A Mexican immigrant couple enjoy thier outdoor party in a trailer park home in Beardstown. The town’s Hispanic population is bound to continue to grow as the meatpacking plant keeps bringing in more foreign workers either from border states or directly from Mexico. By settling in Beardstown, Mexican immigrants are not only mirroring a nationwide trend but also changing the face of this small, rural town in a way it has never seen before. “People say they’d like to go back to the way it used to be,” says Beardstown mayor Bob Walters, “But the facts are the Hispanics are here to stay.”
