Hispanics

For years people thought of the Appalachian region, particularly the central and southern portions, as a homogeneous area of Scotch-Irish, Welsh and possibly German ancestry. The reality changed long before the perception did. In the early part of the 20th Century, many coal mining companies brought in African-Americans from the deep south and people from Eastern Europe or Italy to work the mines. Those miners tended to stay together in small, isolated communities, hidden from most of the rest of the region.

In the last ten to twenty years, the diversity of the region -- both ethnic and religious - has changed in dramatic ways. By far the largest group to move into the region has been Hispanic. In response to this changing demographic, dioceses, congregations and community groups have expanded outreach ministries to address the special needs of the Hispanic community. Most dioceses have Hispanic missioners to work with both outreach ministries and worship opportunities.

One congregation in East Tennessee sponsored a Spanish language course for the businesses, social service agencies, government workers, educators and law enforcement officers so that they could work more effectively with the Hispanic population in the county.

As the stories below illustrate the level of acceptance of both the ethnic differences of people moving into the area is a far cry from the story reported in one east Kentucky small town paper in the mid-1980's. A group of Mexican workers landscaping the newly opened highway by-pass outside of the county seat went to the local Wal-Mart. The staff and shoppers were upset enough at seeing them and unsure enough of what it meant to have a large number of outsiders in the store that the police were called. That would not happen today.

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. - Rosie Flores sells Spanish cookies, Mexican spices and international calling cards at Rincon Latino.

For six months, Rincon Latino has flourished amid the antiques shops, real estate offices and historic homes of Washington Street, the main avenue in a West Virginia town where times have begun to change.

Though their numbers remain small, Hispanics are now streaming into historically homogenous, overwhelmingly white West Virginia and other parts of northern Appalachia, including western Pennsylvania, southern New York and Ohio.

Economic opportunity -- in apple orchards, poultry plants, horse farms and construction -- is starting to translate to diversity.

The migration happened years ago in the nation's urban centers and the South, but it's been slower to reach this part of the country. When Flores arrived three years ago from Miami with her jockey husband and teenage son, she saw needs that weren't being met.

Flores collects donations for the poor. She lays out business cards for Spanish-speaking real estate agents. Her doors and windows bear fliers for churches and would-be employers. Sometimes, she takes
people who can't speak English to doctors' appointments and the Division of Motor Vehicles.

"Get ready," she says. "In two more years, you will have a lot of Hispanics here."

Although Hispanics have surpassed blacks as the nation's largest minority group, that's not the case in the 13 states that make up the 200,000 square miles of Appalachia, stretching from southern New York
to northern Mississippi.

A September 2004 study by the Population Reference Bureau found that in this region, blacks still outnumber Hispanics, although Hispanics have fueled the growth since the 1990s.

Nearly half of Appalachia's 321,000 new residents since 2000 are minority members, about 80,000 of them Hispanics. Because so many are children or working-age adults, the study done for the Appalachian
Regional Commission concludes that racial and ethnic diversity will only grow.

Without minority growth, West Virginia and some other states would have lost population between 1990 and 2000: The report found that 211,000 new minority residents offset the loss of 47,000 whites in
northern Appalachia.

'The word-of-mouth is getting out'

Jeffrey S. Passel, senior research associate with the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington, D.C., says many Southeastern states had virtually no immigrants just 15 or 20 years ago.

But once the arrival of immigrants begins, he says, "it draws on immigrants in other areas in the U.S. and eventually sets up strings in migration, usually back to Mexico."

In this spot of West Virginia, the number of children enrolled in classes in English as a second language has surged from fewer than two dozen in 2000 to almost 260. Nearly 80 percent of them are Hispanic.

"The word-of-mouth is getting out that there are jobs here," says 26-year-old Alicia Moreno. She works for Telamon Corp., assisting migrant workers who begin to arrive in the state's Eastern Panhandle
this time each year.

