One in 6 Hillsborough residents said they were Hispanic. Legal immigrants and illegal, they range from transplanted professionals to migrant laborers. One in 9 Hillsborough County schoolchildren speaks only limited English, compared with 1 in 10 last year, and 1 in 29 at the time of the 1990 Census. Alexander's students exit school each day to the sight of Iglesia Bautista Redencion, a church that offers services in Spanish. Many go home to Spanish-speaking households.
Hands shoot up when the children are asked about parents who work multiple jobs.
The families bring with them a taste for familiar food, familiar prayer and familiar language. They buy bottles of Jarritos soda pop at the local Mexican tienda. They buy thin palomilla steaks from butchers who understand their needs. At El Tico y Marisol in Town 'N Country, Marvin and Marisol Zumbado peddle food from more than a dozen countries - Venezuelan cornmeal for empanadalike arepas and potatolike arrecacha for Colombian stews. He's from Costa Rica.