But a new store speaks of a new century. Just past the pizzeria sits La Mexicana, a tienda, or small market, filled with Mexican spices, soccer jerseys, even frilly first communion dresses. From Detroit to Milford to Macomb County and beyond, Hispanic immigrants are transforming southeastern Michigan. In Macomb County alone, the Hispanic population jumped 56 percent in a decade, to 12,435. Statewide, the increase was 61 percent, to 323,877.
Demographers say much of the increase comes from Mexican immigrants.
One difference is that newcomers like Armando Gonzalez, one of the owners of La Mexicana in Romeo, often move from other areas of the country to escape a high cost of living and strong anti-immigrant sentiment. Gonzalez and his family had lived in California's San Fernando Valley for several years before moving to Macomb County in 1997. They had heard about metro Detroit from his sister, who moved to the area more than a decade ago. Throughout the 1990s, one by one, their extended family moved to Macomb County. There's not a lot of thieves, graffiti, violence.