Prometheus 6   

From the NY Times
Hartford Bids a Bilingual Goodbye to a White-Collar Past
By PAUL von ZIELBAUER

HARTFORD, May 2 - To the outside world, Hartford still conjures images of bankers and brokers, hairdressers and haberdashers, a white-collar legacy of a calmly efficient insurance empire. Indeed, that was Hartford. In 1950.

Nowadays, this is far more a struggling city with a diverse population that frequents soul food restaurants and supermercados, poultry markets and panaderias. And, more than ever, Hartford is becoming a city that looks and sounds less like Katharine Hepburn and Gregory Peck and more like Carlos Lopez and Freddy Ortiz

… "We've become a Latin city, so to speak," Eddie A. Perez, who last year became the first Hispanic mayor in Hartford's 367-year history, said in a recent interview. "It's a sign of things to come."

Hispanics now account for more than 40 percent of the city's population � the largest concentration among major cities outside California, Texas, Colorado and Florida, 2000 Census Bureau figures show. More than half of Hartford's schoolchildren are Hispanic, and city and state officials expect Hartford's demographic trend to continue

&hellip Black support is also considered essential at City Hall � 38 percent of Hartford's residents are African-American. But if population trends continue as predicted, Hartford will be the first state capital with a Hispanic majority.

"Those numbers translate into economic and political power," said Julio Morales, a professor at the University of Connecticut's Graduate School of Social Work. "The pace is moving at a faster rate than in the past."

The rapid growth has been accompanied by problems like poverty and school overcrowding