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Al Día Today
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| A group of children playing in the park in Sunrise Village.
Actually, the park is administered by Beverley Peterson, mother of Doug Peterson, one of the owners of Riverstone. |
By Rolanda Gallop
For Día Today
COCOA – On most evenings, just before the sun dips
down for the day, Samantha Paz-Mañon and her husband, Carlos,
will go for a short walk through their neighborhood.
“It’s our time to relax and we really enjoy it. Sometimes
we see people we know and wave, or maybe even stop and
talk for a few minutes,” said Paz-Mañon, whose family moved
to Sunrise Village Park some 10 months ago.
Also along their walk, the Mañons may see children
playing games with each other in the park’s narrow streets, or
adults – from Mexicans to Puerto Ricans, whites and blacks –
sitting on their front lawns talking and laughing.
“There is a sense of community here. You can feel it in
the atmosphere and see it in the people,” Paz-Mañon said.
And that’s the beauty of Sunrise Village, a 420-plus mobile
home park that boasts a culturally diverse population of
residents, many of whom have developed bonds that stretch
across ethnic and racial lines.
The park, located east of Clearlake Road and a few
blocks south of Brevard Community College’s Cocoa campus,
has been in existence for more than three decades. However, it
has only been within the last 10 years that Sunrise Village has
seen the number of Latino residents increase substantially.
Complete Story
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Multicultural
