The Latest Arrivals

For 325 of its 350 years, Cambridge did not have an Hispanic population. And for about 337 years, it didn't have an appreciable Hispanic minority.

That's now changed: unofficial estimates put the city's Spanish-speaking population at about 8000, though the 1980 census will probably fall far short of that tally.

A small number of immigrants from Puerto Rico arrived in 1957, but for a decade, few compatriots joined them. Now, however, about 60 per cent of the Hispanic population in Cambridge is Puerto Rican; Dominicans make up the second largest group. The great majority of these immigrants came to Cambridge because they already had family or connections in the city to help them get started. According to a report on the Hispanic population, only 7 per cent came in search of a more peaceful atmosphere; about as many came originally to study; 5 per cent came to find better housing.

But whatever their motives for coming, they share the problems of most immigrants: finding housing and jobs or vocational and linguistic training. They often cannot speak English--and everywhere these immigrants turn, their language is a roadblock. Cambridge has a bilingual department and bilingual training in its scholls, but it cannot serve every Hispanic in the city. The language barrier prevents many immigrants from obtaining any but the most menial jobs, and hampers their efforts to obtain social services. For several years a coalition of minority groups, including Hispanics, has tried to get interpreters at the Cambridge Hospital, but the hospital, like many city facilities, cannot afford to hire many translators.

Finding housing is especially critical in Cambridge. Many Hispanics have to compete with the city's student population for appartments--and most can only dream of owning a condominium or a house. Statistics from the Concilio Hispano de Cambridge, a social service organization for Hispanic residents, show that 16 per cent of the immigrants live in "overcrowded" conditions--more than one person per room. "Housing is very tough to find," Hector Miranda, director of the Concilio Hispano, says. "Many people originally staying with family and friends may end up moving to Waltham or other communities because of the housing crunch," he adds. And the Cambridge Housing Authority lacks bilingual workers, he says.

The Concilio Hispano helps find housing--and jobs--for the immigrants, most of whom are unskilled, Miranda says, adding that they are competing for jobs with skilled, English-speaking Americans. The organization does get jobs for many newcomers in the city's candy factories and on the assembly line at Kloss Video Corp., but the unemployment rate among Hispanics is about 17 percent.

Despite that bleak figure, Hispanic immigrants continue to settle in the city, at a rate of about 600 per year, Miranda says. The report on the Hispanic population shows that most immigrants come directly to Cambridge from their native countries, but that was not the case with earlier immigrants. They arrived in New York City, and gradually filtered into Connecticut and Springfield before settling in Boston or Cambridge.

But the economic status of the immigrants is improving, Miranda says. In the last five years, the numbers of professional and paraprofessional immigrants has steadily grown. Many of them came to the universities to earn a graduate degree and then decided to stay, or they found opportunities more plentiful in a university community. For the professionals, adjusting to a new country is generally easier and more gradual.

But these professionals largely remain outside the Hispanic community, sprinkled throughout in East Cambridge, Central Square and Cambridgeport. If they are studets, they live closer to Harvard or MIT, and if they are working, they tend to be employed in Boston or other communities, and do not share in Cambridge's cultural life.

Among Hispanics over age 16 almost 90 per cent have at one point been employed. About 84 per cent of these are blue-collar--more than half work in factories. Laborers, carpenters and semstresses are the next largest blue-collar job categories, while secretaries compose the largest number of white-collar workers.

Many of these immigrants are forced into blue-collar jobs because of their language skills. A good 85 per cent of Hispanics over age 25 say their Spanish skills are excellent; only 29 per cent can say the same for English. And 30 per cent say they cannot speak English at all.