"In the latest twist to the demographic transformation of New Orleans since it was swamped by Hurricane Katrina last year, hundreds of babies are being born to Latino immigrant workers, both legal and illegal, who flocked to the city to toil on its reconstruction.
The throng of babies gurgling in the handful of operational maternity wards here has come as a big surprise — and a financial strain — to this historically black and white city, which before the hurricane had only a small Latino community and virtually no experience of illegal immigration.
'Of all the myriad things that have changed after Katrina, this wasn't high on anybody's priority list,' said Dr. Mark Peters, chief executive of East Jefferson General Hospital in Metairie."
Hey, N.O. was Spanish before it was French, before it was American. Full circle.
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