WORTHINGTON, Minn. — (AP) — Two Guatemalans wearing traditional embroidered skirts bought coconut boba teas on an October afternoon at the bustling downtown Asian market. In decades past, the building served as this rural town’s hardware store where farmers shopped for hammers, nuts and bolts.
Over the past generation, immigrants from Southeast Asia, East Africa and now predominantly Central America have transformed this once overwhelmingly white community on the vast prairie. Students of color constitute more than 80% of those enrolled in K-12, Spanish is most children’s first language, and soccer is far more popular than football.
” Literally everything has changed,” said Chad Cummings, a city councilor and co-owner of the local radio stations — including a new 24/7 Spanish-language one.
Immigration is a core issue for voters this election, and some of the 2024 campaign’s most charged political vitriol has swirled around its effects on towns small and big across the country.
Like most lifelong residents in …