Immigrants giving Quad-Cities a new face

John Greenwood/staff The Morales family gathers in Comercial Mexicana, the restaurant and grocery store they operate at 621 4th Ave., in Moline. The number of Hispanics in the Quad-Cities has tripled over the last decade.

The face of the Quad-Cities is getting a make over.

``The native population is not growing but it is changing,'' Paul Elgatian, an educator with the University of Illinois Cooperative Extension Service said. ``You don't need to wait and see it. Go to the mall on Sunday afternoon and you'll notice the change. The Quad-Cities is not the traditional northern European community it used to be.''

In the 1960s three-in-10 births were caucasian, today that number has dropped to one-in-10, Mr. Elgatian said. In fact, Mr. Elgatian said, the only thing keeping the Quad-Cities population level is the number of immigrants coming to the area in search of jobs and a better life.

While some look down their noses at immigrants, their culture and the traditions they bring with them enriches communities.

``They bring the best ideas of their cultures and that's what our country has always been about,'' Mr. Elgatian said.

They share that culture in the businesses they open and the festivals they hold.

Contrary to what many think, the immigrants, the Quad-Cities is becoming home to are not all unskilled, Mr. Elgatian said. Doctors and engineers fill the ranks of those who come to the area as well as those among the welfare rank and file.

``The people in the majority, whites, are well represented in welfare lines,'' Mr. Elgatian said. ``Hispanics have a deep pride. They generally don't like the outside world to know there is a problem. There is also a fear of government or being deported.''

Immigrants come prepared to work and succeed. Since December 1998, more than nine Hispanic-owned businesses in the Illinois Quad-Cities have started, expanded or moved. Nationally, the number of Hispanic-owned businesses has increased 165 percent in the last dozen years.

``They have staying power,'' Stella Schneekloth, director of Spanish programs at Project NOW, said. ``I've had more and more requests for assistance from people 40 and over who want to take the plunge in opening their own business. They are seeing the growth and recognizing the potential for customers.''

Businesses include restaurants, bakeries, clothing stores and gift shops, Ms. Schneekloth said.

Lack of technology, few jobs and an unsteady economy drive people away from their homes in Mexico. Mexican officials don't like it, but there is little they can do. Building a new home is impossible on the wages they earn in their homeland.

Those who work in U.S. owned factories remain poor. Their daily wages are about $8 a day compared to the union scale hourly rates of their counterparts in the United States that run anywhere from $17 to $30 an hour.

For the average worker, owning a home in Mexico is a dream difficult to realize. The pesos' value is constantly changing and interest rates can jump 15 to 20 percent in a day, Mexican officials said when a delegation from Moline visited its sister city, Tarimoro, last year.

Dreams become realities in the U.S. Many times the husband and wife work and because they are accustomed to living with very little, they are able to save enough money and quickly buy a home.

Unofficially, there were more than 24,000 Hispanics in the Quad-Cities in 1997. Nearly triple the population of 8,084 counted in the 1990 census or about 5.1 percent of Rock Island County's total population of 148,723, according to Bi-State Regional Planning Commission.

It is estimated nearly 10,000 Hispanics live in Moline. Many have settled in the Floreciente neighborhood, which has improved the area, according to Teresa Camarillo-Martinez, community development specialist for the city of Moline.

Ms. Camarillo-Martinez said 11 years ago the west end of Moline was 65 percent rental property. Today, 75 percent of the homes are owner-occupied. Improvements to the property increase assessments and the amount of taxes the city receives.

As members of the Hispanic community become more well off, the move from menial workers to fully integrated into the U.S. culture, becoming more politically and socially active, Mr. Elgatian said.