Frequently Asked Questions
 

How many Latinos live on Hilton Head Island and Bluffton?
What race are Latino people?
Where do these Latinos come from?
Why are so many Latinos coming to the United States now?
Is the United States the only country experiencing a mass migration?
Why are so many Latino immigrants coming here illegally?
Do people from different Latin American countries speak different dialects of Spanish?
Why don't Latino people want to learn English?
What's the best way for my employees to learn English?
Why do many stores such as Lowe's have signs in Spanish as well as English? 

How many Latinos live on Hilton Head Island?
The 2000 census data tells us that the total Hilton Head Island population was 33,862, and that the Latino population was only 3,886. However, that data is outdated. The latest census data on South Carolina, which can be accessed here, indicates that the population of Beaufort County has increased about 14% in the last five years.

What race are Latino people?
Latino people from the Caribbean countries such as the Dominican Republic are very often of African descent.  Latino people from Mexico are very often of Indian descent.  Latino people from Argentina are very often of European descent.  But every Latin American country has some people from every other region of the world.

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Where do these Latinos come from?
The proportion of Latinos from various countries probably is about the same now as it was inthe year 2000: Mexico, 66%; Puerto Rico, 2%; Cuba, 1%; other countries, 36%.  The other countries include countries as close as Guatemala and as far away as Argentina.

Why are so many Latinos coming to the United States now?  There weren't as many coming here twenty years ago.
Largely through American television, images of prosperity here have saturated Spanish America for decades.  America is perceived abroad as a land where it is possible through hard work and saving for a family to rise from poverty.  In the 1970’s and 1980’s a trickle of illegal immigrants found their way across U.S. borders, and established themselves in various American cities.  They found steady work where often there was no steady work, or no work at all, at home.  They sent word back to their hometowns, and others followed them.  Many used to "commute," spending months here, and returning to Mexico to visit their families for one or two months a year.  Once it became more difficult to cross the border, many stayed and their families followed.

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Is the United States the only country experiencing a mass migration?
No.  The largest mass migration in the world today is from rural China to urban China.  And there is also a mass migration from Africa and the Middle East into Europe.  The photo to the left is an advertisement for Western Union's service of wiring money from one country to another.  It was taken in a Swiss train station, and says in French "I send much more than money."  And of course it shows a picture of the workman's son having the opportunity to go to school.  People are migrating, as they always have, away from poverty and danger into areas of greater security and opportunity.

Why are so many Latino immigrants coming here illegally?
The Congress of the United States has not changed the immigration law in some time.  So while the demand for low skill labor (workers to pick peaches, pluck chickens, clean hotel rooms and so forth) has increased as our economy has grown, the number of work visas and green cards has not.  The Wall Street Journal estimates that we give only about one percent of the green cards necessary to fill the demand for low wage jobs.

Do people from different Latin American countries speak different dialects of Spanish?
No, they do not.  Spanish grammar is nearly identical in all countries in which Spanish is the dominant language, although some vocabulary differs from country to country.  So Latinos sometimes have difficulty understanding some words that other Latinos use, just as we sometimes have difficulty understanding what people from Australia or England are saying.  And of course, Spanish is not the major language in Brazil, Jamaica, Haiti, Belize, or in French, Dutch, or British Guiana, or a few of the Antilles.

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Why don't Latino people want to learn English?
There is very strong evidence that Latino immigrants do want to learn English.  Video tapes teaching English are hot sellers in the Latino community.  The Literacy Volunteers of the Low Country offers English classes, which are filled with people trying to learn English.  The Latino Council's office is filled with day laborers each morning who are trying to learn the English taught there.  Some Latinos are learning English as their third language - an Indian language was their first; Spanish they learned when they started school in their home country; now they are trying to learn English.  The Pew Hispanic Center, a highly respected research group, has researched this topic.  Click here to read the research results.    

When you don't know the language of the country where you are living, you cannot speak to your employer, communicate with a doctor, understand a policeman, or write a note to your child's teacher.  In short, you are rather helpless.  People who undertake the perilous transition to life in a new country generally are not people who wish to remain helpless. 

English seems "easy" to us because we already know it.  But it's a rather difficult language to learn.  For example, Spanish is spelled phonetically; English is not.  Spanish has five vowels and five vowel sounds; English has five vowels and fifteen vowel sounds.  How do you pronounce "ough," as in "tough," "through," "though," "bough," or "Poughkeepsie"?

When we overhear two people Speaking Spanish, we assume that they don't speak any English.  Yet we know from our own experience that even if we know some French when we visit France, we will probably speak English with our English-speaking companions.  Also, we assume that the Latinos we heard speaking Spanish three years ago are the same people we overhear speaking Spanish today; often they are not the same people. 

What's the best way for my employees to learn English?
The Literacy Volunteers of the Low Country has a special program called "Workplace Literacy," through which employees can learn the English they need for a variety of jobs, including golf course maintenance, housekeeping, facilities maintenance, food preparation, landscaping.  Workplace math and reading is also taught.  For more information, click here.

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Why do many stores such as Lowe's have signs in Spanish as well as English?  Won't that make it easy to avoid learning English altogether? 
One of the very best ways to learn another language is to have words in your own language juxtaposed to words in the target language.  People traveling to other countries often learn the words for "exit" and "entrance" first because they see them posted in English and the foreign language on the same signs in airports and train stations.

Do you have other questions?  If so, e-mail the webmaster.  Thank you.