Yvette Diaz, the interim director of the department of community and culture, lives in Sandy with her husband and children. It is as white a neighborhood as she has ever seen, although Diaz said that Utah has gained more minorities in recent years.

Nine percent of Utah's population is Latino. Likewise, Latinos are the largest minority in both cities but compose 4.4 percent of the population in Sandy and 5.8 percent of the population in Draper.

Higher home prices and expensive land might be a cause for a smaller minority population, Diaz said.

"The fact is that for a lot of our Hispanic population, at least in Utah, the demographics are not favorable," Diaz said, speaking about the state's largest single minority group. "Only approximately 6 percent of Hispanic males and females have college degrees. We don't have individuals with post-graduate education. They are working blue-collar jobs, and they can't afford to pay the mortgage and rents in upper-class, predominantly white communities."

Those in the minority notice that minority more than the majority, Diaz said. Her children are among a few Latino children in their school classes in Sandy — her daughter once said she wished she had lighter skin. Majority residents may not notice minorities, because they work tend to work in service positions, out of public view, Diaz said.

"They're the ones who are mowing the lawn, picking up the trash and making their beds. The people doing the hard labor are definitely the immigrants," Diaz said. "If tomorrow all of those brown people ceased going to work and there was no one to clean and do the beds and the cooking, all of a sudden people would notice."

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E-mail: kswinyard@desnews.com