Emporia ? Gil Solis came to the United States from Mexico in 1910, settling in this city’s “La Colonia” neighborhood with other immigrants who worked on the railroad.

For the most part, his grandson said, Gil demanded that his kids and grandkids assimilate in the new country.

“My grandpa said, ‘You’re in America, you’ve got to be American,'” said Phil Solis, 65, a third-generation Emporia resident.

Even though his connections to Mexico are long in the family’s past, Phil Solis attended Monday’s “A Day Without Immigrants” rally at the Lyon County Fairgrounds, joining hundreds of more recent arrivals to America in protesting against proposed new restrictions.

“I love them,” Solis said of the immigrants.

Solis is one of hundreds of Hispanics in Emporia whose families have long been settled in the United States. And like their “Anglo” neighbors, they’re trying to figure out how to deal with the newest wave of immigration – sometimes reconnecting to their heritage in the process.

Armida Martinez has been learning Spanish to help her in her job as a “migrant recruiter” for the Emporia school district.

“We weren’t allowed to speak Spanish,” she said of her upbringing in Emporia. “We lost the little Spanish we had.”

But her family background gives her sympathy to illegal immigrants, Martinez said.

“I know that probably my grandpa came that way,” she said. “We all came from immigrants.”

At the Emporia Police Department, there are two Latino officers – including Deputy Chief Mike Lopez – but Chief Mike Heffron said that’s not enough to work with new immigrants.

“They’re both American boys,” Heffron said. “I don’t know that they can relate to immigrants, legal or illegal.”

Solis suggested that Emporia’s older guard is proof that immigrants will eventually assimilate into their new home.

“You see those kids? They’re not going back. They’re too spoiled here,” Solis said, looking out over the demonstrators on Monday. “These kids are going to be Americanized.”