"It just breaks my heart the risk they take every day," Yapias said. "These people are very humble people. They are hard-working, loyal people."

Yapias is a naturalized citizen. His father was a shepherd who moved to Wyoming to work for Union Pacific in 1974. In 1981, Yapias joined his father at age 14. He spoke no English.

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Archie Archuleta

When Archie Archuleta was a teenager in Idaho, an experience at a segregated movie theater sparked a lifelong interest in civil rights.

His mother was told to go to the left side of a movie theater. She asked, "Are there no seats on the right?" They walked past the confused attendant and sat on the white side of the theater.

Since he moved to Utah in 1953, Archuleta has been involved in various civil-rights organizations in Utah, starting with the NAACP. He is chairman of the Utah Coalition of La Raza.

Archuleta, a retired Salt Lake School District educator and administrator, said when he was teaching, "People would say things like, 'Don't you think so, senor?' That's like saying 'What do you think, chief?'"

Archuleta, who worked in the Salt Lake mayor's office for four years, says his mestizo heritage, traced back to Colonial times, is Spanish, Mexican and American. His dad moved to New Mexico before it became a state.

Being Hispanic, he says, is sometimes looked at as "strange, different, unpatriotic."

"Our heritage is reinforced every day by the influx across the border," he said. "Our custom never dies, neither does our language. But we do assimilate. We keep our customs, as well. We keep the best of both worlds."

When he moved here in 1953, Archuleta says anti-immigrant sentiment was low. He believes he may have been the third Hispanic family to move into his Glendale Park neighborhood. Everyone else was white. Today fewer than half of those in his neighborhood are white.

"People woke up and suddenly saw brown faces," he said. "There were signs in Spanish. There was a lot of fear. It translated to — they didn't know the people."