RISING COMMUNITY

Latino growth in Birmingham area offsets local population loss

Estela Garcia, 58, loves to eat bread, so much so that she started baking telera, a Mexican bread, in 2005 in her home. She started selling breads and pastries out of her van, visiting her local Latino neighborhoods. People would call her “the van lady with the bread.”

Her passion grew and she opened a bakery called Panaderia y Pasteleria Hidalgo in August 2020 in Bessemer, Alabama. The town is at the southern edge of Birmingham and has drawn a bustling Latino community.

Garcia’s husband, Eliazar, runs the adjoining business, Taquería Hidalgo Garcia, in honor of their family name and Hidalgo, the Mexican state where they lived before making Alabama their permanent home 18 years ago.

The family represents a growing Latino population in Alabama. Bessemer, which is just a 20 minute drive from Birmingham, has seen its Latino population grow 42% between 2010 and 2020, according to an AL.com report.

Latinos still make up only 5.3% of the state’s population, but Bessemer, a town of 1,497, has a higher share, 5.7%, according to the U.S. Census. Driving down the main street after 6 p.m., the change is evidenced by an increase in taco trucks and signs in Spanish with the red, green and white colors of Mexico’s national flag.

Abraham Garcia, Estela’s son, has noticed the change. He said more Latino-owned businesses have cropped up in the past five years in Bessemer, especially since the pandemic.

Beatrice Rico found the Latino neighborhood in Bessemer while visiting Alabama from Georgia earlier this week. She stopped at the panadería and bought ice cream treats with her husband. A Latina herself, she said, “I didn’t know there were that many Latinos (here).”