Written By Patricia Rouzer
They are among the newest members of Carroll’s growing, robust, distinctly American community. Quietly going about their work, in large part keeping to themselves, members of Carroll’s rapidly expanding Hispanic population are nonetheless becoming an increasingly visible segment of the county’s population.
The evidence of immigrants’ growing numbers is widespread: a Wal-Mart where many signs are in English and Spanish; a Catholic church, where Hispanic communicants celebrate their faith at a weekly Spanish language Mass; a local car wash where Spanish mixes with laughter as laborers dry and polish cars; a thriving Mexican market on Westminster’s Main Street where the language of choice is, of course, Spanish.
The actual size of the Hispanic immigrant community in Carroll’s population of more than 151,000 people is, frankly, anyone’s guess. The 2005 Annual Report of the Governor’s Commission on Hispanic Affairs cites a U.S. Census figure from a 2004 community survey that puts the total at 2,362 people. That “official” survey places Carroll 10th among Maryland’s counties in the size of the county’s Hispanic population; dwarfed by Montgomery County, with an estimated Hispanic population of 121,415 and Prince George’s with 82,163 and well beyond Garrett County’s estimated 134 Hispanic residents.
But those who work with the Spanish-speaking community in Carroll County doubted the veracity of those estimates even when they were brand new. Everyone interviewed for this article said the number is higher–much higher. And, they believe it grows with each passing month.
Evidence of that growth is largely anecdotal but nonetheless strong, visible daily in the county’s stores, schools, churches and neighborhoods. For example, at Carroll Community College, enrollment in English classes for speakers of other languages–ESOL courses in the educational vernacular–has grown exponentially over the last several years. Like CCC, McDaniel College and Carroll’s public schools also offer ESOL courses.
Becki Maurio, ESOL Coordinator for CCC, said the number of foreign language speakers seeking instruction in English has tripled to almost 300 students in the four years since the college began offering courses. And the vast majority–some 83 percent–are Spanish-speakers.
Although one might assume that most of the local Spanish-speakers come from Mexico, at CCC at least, the largest segment comes from El Salvador. Wracked by civil war in the 1980s and hit with a precipitous decline during the 1990s in the coffee market–long the backbone of the Salvadoran economy–El Salvador today is hardly a land of economic opportunity.
Economic data from 1999 estimated that the richest fifth of El Salvador’s population received 45 percent of the country’s income, while its poorest fifth received only 5.6 per cent of that income. Little wonder that members of the lower socioeconomic strata of a country rampant with crime, grossly inadequate infrastructure and inadequate social capital see the United States as their land of opportunity–and they are not alone.
Throughout Central and South American the standard of living for the “average” citizen–particularly in rural areas and city slums–is substantially lower than that experienced by the average working-class American. And with little opportunity to make a decent life for themselves and their families, people with a bit of ambition and little to lose look to the north, where many can live in better conditions and earn in a month what it would take them a year or more to earn in their native country.
Economic opportunity is the name of the game for immigrants from Columbia, Mexico, Bolivia, El Salvador, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina or other Central and South American nations–whether they come here undocumented or with the proper work papers.
“They are only doing what every immigrant population in the history of America has done–looking for a way to make a better life for themselves and their families,” said Jim Mayola, Assistant Director of the Carroll County Department of Social Services and head of its Family Investment Programs. “Society just regards immigration differently now.”
Mayola estimates that his department sees more than 80 percent of all individuals coming to DSS seeking services. And while he does not keep statistics by nationality, he has seen a substantial growth in Spanish-speaking clients or would-be clients; so much so that the majority of his staff volunteered to take conversational Spanish lessons to better serve this growing community.
Many are eager to fill the jobs that native-born Americans eschew–field labor, kitchen help, housekeeping, construction.
“They don’t take jobs away from Americans; they do the work no one else wants to do,” Mayola said.
And with the Hispanic populations growing rapidly in nearby counties–particularly Howard, Montgomery and Prince George’s counties–the unskilled and low skilled jobs that these workers come here for are becoming scarce elsewhere. So they move on to nearby areas like Carroll in search of a paycheck. Word of where the jobs are apparently travels fast on the immigrant grapevine. And often when immigrants find steady work, news of their prosperity attracts other family members to join them.
But the transition to life here is seldom easy. Everything –home, food and customs–is different. And the hectic pace of life here is something for which they are totally unprepared.
Edgar Ocasio, President of the Hispanic Ministry Leadership Committee at St. John’s Roman Catholic Parrish, said that St. John’s has approximately 300 Spanish-speaking members and holds a weekly Spanish language Mass.
Jenni Sharkey is a founder and Executive Director of United Hands of Carroll County, a nonprofit organization that coordinates groups that help immigrants find services and navigate through an often confusing culture. Each agency provides a unique perspective on the lives and motivations of those they serve. United Hands provides information and referrals on education, housing, transportation, health education and access to health care services.
