But you talk about a wonderful husband and father. I'm not better than he is. I've grown from that. Not everyone here is so sanguine.
Mexican immigrants say racism has grown more subtle over time but still exists.
Though Hispanics now make up about 70 percent of the population, the historic murals throughout town feature no Mexican faces. But it's still in the attitudes. You hear it, smell it, see it in the eyes and in the body language. Those undercurrents course through many farm towns east of the Cascades, where populations have swung from nearly all white in the 1950s to heavily Hispanic today. Hispanic population growing Washington's dependence on Mexican labor dates back 100 years, when workers were recruited first to work the gold mines, then to build the railroads.