Hispanics slow growth but become prominent part of regional mix

Maria Alvarez's four adult students leaned over their notebooks and worksheets, working through questions about the form and function of United States government as daylight spilled through large windows on one side of the room Saturday morning. Behind her, a whiteboard showed a sketched-out table of the three branches of government like one students in government courses across the country see.

"'People vote for the president in November,'" Alvarez, an instructor with Northwest Technical Institute, read from a worksheet. "When they say people, who are they talking about, just anyone?" Her students answered quickly in English: U.S. citizens.

One of the students, Ruben Equite, said afterward he's taking the course at Springdale's Immigrant Resource Center partly so he can vote and partly because he's gotten used to life here. He works as a commercially licensed truck driver after immigrating from Guatemala some 20 years ago.

"It is a good place," he said of Northwest Arkansas, particularly because he often gets to drive out in the country. "It's very peaceful, quiet and not too expensive -- yet," he added with a laugh.

Equite's part of a Northwest Arkansas Hispanic community that's growing more slowly than during the boom a decade or two ago but is nonetheless coming into its own as a prominent piece of the region's cultural mix, local experts and residents said last week.

Slower growth

Benton and Washington counties' population of people tracing their heritage to Spanish-speaking countries climbed by 21,000 between 2007 and 2014, reaching an overall population of around 71,000 people, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates -- about the equivalent of Springdale's total population at the time.

That growth equals a 42 percent jump, or 15 times as fast a pace the country experienced overall, based on a recent report from the Pew Research Center. But it's also less than half of the region's speed between 2000 and 2007, when the Hispanic population in Northwest Arkansas roughly doubled from 26,000 to 50,000. In other words, the curve of the population on a graph is still going upward, but at a much gentler slope.

The country also saw a similar slowdown between those two time periods, according to the Pew report, which pointed to the recession, a recent reversal of Mexican migration back toward that country and a slowdown in Hispanic women's birth rates as the causes.

Juan Jose Bustamente, an assistant sociology professor at the University of Arkansas who specializes in Hispanic populations and immigration, said access to birth control and today's highly charged political debate over immigration are two of many factors behind the trend. The lower birth rate in particular could stay long-term, prolonging the slowdown, he said.

The rapid clip of immigration and births couldn't last forever, said Mireya Reith, executive director of the Arkansas United Community Coalition, which helps run the Immigrant Resource Center.

"My family felt like the only Hispanic community in Northwest Arkansas," Reith said of her childhood in the area, when her mother would occasionally send her back to Mexico to learn some Spanish and eat Mexican food other than Taco Bell. "After the number we experienced before, at some point, statistically, you're going to have a leveling out."

But the Hispanic community is also different now than at the time of the surge, Bustamente said. First-generation immigrants often came for work in agriculture or construction, he said. They've since settled down and raised families; their children or grandchildren now make up half of the Springdale and Rogers public school districts.

"Those families shift from survival mode into more mobility mode and more engaged into the community," he said, citing a pattern that tends to play out for any immigrant group. "You're going to see many of those Latino youths are going to be more engaged in community issues, in local issues."

Eleazar Herrera, a Spanish teacher at Fayetteville Montessori School and one-time Springdale police officer, also volunteers at the immigrant center, for example. He came to Springdale from Mexico when he was 5 and is now a citizen.

Herrera, 25, originally planned to get a job at a plant like his father, but a high school teacher told him he had potential for more and helped him apply to the University of Arkansas, he said Saturday. He hopes eventually to teach English as a Second Language and be an example to Hispanic kids.

"I've always felt like this is home," he said.

Cultural options

Local groups and employers are working to encourage that engagement, particularly during Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15.

A few examples include a Latino film festival at Crystal Bridges Museum on American Art on Thursday, a free concert headlined by Mexican artist El Dasa at the Walmart Arkansas Music Pavilion on Sept. 25, and the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce's fourth annual Hispanic Heritage Festival in early October.

Events like these have aim to welcome newcomers and their descendants, give them and the locals a chance to learn about each other and build lasting bonds between the two groups.

"It takes two hands to connect," said Terry Bankston, executive director of EngageNWA, which put on the Welcome Week NWA 2016 festival of music, food and entertainment in Springdale on Saturday to "recognize immigrant contributions to our region."

"It really can be just as simple as two kids from different cultures learning how to color and draw at a Crystal Bridges craft table," Bankston said, adding the festival also will try to show visiting students, international employees and other immigrants how to volunteer and otherwise become a part of the area's social fabric. "They look at Northwest Arkansas as a place they maybe want to lay down roots."

Wal-Mart is behind bringing El Dasa to Northwest Arkansas for his the Sept. 25 concert. It's the third annual Hispanic music event sponsored by the retailer.

Irelia Navarro, senior director of business integrations for Sam's Club, said the company's efforts to support its Hispanic employees and the broader immigrant community, including the concert Sept. 25, are working. As examples she pointed to steady growth in an internal resource group for Hispanic employees and the increase in concert attendance each year.

"We also want to address the needs of our Hispanic associates and drive some of that talent into our community," Navarro said.

The region needs events like these, Equite said, adding he hopes more Hispanic people start attending.

Herrera said some of the region's efforts can feel a bit forced, as if a group wants to create a diversity-friendly image, but they're still beneficial, even if just to get Hispanic people out around the metro area. The Walmart AMP concert will be the first time he and others have been to the venue, for example.

"It does invite non-Latinos to come and see the different cultures, different tastes, different colors," he added.

Hispanic people have left their mark on the region's economy as well. About 3,000 businesses in the metropolitan area employing thousands of people and earning and spending millions of dollars are owned by Mexican, Puerto Rican or other Hispanic people, according to the Census's Survey of Business Owners. The metropolitan statistical area includes Benton, Washington and Madison counties and Missouri's McDonald County.

Many of those businesses focus on ethnic cuisine, but a growing professional class among the Hispanic community is venturing into architecture, real estate, insurance and mechanics who then also need more daycare, cleaning and other services, Reith said. While Hispanic communities have often clustered together in eastern Rogers and Springdale, Reith said many young adults are now spreading throughout Northwest Arkansas.

The community has yet to break into local politics, having held only a handful of city or county positions around the area, Bustamente said. He urged area organizations to dig into why that is and help the native-born or naturalized Hispanic population participate in elections. Around half of the Hispanic community in Benton and Washington counties was born there, according to the Census.

It's only a matter of time before the dearth of Hispanic government leadership changes, Reith said. Besides the civics course, the Immigrant Resource Center holds classes for prospective candidates and English-learners and runs voter registration drives.

Stitching the Hispanic community into the region "is a process, but it's one that we do see improving," Reith said.

NW News on 09/19/2016