It's about quality of life. And it's all relative.
Encouraged by aunts and brothers and cousins who are already here, Latinos are coming from New York as often as from their homelands.
And compared to where they've been, life in Pennsylvania is quiet, crime is low, schools are decent and work available, be it processing chickens or cleaning hotel rooms for tourists.
Some signs of change in Lancaster:
* The Latino population has gone from less than 1 percent of the total in 1960 to 21 percent in 1990. Today, unofficial estimates put the figure closer to 30 percent.
* Latino children make up more than 40 percent of the school district, which includes Lancaster City and Township.
* The high school principal is Latino. So are 32 of 804 teachers and administrators and nine of 133 police officers.
* The city has a twice-monthly bilingual newspaper supplement, a Spanish-language radio station, a thriving Spanish American Civic Association and 16 churches where Spanish is spoken.
* Lancaster's southeast quadrant, the heart of the Latino community, is a patchwork of Colombian groceries, Puerto Rican eateries and Hispanic variety stores. Mainstream supermarkets and small businesses are beginning to court Latino consumers, too.
The growing Latino presence in Lancaster speaks to the power of the oldest, most effective advertising campaign known to mankind - word of mouth.
It's said that everybody knew somebody in Lancaster before they made the move, whether they arrived 20 years ago or last week.
Twenty years ago, a newly divorced Loida Esbri left Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, with her two children and came to Lancaster after a friend who was already here described it as ``the best place to raise kids.''
