Latinos account for a fifth of the American population, and the U.S. census projects that number will grow to one quarter over the next two decades.
And while the Latino population in Maine is still one of the smallest in the country, it’s increased by nearly 75 percent since 2010. One factor driving that trend in Maine is seasonal workers — many from the Mexican state of Michoacán — who decided to stop moving around the country from job to job and settled down in Washington County.
On a Sunday afternoon in Cherryfield, about 30 people — mostly families with children — were filing into a small Catholic church. A team of clergy and musicians from Lewiston and Portland had traveled here to lead a once-a-month Spanish Mass.
The Mass drew parishioners from Washington County’s growing Latino community. People like Salvador Zamora, whose family first came to Maine more than 10 years ago from Michoacán, Mexico, to work the blueberry harvest.
Speaking in Spanish, Zamora said he stayed three or four months, then left to find fieldwork in other states.
Soon, though, Zamora said he returned, and decided to stay for good. He now lives in Harrington, where he works in carpentry and remodeling.
“I liked it,” Zamora said of Down East Maine. “It’s quiet, and I liked the work opportunities.”
Others have also come to stay. The Latino population of Washington County has grown steadily over the last decade, to 869 people, according to the U.S. census.
Hermila Vargas of Milbridge said she’s seen that growth firsthand since moving to the area 17 years ago.
“A lot of Hispanic people are arriving, from different places” she said, in Spanish, including more recent arrivals from Puerto Rico.
But, she said, the majority of the community, like her, is from Mexico.
Vargas, a mother of three, said part of the reason she settled down here is that Milbridge is a good place to raise children.
“There’s a lot of places for them to play, to go for walks,” she said. “It’s a place that’s safe and quiet.”
And some just got tired of traveling. José Ortiz, also from Michoacán, said he worked the blueberry harvest for decades.
Then, as soon as the harvest was over, he’d head off to the next job, in Florida, Texas, Iowa and beyond.
But about six years ago, he said it was time for a change.
“I got tired of going all over the place,” he said in Spanish. “If they give me year-round work,” he remembered saying to himself, “I’ll stay here.”
He now works at a fruit-packing plant and lives year round in Milbridge.
Overall, the state’s Latino population has grown to nearly 30,000 since 2010, according to census data. That’s an increase of roughly 75 percent.
The greatest concentration of Latino residents are in Cumberland and York counties.
This article appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.
