Ibrain Marquez-Pacheco knows exactly why he came to Reading: the low cost of living.
“He’s seen that poor people can survive here,” said Luz Mendez, who was translating on Thursday for the 73-year-old man originally from Cuba. “For him, this is like any other city he can go to, but here he can live and survive.”
Marquez-Pacheco was one of several hundred Hispanics who were having their daily lunch at the Daniel Torres Hispanic Center’s senior center at Fifth and Washington streets, where Mendez is a case manager.
Marquez-Pacheco is also one of tens of thousands of Hispanics who came to Berks since the 2000 Census.