Weather permitting, Chico Castillo and 20 other Hispanic men play soccer behind Talbott Springs Elementary School in Columbia's Village of Oakland Mills several days a week.
At 7 p.m. each Saturday, Cuban-born Maria Luisa Gaston joins about 100 parishioners at a Spanish-language Mass at St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church in the Wilde Lake Interfaith Center.
And in the county's public school classrooms, scores of Spanish-speaking children apply themselves painstakingly to the task of learning English as a second language.
They are all part of the second-largest non-English-speaking group in the county, and one of the fastest-growing: Hispanics.
Drawn by relatives who live here and by the need to escape political persecution and war in the lands of their birth, these immigrants come from Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Ecuador and other places in South and Central America.
The most recent U.S. Census put the county's Hispanic population at 3,699 residents -- second only to Asians among non-English-speaking groups in the county. But officials say the number actually may be 4,000 to 5,000 Hispanics in Howard, up from 1,484 in 1980.
And by the turn of the century, the county's Hispanic community is projected to number 13,000, said Pat Hatch, executive director for the Foreign-Born Information and Referral Network (FIRN), a community group that served 694 Spanish-speaking families during fiscal 1994.
Some Hispanics say the county has failed to keep up with the growth. They say the county lacks resources, grocery stores and organizations geared toward their community. Many go to Baltimore or Washington for ethnic food and entertainment.
"There really is very little that has to do with the Hispanic community here," said Ms. Gaston, who lives in Columbia's Village of Long Reach.
The county does attempt to meet the community's needs through Columbia-based FIRN, which offers new arrivals tutoring, interpreters and other assistance. Howard Community College also offers courses in English as a second language.
And the school system's English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program provides students who speak little English with 50 to 200 minutes of weekly instruction, depending on age and other factors.
But more needs to be done, said Victoria Duke, who supervises the county Health Department's maternity program, which works with Spanish-speaking women under a $10,000 grant from the National Association of County Health Officials.
"We've just begun to scratch the surface of what the needs of this community are," Mrs. Duke said. "I think in the beginning they were scared to seek services. Now I think there is trust."
The Hispanic population is a diverse one, including some who use the term "Hispanic" to describe themselves and some who don't. Leslie Salgado, originally from Ecuador, prefers the more inclusive term "Latin Americans," saying the term Hispanic only promotes their Spanish ancestry.
County officials say many new arrivals in Howard work in low-paying and seasonal jobs in landscaping, hotels and restaurants. Most live in Columbia's more affordable Oakland Mills and Wilde Lake villages.
Though exact numbers weren't immediately available, many of the Hispanics who came here during the big growth period of the 1980s are eligible for U.S. citizenship, Mrs. Hatch said.
The Spanish-language Mass at the Catholic Church is one ritual that bonds the community. "It is definitely a gathering place and [provides a] sense of identity and belonging," Ms. Gaston said.
To keep their heritage, many also celebrate holidays from their native lands.
On Friday, for example, Mr. Castillo, 24, a cook who lives in Oakland Mills, planned to celebrate Cinco de Mayo at El Azteca Mexican restaurant in Clarksville, described as the county's most "authentic" Mexican-style restaurant.
"We just party," he said, speaking of the Mexican holiday that celebrates the Mexican victory over the French on May 5, 1862.
The restaurant's owner and chef, Gilberto Cortes, 47, from Mexico, said he makes the celebration as authentic as possible, using dishes and colors from the Mexican flag.
And the community continues to grow.
"When we came here in 1971, we were among a handful of people and we knew everyone by name," said Paraguay-born Enrique Codas, 62, a social scientist. Now the numbers make that almost impossible.
"Today, there are a lot of people playing soccer and working," agreed Mr. Castillo, who came here from Mexico three years ago.
The FIRN organization is a key bridge for the Hispanic community. The group has two bilingual staffers. It also helped the county health department get the grant funding for an interpreter and health literature in Spanish.
Under that grant, a Spanish-speaking nurse and a paid FIRN interpreter visit the department's Family Planning Clinic in Columbia once a week. The clinic estimates that 12 percent of its clients are Hispanic.
