Thread: Hispanics seek the good life in suburbs

Hispanics seek the good life in suburbs
By Nancy Cambria
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
11/04/2007

Head Start home visitor Lupe Plaza of St. Charles, right, works with Melissa Garcia,4, with her reading during a home visit while her mother Cristina Garcia listens.
(Laurie Skrivan/P-D)

ST. CHARLES COUNTY — Just a few miles from some of the county's newest and most expensive homes, the alphabet lessons begin promptly at 7 p.m. in a fluorescent-lit classroom inside First Baptist Church of O'Fallon.

"We are going to go over our ABCs here," says O'Fallon resident Irma Ordonez to her class of seven Hispanic students. Most are adults, but some are as young as 10 and toting stuffed animals.

To Ordonez, a retired kindergarten teacher and a seventh-generation American, teaching English and its correct pronunciation to Hispanic immigrants is all about taking "baby steps."

"A. Aaaah. Apple," she begins. Advertisement

The challenges of integrating America's growing Hispanic immigrant population isn't playing out just in the cities anymore. Mirroring a national trend, St. Charles County is one of hundreds of suburban areas in the country that's becoming home to Hispanic immigrants who must struggle to learn English in a place with few bilingual services.

"When I came here seven years ago, there were very few Hispanic people, but now you see Hispanic people most everywhere," Ordonez said.

The suburbs are now providing a steady stream of food service, cleaning, construction and landscaping jobs to immigrants, many of whom come from rural, central Mexico. Others are also moving from cities as far away as New York and Los Angeles because they want what many others want out of the Midwest: a quiet, safer life.

"What's happening is not much different than what happened in Missouri 100 years ago," said Domingo Martinez, coordinator of the Cambio Center of the University of Missouri, a think-tank looking at immigration trends and their impact in the state. "They were German and they came for cheap land and looking for a good place to raise their kids."

Instead of near Cherokee Street in south St. Louis, Hispanic immigrants are now more likely to be settling in smaller, more spread-out pockets in the St. Louis region. These include areas such as St. Ann and Hazelwood in north St. Louis County.

But many are also going farther out to places such as St. Charles, O'Fallon and Wentzville, said Joel Jennings, an adjunct professor at St. Louis University who is mapping the immigrant Hispanic population in the region. Some are going even farther into Lincoln and Warren counties to work farming and landscaping jobs familiar to them, he said.

Recent U.S. Census statistics put the growth rate of Hispanics in St. Charles County from 2000 to 2006 at about 68 percent, for a total of just over 7,000 people. Statistically, that amounts to about 2 percent of St. Charles' nearly 339,000 people.

Jennings said that the number of Hispanics in the county is probably double the census estimate, and that most of those additional residents who aren't being counted are working-class Mexican immigrants, many of them illegal.

The state's estimated 161,000 Hispanics still make up only 2 percent of Missouri's population. However, every county in Missouri — rural, urban or suburban — now has a Hispanic population, Martinez said.

According to Census figures, the most marked increases in the St. Louis region are in the suburbs in places that until a few years ago were nearly all white. In St. Charles County there are now two Hispanics per every 100 people — up from about 1.5 people per 100 in 2000.

In that same time period the Hispanic population in Lincoln County grew by about 91 percent to almost 850. In Warren County, the number more than doubled, to 650 people. Jefferson County also had a 31 percent increase, to 2,630 people. The Metro East saw marked increases, with a 24 percent growth rate in St. Clair County. That county has the largest estimated Hispanic population, nearly 7,000, or about 2.7 percent of the nearly 261,000 people there. Madison County also grew by 1,214 Hispanics, an increase of about 31 percent. In Monroe County, with 450 Hispanics, the population also more than doubled.

St. Louis County, which has seen a steady flow of immigrants into northern areas such as Hazelwood over the past several years, had a nearly 33 percent growth in its Hispanic population, to more than 19,300.

Although the Hispanic population also increased in the city of St. Louis to nearly 9,000, the number of Hispanics relative to its population stayed nearly the same at 2.5 Hispanics per 100 people.

This new suburban population puts new demands on counties not fully equipped with bilingual services.

