ISU expert: Latino businesses crucial for Iowa’s downtowns

DES MOINES — Nearly all Latino-owned businesses in Iowa initially open in a downtown commercial district, a phenomenon that has helped resurrect many rural towns crippled by the farm crisis two decades ago and the ongoing brain drain, says an Iowa State University field specialist.

Himar Hernandez, a field specialist in community resources with Iowa State University Extension, reports that Latino businesses are playing a primary role in revitalizing many downtowns in rural Iowa. Hernandez spoke at the Iowa Latino Conference in Des Moines this past weekend.

Speaking at the Iowa Latino Conference held at Grand View College in Des Moines last weekend, Himar Hernandez said that 96 percent of Latino businesses in Iowa are in downtown areas. As strip malls and Wal-Marts skip to the outskirts of towns, immigrant communities have filled in the gaps — first the Latinos and now a growing number of Africans, Hernandez said.

“They do prefer the downtown areas,” said Hernandez, a community resources specialist based in Ottumwa who works with Latinos and other immigrant groups throughout Iowa.

Perry, about a 30-minute drive west from Des Moines, is one place where the Latino business community has flexed its muscle, Hernandez notes.

With no Wal-Mart in Perry, “the downtown is very viable,” he said.

That’s in part because it’s not just Latinos who enjoy the experience of shopping in a smaller ethnic store.  Older white Iowans, who recall the days of vibrant downtowns and small family owned businesses, find them appealing — as do those interested in authentic cuisine, Hernandez said.  “The Anglo community likes to look for that shopping experience, that eating experience.”

That means big dollars for Iowa.

There are more than 1,5000 Latino businesses in Iowa, and in 2007 they had combined sales receipts of $288 million, reports Iowa State University.

Hispanic businesses are well-positioned generally to deal with economic downturns as they tend to be very-low-debt operations.

“They’re not paying interest,” Hernandez said.

Sixty-two percent of Iowa Latino businesses are retail and 20 percent are restaurants, reports Iowa State University.

According to the Iowa Division of Latino Affairs, the Latino population in Iowa is expected to jump by 335,000 in the year 2030, the largest generational ethnic demographic change since statehood.

At the moment, an estimated 114,700 Latinos are in Iowa, a 2 -percent increase since 2000, the New York Times reports. In some small towns, nearly a third of the citizens are Hispanic, although about half the Hispanic population is concentrated in five Iowa cities, including Des Moines, the Times adds.

The Latino families are younger and growing faster than the average Iowa family.

Fifty-four percent of Latinos in Iowa have children under 18, compared with the 31 percent of all Iowans who have children under 18.

And Hernandez said the majority of Latino immigrants in Iowa are by nature rural or small-town folk. Ninety-five percent of them come from “very rural” parts of Mexico and Central America and other Latino countries.

Although nearly 97 percent of the Latino immigrants in Iowa today lived in large cities, like Los Angeles, before making  their way to the Hawkeye State, he said, “They can relate better to the small-town setting.”