Phillip J. Granberry
chronology
1800s Spanish migrants come to work in the state’s granite and marble quarries.
1940 The U.S. Census Bureau makes the first population estimate of 700 Latinos residing in Vermont.
1980s Latinos informally network to develop internal support structures, like Spanish conversation groups, to assist in strengthening their identity.
1989 Hermanos Productions, Vermont’s only Latino entertainment company, begins bringing Latin music and dance to the state.
1995 The first Latino Festival is held in Burlington.
2007 Latino dairy farm employees are seen as valuable contributors to the preservation of the traditional rural character of Vermont.
Vermont historical overview
The 5,404 Latinos residing in Vermont on April 1 of 2000 make it home to the smallest Latino population of any state. Latinos constitute slightly less than 1 percent of the state’s population, ranking Vermont 48th, above only Maine and West Virginia in its concentration of Latino population. Although no record of the first Latinos to migrate to the state can be found, the first U.S. census to estimate Latinos recorded in 1940 that 700 Latinos resided in Vermont. At that time, they constituted only 0.2 percent of the state’s population. The 1970 U.S. census estimated that 1,610 Latinos lived in the state, and they constituted 0.4 percent of the state’s population. The Latino population expanded to 3,377
in 1980, and Latinos constituted 0.7 percent of the population. In 1990, 3,862 Latinos resided in Vermont, and they still constituted less than 1 percent of the state’s population.