Moreno got her job because she was bilingual, and she worries about adults who don't learn English. That's part of the reason for the formation of the Eastern Panhandle Hispanic Advocacy Coalition, a new
group determined to help educate the newest residents and improve their quality of life. In December, the first Hispanic Festival drew more than 400 people.

"It's very exciting, and now that I'm more involved, I want to see more Hispanic businesses," says Veronica Hall, a Martinsburg insurance agent and native Argentine who caters to Spanish-speaking clients.

Real estate companies and banks have started advertising for bilingual employees.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston also launched a full-time Hispanic ministry. Though the 2000 census found about 12,300 Hispanics across West Virginia, the church, which surveyed
parishes in February, says that figure is now at least 16,000.

"People who come here as migrants start staying," says the Rev. Carl Crump.

Jobs at the track

Many Hispanics now work in such industries as poultry processing, gambling, construction and farming.

George Yetsook, a thoroughbred trainer, said the Hispanic population grows as people working in the horse industry spread word to friends and family. At the Charles Town Races, many are taking jobs that few others want.

"It's a real problem finding local people -- black, white, whatever -- who are willing to do the work," Yetsook says. "The grooms here are very professional. It sounds like menial labor, but they're tending to
half-million-dollar horses."

Jockeys are the best paid at Charles Town, earning as much as $10,000 a week, but exercise riders also do well, earning $700 to $800 a week.

But in a region where property values are rising, some are still left out.

"Before, they stayed on the coasts or in resort areas. Now, they're moving inland.

As Kentucky's Hispanic population tripled during the last decade, most of the migrants found work on farms in Central and Western Kentucky, or in restaurants and other businesses in Louisville and Lexington, says Ron Crouch, director of the Kentucky State Data Center.

A smaller number gravitated to Eastern Kentucky, where there are few farms and non-union construction jobs, but where many county seats now have at least one Mexican restaurant.

Historically, Kentucky's section of Appalachia has contained few non-whites. But data from Crouch's center show a relative explosion in the region's Hispanic population since 1990.

In Pike, Floyd, Martin, Magoffin and Johnson counties, the number of Hispanics increased by 155 percent, from 387 to 987 between 1990 and 2000.

At the same time, the Hispanic population in the eight-county Kentucky River Area Development District, which includes Perry, Breathitt, Letcher and Leslie counties, rose 169 percent, from 245 to 659.

And the actual increases, said Crouch, "are probably higher than what the numbers show."

There are no official data on the number of Hispanics employed by restaurants in Eastern Kentucky, Couch said -- just as there are no statistics on the number of Asians working at Chinese restaurants that have popped up, and prospered, in places such as Paintsville, Pikeville, Hazard and West Liberty.

"Anecdotal evidence is that Mexican restaurants do tend to employ a large number of Hispanic males, both as cooks and waiters," Crouch said

Few natives -- including Absher -- seem to begrudge them the work. "If these Mexicans didn't come in, you really wouldn't have many food-service people in this part of the state," he said.

For the most part, mountain residents -- accustomed to country cooking and fast-food restaurants -- appear to have welcomed a change of cuisine

In Pikeville, El Azul Grande (The Big Blue), which opened Sept. 11, 1998, has grown into a chain with new locations in Hazard, Prestonsburg, London and South Williamson, said general manager Kim Sparks.

"I always come here when we're in town," said customer Rodney Howery, 52, of Richlands, Va. "The food is great and for the prices and the quantity, you can't beat it."

The five Azul Grande restaurants currently employ a total of 86 workers, Sparks says. "All the employees are Hispanic except for me and one of the owners.”

Carlos Diaz, a server who has worked in Pikeville for 21/2 years, said one of the owners' brother-in-law owns a restaurant in Tennessee, "so when the restaurant started here, he sent some of his waiters here."

Diaz, 26, said he has been in the United States for about 10 years, off and on. He learned about the Pikeville restaurant from a friend while operating a forklift in Greensboro, N.C., where four brothers still work, he said.

"He said I could make good tips here," Diaz said.

He now lives with a girlfriend who just graduated from Pikeville College and plans to stay, Diaz said.