ABSTRACT
Worcester, once the capital of Massachusetts and currently the seat of Worcester County, is the second most populous city in the Commonwealth. Located in central Massachusetts on the Blackstone River (see Map 7.1), Worcester was famous for its once-mighty tool machinery industry. Worcester's population in 1995 was 171,226 and the official count of the Latino population was 20,955 or 12.2 percent (Torres and Chavez 1998). The 2000 census indicates that the Latino population is currently 26,155 or 15.1 percent of the city (U.S. Bureau of the Census 2001). Approximately 80 percent of Latinos in Worcester are Puerto Rican.
