County's Hispanic population growing

Hector Gonzales waits on tables at a Mexican restaurant. His wife, Carmen, labors at a Jackson, Mo., factory. They struggle to make ends meet, raising two young daughters in a small basement apartment on Clark Street in Cape Girardeau.

The couple is among a small but growing number of Hispanics, many of them from Mexico, who have moved to Cape Girardeau County in search of decent jobs and safe neighborhoods.

Cape Girardeau County has 624 Hispanic residents, nearly double the number from a decade ago, U.S. Census figures show. More than half live in Cape Girardeau.

In a county of 68,693 people, the number of Hispanics remains statistically small. But in many ways, the fledgling Hispanic community here mirrors what's happening in towns across the country.

Nationwide, Hispanics are the fastest growing minority. In the last decade, the Latino population soared by 58 percent to 35.3 million. The number in Missouri jumped from 61,702 in 1990 to 118,582 in 2000.

Locally, the growth prompted the Cape Girardeau School District to hire a full-time English as a Second Language teacher for the current school year. In the past, it has been a part-time position.

Hispanics have taken jobs too, as waiters, cooks, construction workers and factory workers.

In Southern Illinois and parts of the Bootheel, Hispanics often labor in farm fields as migrant workers. Here, Hispanics are in low-paying, blue-collar jobs but ones that require little English.

At one time, Cape Girardeau had a migrant center on the Southeast Missouri State University campus that served about 1,800 migrant children throughout the Bootheel. But Missouri's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education moved the center to Malden, Mo., in the mid-1980s to be closer to the migrant population.

Hispanics living here say they believe their close-knit Spanish-speaking community will continue to grow. So, too, do ministers and school teachers who work with Hispanics.

Less competition for jobs

The Rev. Joselid Lozano and his family moved from Bogota, Colombia, to Cape Girardeau County to minister to Hispanics. For the past eight months, the Lozanos have been gathering with as many as 20 other Spanish speakers each Sunday morning for worship in the basement of the Cape Girardeau Baptist Association on Old Cape Road.

Lozano said there's a good reason why Hispanics are coming here despite the fact that few people in the county speak Spanish. "They're looking for better economic opportunities," he said.

They can survive on less English in states like Texas and California where Spanish is routinely spoken in schools and businesses, but Lozano said living conditions are better here. There are fewer violent crimes, and the cost of living is less than in places like Los Angeles.

"In terms of jobs, it is better to come here," said Lozano, whose Southern Baptist missionary work includes helping Hispanics find jobs.

In states like Texas and California, the flood of Hispanics has meant more competition for low-paying jobs. In Cape Girardeau County, there's less competition for such jobs, Lozano said.

Gonzales prefers waiting on tables to being a farm worker. A native of Mexico, he has lived in the United States for 10 to 12 years. He's lived in Cape Girardeau for four years. Waiting on customers, he said, has helped him learn English.

He and his family aren't looking to move from Cape Girardeau. "We still like it." Gonzales said.

'We feel like family'

El Torero, a busy Mexican restaurant in Cape Girardeau, serves as both employer and informal cultural center for Gonzales and others.

"In the kitchen, we are speaking Spanish," said Gonzales, who works a split shift that has him waiting on tables late into the evening.

Gonzales doesn't complain about the late hours. "It's not enough to make you rich, but it's enough to pay the bills," he said.

There's a closeness and camaraderie in the small Hispanic community. Friends and relatives help out with everything from baby-sitting to hauling children to school. Job openings are passed on by word of mouth.

"We feel like family," he said. "Everybody is trying to help."

The Rev. Daniel Hale pastors the First Baptist Church in Millersville, Mo., and assists with Lozano's ministry to Hispanics.

Hale said Hispanics often find it difficult to get jobs outside of the restaurant industry. "There are some businesses that don't want to hire them because they think they will leave," he said.

Hale said many Hispanics make trips to Mexico and Central and South America to visit relatives. When they are here working, they send money to their families. "A lot of them send money back every week or every month," he said.

The language barrier also makes it harder to get work, said Hale, who volunteers his time to teach English to Hispanics.

Still, there's no shortage of Hispanics willing to work. "They will work at jobs that people here won't work at, and they will do a tremendous job," said Hale. "They are hard workers."

Teaching English

There's recognition of a growing non-English population in the Cape Girardeau public schools.

As the district's English as a Second Language teacher, Lana Andrews tutors 27 non-English speaking students. Thirteen speak Spanish.

"What I have found after talking with families of students is that they are just thrilled with Cape Girardeau because it is a small community," said Andrews. "They believe it is very safe for their children. They like the fact that the cost of living is much less than it is in other states where they have lived."

One of her students is 6-year-old Jesse Fernandez, a first grader at Franklin Elementary School. Andrews also tutored him last year when she was a part-time English-as-second language teacher.

"I feel happy," Fernandez said of living in Cape Girardeau.

Fernandez speaks some English. But he's still learning. "At home, he hears Spanish," Andrews said.

His mother, Melcides Fernandez, works the nightshift at a factory in Jackson. At one time, she worked at the factory and a Chinese restaurant to make ends meet.

A native of Honduras, she has lived in the United States since 1989, first in California and then Illinois. She and her family moved to Cape Girardeau last year.

She's raising three young sons. "I like Cape Girardeau," she said while seated at the kitchen table in her small home.

Fernandez said she didn't learn English until the family moved to Southern Illinois in 1996. In Southern California, Spanish routinely was spoken in businesses. They didn't need to know English, she said.

Fernandez said she has learned English along with her children. When she lived in Herrin, Ill., she even taped English words to objects in her home such as the stove and telephone.

She admits she's still learning to speak and read English. "It's hard," she said.

Fernandez wishes Cape Girardeau had a Spanish-speaking radio station. Still, she says she's happy to be here. For her, the American dream comes one English word at a time.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123