These are just a few signs that indicate the Hispanic presence in Rowan County isn’t growing silently any more.

Antonio Mercado, La Alcancia’s owner, says a few Americans have wandered into the general store, asking what its name means. ‘‘I called it the ‘Piggybank’ because that’s where all my saved money was going,’’ he explains. Mercado’s store is doing very well, he says, due to the growing number of Hispanics in Rowan.

Between 1990 and 1997 Rowan County’s population grew 10 percent, the Census Bureau reports. But in that same period, the county’s Hispanic population almost doubled, rising from 707 people in 1991 to 1,346 in 1997. And because of the number of illegal Hispanic aliens, officials say those numbers fall well short of the actual Hispanic population.

More Hispanic immigrants arrive daily, many with children, and they are changing the face of Rowan County.

If all 1,346 Hispanics in Rowan County settled into one place, they would form a city the size of Granite Quarry.