ATLANTIC CITY — Being the first-born children of Mexican immigrants, and a first-generation Mexican immigrant, is what gave Cristian, Irvin and Victor Moreno the motivation to make life better for the local Hispanic community.

Through their individual efforts — like Cristian Moreno’s role as executive director of El Pueblo Unido, which the Moreno family formed in 2019; Irvin Moreno’s run for Pleasantville City Council; and Victor Moreno’s work at Atlantic Cape Community College — the Moreno family is striving to improve the quality of life for Hispanics on multiple levels.

By working together, the Moreno “brothers” (Victor Moreno is actually Cristian and Irvin’s uncle, but they all consider themselves siblings because they were raised together) make an effort to fill a gap in immigrant services to the community.

“No one’s fighting for us. It doesn’t feel like there’s an organization for the pueblo, by the pueblo, for the people like us,” said Cristian Moreno, 28. “So, we actually said let’s do something, let’s form an organization that’s more grassroots in nature. Like more working-class oriented, more hands on, and solely focused on justice and dignity.”

Irvin Moreno said Cristian’s philosophy is “marching and raising up their arms,” “protesting right away” and taking action at a moment’s notice, such as helping families displaced by fires, or advocating for justice in the case of Irving Mayren-Guzman’s death last year.

Mayren-Guzman, 19, of Egg Harbor Township, went missing in January 2021 after going to a Pleasantville strip club. He was found dead in the marshes just feet away from the club a few days later. As authorities investigated, eventually charging three men with aggravated assault, Cristian Moreno was instrumental in organizing marches, gatherings and rallies focused on justice for the young man.

Irvin Moreno, 29, has been assistant director of the Sara and Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center at Stockton University since 2019, as well as a member of the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education the past two years.

“He’s the one that’s good with filing paperwork, getting in touch with resources,” said Victor Moreno, who added Irvin was also the family’s “voice of wisdom.”

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Victor Moreno, 35, has been working at Atlantic Cape for 16 years. He currently holds the title of senior manager of special projects for its Department of Student Affairs.

His focus is on making sure the voices of the Latino community are heard and considered.

“I think in general, the Latino community is very underrepresented,” said Victor Moreno, an Atlantic City resident.

From 1990 to 2021, the percentage of foreign-born citizens in New Jersey has almost doubled from 12.5% to 23%, according to state immigration data collected by the Migration Policy Institute.

In Atlantic City, the Hispanic-Latino community makes up 31.6% of the population and is the second largest demographic in the city. That’s higher than the county and state’s percentage of roughly 21%, according to census data.

El Pueblo Unido has advocated for reform on immigrant justice issues since 2017. The nonprofit’s first major event was rallying at the Statehouse in Trenton for undocumented immigrants’ right to get a driver license, which the state passed into law Dec. 19, 2019.

Since then, El Pueblo Unido has held multiple events for the Latino community at bodegas like La Cosecha in Pleasantville and La Villita in Atlantic City, and churches like Our Lady Star of the Sea and the Parish of St. Monica’s, both in Atlantic City.

The group also organizes food distribution events, English as a second language instruction, voter registration, information sessions for NJ Dreamers, health insurance information and student aid assistance.

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Collaborating with Atlantic Cape and Stockton, as well as local organizations like the Hispanic Association of Atlantic County, and through grant funding from Thrive AC and the Atlantic City Community Fund, the group has made strides.

“The Moreno family is invaluable to the community,” said Bert Lopez, president of the Hispanic Association, adding the Morenos have served on the associaton’s board. “They’ve been a great asset to Atlantic City and Atlantic County.”

Lopez started his initial work with the family through their dad (and Victor’s oldest brother), Nefaki Moreno. Their early efforts focused on bringing folkloric dance and music to schools.

To this day, the Hispanic Association continues to work with Nefaki Moreno through the nonprofit he founded in 2010, Organización Azteca.

“Nefaki has always been involved with spreading knowledge of his Mexican culture and heritage to the community,” Lopez said.

Nefaki Moreno recognized these needs from his own struggles when he immigrated to Atlantic City from Putla, a city in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, more than 30 years ago.

“In the ‘90s, there was a lot of work,” said Nefaki Moreno about the boom in jobs from Atlantic City’s casino industry.

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“The first years are always the hardest because you leave your family, friends, kids — the food — just to start a new life,” said Nefaki Moreno. “The language barrier is the biggest struggle you have to overcome, because you need to know English to find a job and communicate with people.”

Nefaki’s arrival led to a form of chain migration that opened the door to other family members, like his brother Victor, as well as other people from their small village in Oaxaca. One of those others was Maria Rodriguez, who became Nefaki’s wife after they met in Atlantic City (they didn’t know each other in Mexico).

The desire to help improve their community was a torch Nefaki Moreno passed down to his sons, Cristian and Irvin, and to Victor.

All of them believe there’s more work to be done.

At the moment, that includes creating a community survey with Stockton that would help them address the needs of the local Hispanic community more effectively.

In the future, the Moreno family would like to have a brick-and-mortar building for El Pueblo Unido, which could act as a multipurpose community center.

And Irvin Moreno might try again to run as an elected official since he only lost in his Democratic ward primary by about 32 votes. But that’s “if the people call for it,” he said.

“For a long time, it feels like we’ve only been putting out fires,” said Irvin Moreno. “So we want to go from reactive to proactive, and sort of get down to the root cause of these issues and figure out the best way to manage our time, our resources and now with this funding, our grants and our money.”