This photograph was also made in 2012, when I began documenting signs of the growing Hispanic population around Beards Creek. The colors of the Mexican flag were painted on this store building and a sign for a nearby Hispanic church is also visible.
When I made this photograph in 2012, the Beards Creek neighborhood was well on its way to becoming a center of the hard-working Hispanic community of Tattnall County. Though located in northern Long County, unincorporated Beards Creek is home to many of the people who make Tattnall County’s Vidalia Onion business possible. La Cueva de Aguila, the Cave of the Eagle or Eagle’s Cave, is no longer in business, but there are other restaurants and churches in the area catering to the growing Hispanic population.
The old Methodist church is presently home to Iglesia Metodista El Buen Samaritano [Good Samaritan Methodist Church]. I’m glad to see this continued use of the church. I hope its architectural integrity is preserved.
An earlier church building was originally located at the nearby cemetery site. This property was purchased in 1888 and the present church constructed at that time. It was turned southward from its original orientation in 1950.
The church has been nicely remodeled since I made this photograph.
On South Georgia’s few remaining tobacco farms, much of the work is still done by hand, and mostly by Latin American migrant laborers. They do the hardest work in agriculture, and, politics aside, are essential to its survival.
