Immigrants grow small towns

Perception: Small communities dying. Reality: Many growing thanks to immigrants

It’s lunch, and Rosa Brambila rings up an order of enchiladas and rice for a man from Guatemala. She pours a beer for a woman from Nicaragua, then brings out a burrito for the town’s only newspaper reporter.

On the TV behind the bar, sportscasters run through soccer highlights in rapid Spanish. Taylor Swift blares over the restaurant speakers as Brambila’s gaggle of grandkids dance among empty tables. They spend their summer days with Grandma at “the big yellow house” – their name for La Michoacana, the restaurant Brambila has run in this northeast Nebraska town for the past 25 years.