Bridging Divide Between Cultures Long Separated

Seventeen years ago, when Maritza Guichay first moved here from Cuenca, Ecuador, she spoke not a word of English.

She recalls a segregated East Hampton Middle and High School, with Spanish-speaking students largely cordoned off from their English-speaking counterparts. 

“Not knowing the language, it was a big clash. I felt like an outsider,” said Ms. Guichay. “It wasn’t easy to adapt.”

In 1999, the year that Ms. Guichay arrived, East Hampton High School was 75 percent white, according to the 1998-99 New York State Report Card. By 2014-15, enrollment was 50 percent white, 43 percent Latino, 4 percent black, and 2 percent Asian.

Over the past two decades, the Town of East Hampton has witnessed a similar transformation.

Now 29, Ms. Guichay hopes to serve as a voice for the growing Latino population long removed from local government. She co-chairs the Town of East Hampton’s newly formed Latino advisory committee.

Last month, the East Hampton Town Board appointed a 10-person committee, comprised of six women and four men, with Ms. Guichay and Angela Quintero, a 44-year-old businesswoman from Colombia, serving as its co-chairwomen. 

Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell described Ms. Guichay, who first approached him last fall about ways of working with the Latino community, as a “tremendous asset.”

“The schools have done a much better job of communicating and integrating with the Latino community than the town has,” Mr. Cantwell conceded. For instance, the East Hampton School District first hired a Spanish-speaking community liaison in 2012. As of mid-January, school board meetings have been simultaneously translated into Spanish, with a translator available should attendees wish to make public comments.

Going forward, the aim is to make East Hampton Town more welcoming, too, despite the language barrier. Over the coming year, the committee will convene a series of workshops for Spanish-speaking residents, beginning on Friday, March 18, at 6:30 p.m., when it sponsors a workshop on the new rental registry and possible implications for the Latino community. Town employees and committee members will serve as translators.

Future workshops will address topics related to affordable housing, recreation, law enforcement, and justice court.

“It’s going to involve two-way communication, to educate a significant portion of the population, and also listen to their concerns so we can work together,” said Mr. Cantwell.

Oswaldo Palomo, a pastor with the Vida Abundante New York church in Wainscott, also serves on the committee. He sees himself as an elder, with Ms. Guichay as part of a new generation of “well-educated, bilingual leaders coming of age.”

Ms. Guichay, he said, is a bridge between two cultures long kept separate, despite living and working in close proximity. “It’s fine to keep our customs and our culture, but someone has to also explain our rights and our obligations,” said Mr. Palomo, a native of Costa Rica.

Faced with limited economic mobility in their native Ecuador, and three young children to look after, the Guichay family first moved to Springs in 1999, with Jose Ricardo Guichay, her father, later opening his own building company. Ilda Guichay, her mother, works as a cook for local families and caters private events.

Growing up, both parents stressed the importance of a college degree. After graduating from East Hampton High School, Ms. Guichay secured a partial scholarship to Suffolk County Community College. In 2010, she graduated from Stony Brook University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration.

Her brother graduated from the New York Institute of Technology, where he studied architecture. He now works as an architect-in-training at the Farrell Building Company in Bridgehampton. Her older sister is studying osteopathic medicine at N.Y.I.T. Her younger sister attends East Hampton Middle School.

After college, Ms. Guichay worked for what was formerly Classic Party Rentals in Water Mill, first as a secretary and later an assistant operations manager, based in New Jersey. From there she moved to Manhattan, working as a controller at a private home-schooling company. While living in Queens, she became more politically active and joined Organización Juventud Ecuatoriana, a New York nonprofit founded by young Ecuadorians living in the U.S.

Two years ago, she decided to return to the South Fork and now works as a controller at Plum Builders in East Hampton. Since moving back, she has connected with several members of the Latino community and successfully organized her first leadership conference in Bridgehampton. Late last fall, at the urging of Mr. Cantwell and other Democratic leaders, the Latino advisory committee began taking shape, one member at a time.

“It’s going to be a big job. Not that many people want to get politically involved, but we need to start the conversation. We need information, in our own language, to know our rights and understand the laws, the norms, and responsibilities as East Hampton Town residents,” Ms. Guichay said during a conversation last week. “As Latinos from different countries living together, we need to integrate, learn, and respect the different cultures while also keeping our own identities. We may speak the same language, but we have different traditions.”

Time is of the essence. “Our community is the one that works full time in the summer,” she said. “Even if they have the time, they won’t have the energy.” As such, fall, winter, and early spring will be dedicated to concentrated outreach.

So far, the unpaid position has been more time-consuming than she expected. Besides committee meetings every third Monday of the month, Ms. Guichay meets two to three times each week with various individuals and organizations in other parts of Long Island, many of whom are eager to bring similar advisory committees to their communities. 

Talk quickly turned to political office.

“I’ve never really been interested in running for office, but I may consider it,” said Ms. Guichay, who, for now, is content with chairing the new committee and eager to witness its impact. “I’ve always felt that I wanted to give back.”