1525 Spanish explorer Estevan Gomes passes by and notes the mouth of Delaware Bay. Slave trader Pedro de Quejo’s expedition reaches the entrance of Delaware Bay and lands on the Delmarva Peninsula.
1639 The first African on the Delaware, Anthony Swart, is brought from the Caribbean to Fort Christina.
1763-1767 Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon survey the line later named after them to resolve a border dispute between William Penn and Lord Baltimore that had lasted for almost 100 years.
1950s Puerto Rican contract laborers arrive in Delaware to follow employment opportunities in agriculture and industry.
1961 The Puerto Rican Association meets in the basement of Saint Paul’s Roman Catholic Church, in Wilmington.
1969 The Latin American Community Center (LACC) is founded by a group of Puerto Ricans.
1970 The state population is 548,104 people, of whom 4,820 are Latinos. LACC’s La Fiesta child care center opens in Wilmington.
1977 The Delaware and Pennsylvania Advisory Committees to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights publish The Working and Living Conditions of Mushroom Workers, a report on the mushroom industry in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and New Castle County, Delaware.
1980 The state population is 594,338 people, of whom 9,540 are Latinos.
1985 Governor’s Advisory Council on Hispanic Affairs (GACHA) is formed by an executive order signed by Governor Michael Castle.
1990 The state population is 666,168 people, of whom 15,510 are Latinos.
1995 An executive order is reissued by Governor Thomas R. Carper to continue the Governor’s Advisory Council on Hispanic Affairs (GACHA).
2000 The state population is 783,600 people, of whom 37,321 are Latinos.
2002 LACC receives a 3-year JUMP mentoring grant totaling $220,000. LACC receives a 5-year, $1.3 million federal education grant (administered by the State Department of Education) under the auspices of the Leave No Child Behind program.
2003 LACC operates with a $2.2 million budget and offers over 40 programs to the community.
2006 The state population is 865,051 people, of whom 56,131 are Latinos.
On May 1 (May Day), after a season of protest and as part of the national immigrant general strike, or A Day without Immigrants, four of the five poultry-processing plants in Sussex County shut down.
