Hispanic influx gives Liberal, Kan., a new face
BY BRENT D. WISTROM
The Wichita Eagle
LIBERAL – Ignacio Rivas stands at his paletas cart chatting with another guy who also pushes frozen fruit treats on a three-wheel cart. It’s about 7 p.m. in downtown Liberal, a town proud of its Yellow Brick Road and annual Fat Tuesday pancake race.
But as Rivas tilts his straw cowboy hat down and pushes across the city’s main drag before sundown, the scene looks like one out of Mexico.
Perhaps a third to half of the independent business storefronts advertise in Spanish. Most others note that they habla español.This snapshot reflects what’s happening in Liberal — the heart of the first county in Kansas to officially become more than 50 percent Hispanic.
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