we just want to give Hispanic people a voice and have them deal with their own issues and also eventually the problems of the community as a whole,” explained Ruesga. “It’s just another way to bridge the gap.”