For the Barraza family, life is conducted mostly in Spanish. The Elgin couple works together, cleaning newly built homes in the Aurora area, where they take orders from a Spanish-speaking supervisor. When they get home, they speak with their two school-age sons in Spanish.
It is a situation that is increasingly common, as Spanish becomes the primary language spoken in a growing number of homes across the metropolitan area, according to new census data that also provide new demographic details for some of the area’s largest cities for the first time since 2000.
Reflecting national trends, the numbers show 30 percent of the Chicago area’s population age 5 and older speaks a language other than English at home, up from 26.8 percent in 2000. In real numbers, that means there are now roughly a quarter of a million more people in the area who do not speak English at home.
In rapidly growing Will County, between 2000 and 2005 there was a nearly 50 percent increase in the proportion of those 5 years and older who speak something other than English at home, with 17.9 percent of that group now saying they do so. Among those speaking a language other than English, roughly 60 percent said Spanish was the language of choice.
Even in more-established Lake County, the percentage grew from 21.4 to 27.5 during the five-year period.
The report comes amid a heated debate on immigration policy that has fueled recent marches in Chicago and embroiled this year’s midterm congressional elections. The report shows immigrants–legal and illegal–make up a rising share of the population in virtually all states and the District of Columbia, growing to 12.4 percent last year, up from 11.1 percent in 2000.
With an influx of Spanish-language radio stations, cable channels and newspapers, marketers see a huge opportunity to tap into the fastest-growing segment of the population and one that accounts for virtually all of the area’s population gains. But the growth also presents communication challenges for schools, hospitals, employers and others.
“We didn’t know any English. Not even `Hi,'” Bertha Barraza said in Spanish.
She and her husband, Leonel, arrived in Elgin from Mexico in 2004 with big dreams for jobs and the education of their two young sons. Like many immigrants, the family speaks Spanish at home even though the children are learning English.
On Sundays, the family attends one of eight Spanish masses in St. Joseph Catholic Church, where the number of Spanish services has doubled in the last decade. They spend weekends in parks or at friends’ homes socializing in Spanish.
But late last year, Bertha Barraza, 29, endured a situation that makes her say “learning English is vital” and will keep her in evening English classes until she becomes fluent. During a miscarriage, she was sent to a local hospital where Spanish was not spoken. A friend translated for her, but the situation left her feeling isolated.
Cook County still easily ranks first in the area for the proportion of residents who speak a language other than English at home, with a third saying they do. But it is the suburban counties where the growth–and new adjustments–are most evident.
In Elgin, for example, the Police Department has 27 officers in the 187-officer department who are fluent in Spanish, up from 15 in 2000. New officers must attend a three-day Spanish course.
The new language data is part of the annual American Community Survey, a program slated to replace the so-called long form that has historically asked the most detailed census questions every 10 years. Results from the survey had previously only been available for cities and counties with at least 250,000 people, but on Tuesday it will be published for areas having 65,000 people or more.
Although the survey sometimes has large margins of error for areas with smaller populations, it provides the first detailed demographic look in half a decade for some of the area’s fastest-growing cities. The report shows household populations for Aurora, Bolingbrook and Joliet have all increased more than 20 percent since 2000, while those in Chicago and Waukegan have declined.
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The survey is designed to provide more timely information that historically has been gathered just once a decade. This release focuses on core population trends, while those later this summer and fall will feature economic, employment and housing data.
Demographers and other researchers urge caution when examining the data but say they still see value, despite often-large margins of error.
Marc Thomas, information services manager for the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission, said he found interesting comparisons in median ages among the area’s largest suburbs. Arlington Heights, with a median age of 40.5, is now the oldest community among the area’s 12 largest cities, while Cicero is the youngest, with a median age of 27.4. Three of the fastest-growing cities in that group–Aurora, Bolingbrook and Joliet–have median ages younger than Chicago’s 33.1 years.
“It gives you kind of an indication for where younger families may be living,” Thomas said. “The ring of growth has hit those satellite cities and it is forcing the median age down.”
Though Elgin has a more established Hispanic population, such growth is relatively new to places like Bolingbrook and Plainfield, where the new residents say they are seeking bigger homes, better schools and safer streets.
“We have 33 languages other than English spoken in our district,” said Russ Fletcher, a school and community relations specialist for Valley View Community School District 365U.
But for those who primarily speak Spanish, the adjustment to the suburbs is not always comfortable and some say they sometimes feel unwelcome.
When Silvia Cadenas nears her subdivision in Plainfield, she is quick to lower the volume on her car stereo, fearing her Colombian pop tunes will not be welcomed on Allyn Street as they were in her former neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side.
“I was really uncomfortable when I first came,” said Cadenas, who speaks mostly Spanish at home and arrived in the far southwest suburb three years ago.
The inside of her home remains firmly Mexicana. The living room is adorned with a life-size oil portrait of an Aztec warrior. Inside the master bedroom hangs a portrait of La Virgen de Guadalupe.
“In a way, I am living a miracle,” Cadenas said. “I came from a village with no running water and electricity.”
Now, each of her three children has a television in their bedrooms.
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