"It was awful, horrible," remembers Hertzfelt. "They wouldn't accept just anybody, and I was Hispanic."
Now Hertzfelt serves as a matron for Latinos from near and far, fielding inquiries and pleas for help when they come to her for translations, questions about getting social services and ways to resolve disputes with employers. One afternoon, she held up a claim for $750 in unpaid wages that she was helping a man obtain.
She feels equally at home with the Greek and other residents of the community, power walking down Eastern Avenue and waving and hugging business owners, Greek and Latino alike.
"Hola, hola!" she calls into the Acropolis restaurant.
Dimitrios Augerinos is the owner. He lived in Greektown for 15 years before moving to Perry Hall. "This was the best town," he says. "The people, we try to keep it up."
Hertzfelt says interaction between Hispanics and Greeks is just starting. "It's very important for both sides," she says. "This is the beginning."
Residents say Greeks live primarily in the eastern end of the area, and Latinos keep to the western end.
"I don't know them; they don't live next to me," Helen Johns, 75, a longtime Greek resident, says of the Latinos. "If they say, 'Good morning,' I say, "Good morning.' "
A first-generation Greek-American, Johns says many Greeks remain despite the influx of Latinos. She still loves the area, but she said, "the newer immigrants aren't that attuned to learning English or to abiding by sanitation laws, and they attribute that to language problems."
Johns said she doesn't fault the immigrants who aren't legal for coming to the United States. Rather, she blames the government for allowing it. "I don't blame them for wanting a better life," she says.
Some say the inevitable clash of cultures exists, subtle or not. There are complaints about trash and worries about gangs such as MS-13.
"It's not great between the Greeks and Hispanics," said Todd Bonicker, 35, who is the founder of the Greater Greektown Neighborhood Alliance. "I've heard more times than I care to remember Greeks consistently calling the Hispanics, 'those people.' "
"It's odd coming from an immigrant population who should be the first ones to understand how great it is to be the first generation of a family making their way in a new country," said Bonicker, who is neither Greek nor Latino but whose wife is Greek-American.