Ocasio, a native of Puerto Rico, and Sharkey, a Peruvian native who moved to Carroll some 18 years ago after meeting and marrying her husband while studying in Europe, understand the culture, the attitudes, hopes and fears of the people they serve.
Although there are some well educated, professional Hispanic immigrants in the county, they are significantly outnumbered by working-class, non-English speakers, who are challenged by life in a society where few people speak or understand their language. Both Ocasio and Sharkey spend a significant amount of their time translating forms and explaining the basic elements of life in America to the people they serve.
“We will help them make a doctor’s appointment, get directions to the doctor’s office, find transportation or fill out an application for a checking account at a local bank,” said Sharkey, explaining the mundane but necessary activities a non-English speaker cannot accomplish alone.
With Elena Hartley, also a native of Peru, a cofounder of United Hands and a naturalized American citizen, and Ruth Shu Costea, a native of China, Sharkey works to improve the quality of life for the Hispanic population and assists in the delivery of services to the non-English speaking community.
Both Ocasio and Sharkey believe, based on their personal experiences, that the Hispanic population is much larger than government estimates–“I believe it is at least double and maybe substantially more,” said Sharkey.
Both say that the reason for the disparity between their estimates and government statistics results not only from the rapidly growing influx of legal immigrants, but a surge in undocumented workers. And regardless of their immigration status, very few come armed with the language skills that allow them to function effectively in Carroll County’s highly homogenous Anglo culture.
Ocasio notes that he urges the Hispanics he meets at St. John’s to study and learn English. Sharkey does the same. But many, they say, are reluctant to undertake any kind of formal study of English for several reasons. “People who are here undocumented are afraid to sign up for anything,” said Ocasio, adding that they are often reluctant even to complete the church’s membership forms.
And, said Sharkey, most of these immigrants work hard at physically demanding jobs. “If you’ve been working in 90 degree heat from 6 or 7 in the morning until 5 or 6 in the evening, it probably isn’t reasonable to think you could attend, much less stay awake in, an evening ESOL class,” she said. In addition, many of these workers have no formal education. “It is difficult to learn another language when you have never been in a classroom and you don’t understand parts of speech or construction of your own language.”
Other factors besides language contribute to the population’s reluctance to assimilate in the Anglo world. The current political brouhaha over immigration has made documented and undocumented workers alike cautious and often unwelcome. Some county “old-timers,” accustomed to all WASP natives whose families settled here a century or more ago, look askance at any newcomer–foreign-born or American.
And then there are the cultural issues–food, family and customs–that make the most adaptable and comfortable immigrant yearn, at times, for home.
Sharkey has particular empathy for what immigrants feel and experience in this new world called the United States. Her personal transition to life in the U.S., despite her exceptional language skills and cosmopolitan outlook, is a vivid portrait of cultural differences and contrasting lifestyles.
Fluent in English when she arrived, Sharkey’s challenges and the adjustment issues she has experienced are minor compared to those encountered by a low income, uneducated, non-English speaking immigrant.
Hispanic societies are centered on family in a way that many modern Americans could not fathom, she explained. There is no running here and there after the kids, no catching a meal on the fly, no working 18 hour days. “Family is the center of your life,” Sharkey said. “You eat together, live together, celebrate together and enjoy each other. You make time for family. It is the most important thing.
“No one would leave their family to come to this country–never mind risk their lives to get here–if they had any hope of making a better life for themselves and their family in their native country.”
With the exception of her husband and two daughters, all of her family remains in Peru, although they have visited here often. But even the visits do not completely alleviate her homesickness.
“I tell my girls all the time that when they grow up they should marry someone from this country,” she said. “It is hard to be far away from home.”
This year her older daughter turned the cultural tables, spending part of her summer working in a mission in Peru. Blessed with the fluent, colloquial Spanish of her mother, she experienced, in reverse, the level of culture shock many immigrants here experience.
“After [my older daughter] got back my younger daughter said something to her about how someone she knew was poor because they didn’t have the kind of clothes all the other kids were wearing,” said Sharkey.
“My older daughter told her, ÔNo, you don’t understand. Poor is when you go to the bathroom outside and there’s no roof over your head. Poor is when you don’t have any electricity and you have to carry water to your house. Poor isn’t about not having the right kind of clothes.’ She learned a lot about how things are in other parts of the world.”
Life for the immigrants who come here is not easy, regardless of whether they speak and understand American English.
“The second generation–they are the ones who will be comfortable here,” said Sharkey. “They will be true Americans.”
As the Hispanic population here grows, the state and federal governments continue to increase services to keep pace with the needs of new immigrants–both legal and undocumented. Meanwhile, nonprofit services like United Hands are stretched to the breaking point.
“As long as there is opportunity for people to better themselves here, they will keep coming,” Sharkey said, adding that given the economic, health and social conditions in their homelands, the grass is going to look much greener north of the boarder for a very long time.