Much of the slack is being taken up by area churches. Currently about 20 churches in the region are offering religious services in Spanish, and several are developing programs to teach English as a second language. The programs are run mainly by volunteers who not only teach, but drive students to and from classes, said Patrick Regalado, a pastor with First Baptist Church of O'Fallon and head of the Hispanic Pastors and Leaders of the Greater St. Louis Area.

"I see the county is not ready," said Regalado, who was born in Eduador. "They don't have the equipment and resources to face these situations."

As the community spreads out into the farther suburbs, it is difficult to deliver services to those who need them, he said. Even getting the word out about programs is tricky, because the region's Spanish-language radio station starts to falter at the eastern edge of St. Charles County.

Lupe Plaza, a Head Start caseworker at the St. Charles branch of the children's service agency Youth In Need, works with many Hispanic families. Her agency recently hired a third bilingual caseworker based in Wentzville to handle the demand for Spanish-speaking home visitors.

Plaza said she dealt with a tightly knit, insulated and hardworking community that's committed to making life better for their children.

"They have such a strong work ethic. It doesn't matter what you ask them to do, they'll do it," Plaza said, noting that many of her families juggle three and sometimes more jobs to make ends meet.

Plaza and other members of a growing Mexican middle class in St. Charles County have different views on immigration, but all of them agree that people have a tendency to assume that because someone is poor and Hispanic, he or she is in the country illegally. They are asking for tolerance and fairness — especially on work sites.

"The reason we're all here is we want a better opportunity. We want a better life for our kids and our families," said Gloria Garcia as she tended the cash register at her family's grocery, Tienda Mexicana El Caporal, off First Capitol Drive in St. Charles. Garcia's family store offers everything from an increasingly popular lunch counter with Mexican favorites, to colorful votive candles, piñatas, cowboy boots, CDs of Hispanic pop stars and ballooning bags of chili peppers. The store is a slice of home for many, she said.

"You have to have the chilies," she said of the store. "We have to have the spice."

Matthew Fernandes and Mark Learman of the Post-Dispatch News Research Department contributed to this report.

Nancy.Cambria@post-dispatch.com

636-255-7214

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"When I came here seven years ago, there were very few Hispanic people, but now you see Hispanic people most everywhere," Ordonez said.

But do they mention the growing crime rates since this invasion? The overburdened schools, hospitals, schools, jails and social services? Of course not. All they want to do is protray these 'newcomers' as wonderful, law abiding, self sufficient people. What a crock. Let them come visit my hometown for a week and they would be singing a much diffrent tune.

Ya.....they don't seem to understand there are reasons these suburbs WERE great places to raise kids. Not anymore. You can't support all the illegal behavior and certain "cultural" practices and have it be the same atmosphere. Heck it's sad when gangs are leaving the city because it's not safe......gang leaders moved to the suburbs here....brought it (gang life)with them as well......the 2 don't mesh.

Originally Posted by reptile09

"When I came here seven years ago, there were very few Hispanic people, but now you see Hispanic people most everywhere," Ordonez said.

But do they mention the growing crime rates since this invasion? The overburdened schools, hospitals, schools, jails and social services? Of course not. All they want to do is protray these 'newcomers' as wonderful, law abiding, self sufficient people. What a crock. Let them come visit my hometown for a week and they would be singing a much diffrent tune.

I had the opportunity to work in St Charles about 3 years ago. I loved the little town and it's history. They don't play with crime there and I gaurantee they will put a stop to it real quick if it raises it's ugly head. Oh my, that is a fight the illegals will not win...not there.

I hate how they assume Latinos and Latinas are all Mexican. St Louis is very new to this situation..give it 3 more years and I am sure the voices will change.

Ask my suburban middle class homeowner friends around Atlanta. REpeated story after story. One person rents to illegals they don't check out. The illegals move more people into the house. They quit maintaining the yard, get a bunch of dogs, live and park in the front yard,etc.

My friends try to sell, but no one will buy next to illegals. Prices start dropping, and soon others who can't sell rent to illegals. Then no one maintains the properties

Apartment complexes become rundown within months after filling up with illegals.

I don't know if illegals live like pigs intentionally. I think it is just cultural practices and habits. You would think that they would appreciate a nice place to live.

My statements don't apply to all illegals, but I have not seen many that care about their surroundings. They are not the only ones that live this way.