In the 9th Ward, standing along the Mississippi River, Ana and Juan Gershanik helped to express the city’s gratitude in bronze.
Within the sculpture, Monument to the Immigrant Workers of the Katrina Reconstruction, three construction workers, two men and a woman, lean into their labor.
The Gershaniks, who emigrated from Argentina in the mid-1960s, came home to a flooded New Orleans after Katrina and witnessed the city’s miraculous comeback. “We were able to come back to our homes because Latino immigrants took the risks to rebuild them,” Ana Gershanik said. “Every family I know had immigrant construction workers who were Latino. We owe them so much.
With “Operation Catahoula Crunch” underway—in Jefferson Parish suburbs, St. Tammany Parish, and now in Baton Rouge— staff from The Lens drove through New Orleans, chronicling worries and preparations, and gathering an appreciation for our port city’s unique perspectives on immigration…