Community

Business owner concerned with population decline

By KEVIN YOUNG

GLASGOW — The Hispanic population in Kentucky and Barren County is going up just like that of the United States, but Barren County’s Hispanic population change is moving at a much slower pace than in some other areas.

According to a 2007 Pew Research Center study, the Hispanic population in Barren County ranks in the bottom half of all the counties in the Unites States. That study, when the numbers were most recently tallied, lists 538 residents in Barren County of Hispanic descent, which is 1,737th of the 3,141 counties in the U.S.

Warren County, by comparison, has a Hispanic population of 3,871, which ranks 733rd nationally.

Some would say that the population figure has since gone down in recent years due to the decline of available work, but more tangible population information likely won’t become available until after the 2010 Census is completed.

The Hispanic population is largely migrant in nature as it generally moves to where there are jobs available, said Glasgow resident Lorena Flores. Because of that, many work on farms several months of the year or in factories while they are in production, then move south in the winter or to another community when an opportunity comes to an end. Those job opportunities have been fewer in recent years in the region as the state has fluctuated tobacco production costs and taxes and some local industries have cut back on available jobs.

Flores, speaking through interpreter and friend Christie Palmas, works at Los Tres Hermanos, 409 Samson St., a store aimed at serving the needs and comforts of the Glasgow Hispanic community. She said she has noticed a general decrease in the population in the five years that the store has been in business.

“It is really a bad thing for business,” she said. “It’s bad particularly for the store, because not as many people are coming in to buy.”

The Pew study says that more than 87,000 Hispanics live in Kentucky, with many of them living in large metropolitan areas and farming communities. Of that population, some 54,000 are United States citizens while the other 33,000 are non-citizens. The median household income for Hispanic families is $34,000, compared to the state-wide average of $40,476, which reflects their workmanlike nature.

Flores, a native of Guerrero, Mexico, said that the store is a bright spot in a new community for the Hispanic population, because they can go there for reminders of home while living and working in Barren County.

Los Tres Hermanos store sells phone cards, Spanish language music and movies, as well as food and beverage items that the Hispanic community would identify with from their time spent in their previous countries, Flores said.

Now, it is expanding to include a small restaurant that will serve what Palmas calls “Hispanic comfort foods.” Flores said she hopes that the dining area will be a place where members of the community can come together to meet and converse in a comfortable setting, while the back room of Los Tres Hermanos transforms into a sort of makeshift community center. Children play pool and foosball while their parents sit in the dining area up front and talk about the day’s work.

“The food that they will serve here will be similar in name to the things they serve in a Mexican restaurant, things like tacos, enchiladas, Mexican soup, but it will all be cooked different here, in a more home-cooked kind of way,” Palmas said. “Here it will be more spicy. At a Mexican restaurant they will bring you salsa that is spicy, but they don’t make their food spicy.”

Flores said the restaurant should be up and running in the next couple of weeks.