Reply #17: Spanish No. 1 in Hialeah, Miami (93% non-English)

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Thu, Oct. 09, 2003

CENSUS
Spanish No. 1 in Hialeah, Miami
More than nine out of 10 people in Hialeah speak a foreign language. In Miami, it's 75 percent. Spanish is the top language in both cities.
BY TIM HENDERSON
[email protected]


More than nine out of 10 people in Hialeah, where Spanish is arguably the language of choice, speak a foreign language, placing it No. 1 among U.S. cities with more than 100,000 residents, according to a U.S. Census survey released Wednesday.

About 93 percent of Hialeah's 228,000 residents speak a language other than English. (snip)

(snip) Ruby Canizales came to Miami from Colombia 17 years ago but has never thought it necessary to learn English.
''Why, if everybody here speaks Spanish?'' said Canizales, who lives in Little Havana with her husband and two children. ``Maybe if I move to another state, I'll have to learn, but here there's no problem.''

Even in regions of the country with high numbers of Latinos, including immigrants, speaking only Spanish can have negative connotations, some experts said.

''In Miami-Dade, Spanish is not associated with poverty the way it is in Southern California,'' said Thomas Boswell, a University of Miami professor who studies immigrant trends. ``Much of our Hispanic population has come from the upper and middle classes -- that's the nature of the Cuban revolution, and also the fact that you can't be poor and come here from places like Venezuela and Colombia. It costs a lot to fly here and you can't float here on a raft or wade over the border like you can in Mexico.'' (snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/6966003.htm

Someone should have told this beanbag that hundreds die annually trying to make it from Mexico to Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.