As the Hispanic population around the suburbs continues to grow, organizations, which serve that community, are encouraging people to get involved and make their voices heard.

Centro de Informacion on Thursday held its annual Community Day luncheon at the Elgin Country Club. While the event fell on Cinco de Mayo, it was meant to bring community members together, not specifically to celebrate the Mexican holiday, according to the group’s Executive Director Jaime Garcia.

Centro de Informacion, which has three offices in the area, sees more than 16,000 people a year, according to Garcia, and strives to empower Hispanics. Among its services are financial literacy, immigration assistance and a new program that provides role models to middle school girls.

New census data shows Elgin’s Hispanic population is now up to 43.6 percent and is a growing demographic around the suburbs. Virginia Martinez, legislative staff attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said during her keynote speech Thursday that Hispanic involvement also must increase.

“We need to make sure our presence is felt, that we are visible at every level and that we in fact earn respect and demand the respect we are due as a community,” she said.

One of ways the community currently is trying to do just that is by getting involved in the state lawmakers’ efforts to redraw legislative boundaries. Centro de Informacion recently collaborated with 49 other Latino organizations to look at the issue and propose new maps.

Martinez called it a “historic gathering of organizations,” but said more efforts are needed on a variety of topics.

“We need to make sure we continue the citizenship efforts … that we continue voter registration, that we continue community activism and that we ensure we are working collaboratively,” she said.

One of the groups that can be valuable, she said, is young people.

“They have insight to a part of the community many of us don’t have,” she said. “They have skills that we don’t have and they have opinions and they should be listened to.”

Centro de Informacion also honored three people who already have been making a difference in the community – E.C. “Mike” Alft, Mary Camacho and Jeanette Mihalec.

Alft is a former mayor of Elgin and a former high school teacher, and is known for his knowledge of the city’s history. He wrote “Hispanics in Elgin: A Brief History.”

Camacho, a longtime community activist, has been part of the Elgin Human Relations Commission, Centro de Informaction, The Grand Victoria Foundation Advisory Board, Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce and Police and Fire Commission. She also spent three years as the executive director of Neighborhood Housing Services.

Mihalec is the vice president of membership for the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce and a Kane County Board member who also has been involved with the Elgin Hispanic Network and Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Kane County.