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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Latinos are on the move


North Central High School junior Guillermo Ordoñez takes inventory at De Leon Foods on East Francis Avenue on Friday afternoon.
 (The Spokesman-Review)

More and more Latinos are moving into the Pacific Northwest, the newest census estimates show.

Sergio and Mayra De Leon are ready to feed them.

The couple has opened De Leon Foods, a Mexican-American supermarket and deli at 102 E. Francis in Spokane. Soon their tortilla factory will turn out 700 dozen tortillas an hour.

Latinos are the largest and fastest-growing minority in Idaho and Washington, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. As of July 2005, Idaho was home to 129,880 residents of Hispanic heritage, about 9 percent of the state’s total population of 1,429,096. Washington had 551,371 Latino residents, about 8.7 percent of its population of 6,287,759 people.

These new estimates reflect an increase in Latino population of 27 percent in Idaho and nearly 25 percent in Washington in the past five years.

While Kootenai and Spokane counties saw less Hispanic population growth than the states as a whole, Latinos are still the largest minority in either county.

The Census Bureau estimated Kootenai County Latinos numbered 3,822 out of a total population of 127,668. Spokane County, with a total population of 440,706 people, was home to 14,699 Latinos, 1 1/2 times the number of Asians and nearly twice the number of blacks living in the county.

“It reflects what it is happening nationally and throughout the state,” Yvonne Lopez-Morton, a member of the Washington State Commission on Hispanic Affairs, said of Spokane’s increase in Latino population.

“It was inevitable,” Lopez-Morton said, adding it has been estimated that by 2025, one in four Americans will identify themselves as Hispanic.

Spokane, she said, has been a little slower to adjust to this demographic change “but is becoming much more comfortable” with this reality and “more welcoming” of Latinos.

The De Leons, natives of Mexico, have lived in Spokane for more than a decade after having moved from Texas. In 1995, Sergio De Leon founded Northwest Freight Handlers Inc., which now employs 50 workers, most Latino.

In July, the family opened De Leon Foods, selling groceries, pottery and other goods from Mexico and South America. The store employs seven.

“We’ve been wanting to do this for a while, and we finally had the time,” De Leon said, adding that the 10,000-square-foot store carries everything a typical supermarket would, as well as imported sundries.

“It’s not just for Latinos,” he said. “We hope the local community will shop here, too.”

Among the items on De Leon’s shelves are cactus fruit, plantains, Mexican soda pop, spices and canned goods from Colombia, Venezuela and Peru.

The meat department is stocked with the usual cuts, as well as tripe, the stomach lining of a cow or other ruminant, which is used to make menudo, a traditional Mexican soup. Soon fresh Mexican sweet breads will be baked in the store next to the tortilla factory.

De Leon, who now sells tortillas made by his father’s facility in the Tri-Cities, will produce his own, which he hopes to sell to local restaurants.

Marketing director Juliet Esguerra said people who have moved here from California or other states with large Latino populations are used to the kind of one-stop shopping De Leon Foods offers.

Lopez-Morton and other civil rights advocates say variety is the spice of life when it comes to economics, too, because businesses look for a diverse community in which to locate.

“It will open a lot of doors for Spokane,” Lopez-Morton said of the new census figures.

Idaho Commerce and Labor Director Roger Madsen concurs.

“The Hispanic population is an important, rapidly growing segment of our society that contributes greatly to Idaho’s social, cultural and economic health in so many ways,” Madsen said.