Amid the swirling conviviality at La Concha Bakery in Fitchburg, customers banter and catch up on news while piling their trays with mounds of fresh-baked breads and tempting sticky sweet pastries.

Youngsters clutch large cookies decorated with frosting and colored sprinkles.

And in four cloistered booths along a back wall, a steady succession of customers quietly sends millions of dollars to family members abroad.

The booths, each outfitted with a chair and a red telephone, connect customers with an exchange agency that handles international bank transfers. Callers describe how much they want to transfer and to whom, and operators take care of the rest. The money is handed over to a clerk behind the counter, and then it's back to the business of chatter and churros.

"When I decided to come here with my boyfriend, my first thing was to send the money to my family, to try to make a better life for my father and my mother. It's why I'm working all the time," said Efigenia Juarez, who works at La Concha and also uses its money transfer services to help support her family in Mexico. "I try to send money every month."

For an immigrant community that isn't always comfortable with traditional banks, these transactions — known as remittances — are more likely to be done in places like La Concha, or in tiny grocery stores, travel agencies, video shops and beauty salons tucked away in strip malls, with signs on the windows that advertise "Envios de dinero," or money transfers.

La Concha owner Tomas Ballesta, whose money-wiring business is one of the largest in the state, said he processes about 150 of these transactions on an average day; on a busy day, there might be 250. He collects a fee per transaction, typically between $8 and $10 for transfers under $1,500. Part of that is his commission; the rest covers fees charged by the wire transfer company.

Customers also pay a currency exchange fee to the wiring company, typically about 2 percent. Those picking up the money on the other end are generally not charged any fees.

Big business

Most remittances involve fairly modest amounts — the national average is between $200 and $300 — but they add up to big business.

In 2007, about $45 billion flowed from the United States to Latin America and the Caribbean, up from about $30 billion in 2004, according to the Inter-American Development Bank, a Washington, D.C.-based bank that promotes development in those regions and which tracks remittance traffic.

"It's a massive number ... but it's a drop in the bucket compared to the contribution that (immigrants) make to the gross domestic product of the United States," said Robert Meins, a consultant with the bank.

About 10 percent of the income earned by immigrants from Latin America is sent abroad, Meins said. The other 90 percent is spent in this country, he said.

With about seven in 10 adult immigrants in Wisconsin regularly sending money home, according to IDB, the interest in tapping into the market is considerable for outlets like La Concha, which act as agents for companies like Western Union or Intercambio Express who are licensed by the state as "sellers of checks."

Statewide, there are more than 6,800 such agents, according to the state Department of Financial Institutions.

National impact

U.S. Census estimates for 2006 put the Latino population in Wisconsin at about 261,000, with about 21,000 in Dane County. Local United Way estimates suggest the county numbers may run much higher, perhaps 45,000 or more. It's not known how many in that group are here illegally.

The average adult Latino immigrant in Wisconsin sends home about $2,700 a year, according to 2006 figures collected by the Inter-American Development Bank.

Families on the other end can be hugely dependent on that money to meet basic needs like food, shelter, clothing and medicine.

According to a recent IBD report, remittances "are essential to lifting millions of families out of poverty, particularly in Mexico, Central America, Bolivia, Ecuador, Haiti and the Dominican Republic."

Indeed, the transfers account for a significant part of the gross domestic product of several countries in the region, including 43 percent in Guyana, 35 percent in Haiti, 25 percent in Honduras, and 18 percent in Jamaica and El Salvador.

Mexico is the largest overall recipient of remittances, topping $23 billion in 2006, followed by Brazil and Columbia, at $7 billion and $4 billion respectively, according to the IDB. Remittances to Mexico, however, account for just 3 percent of its GDP because of its much larger economy.

The growth in this money flow could be slowing, however. A survey released by IDB last week suggests that fewer immigrants are now sending money home, reflecting both the slowdown in the U.S. economy and government efforts to crack down on illegal immigration.

Helping la familia

While it's not always easy to come up with the couple hundred dollars she sends her family each month, Juarez doesn't think of it as sacrifice.

Instead, she thinks of her father, who works 12, sometimes 16 hours a day, and still the money is never enough.

She thinks of her mother who says, "If you don't send money, that's OK. We can always eat beans."

And she thinks of her 14-year-old daughter, whom she hasn't seen in nine years.

"I feel like I lost all the best time with my daughter," said Juarez, 35, who's been in the United States about a decade. "But mostly we are all here for the same reason, for to help our families."

Juarez said she hopes one day to reunite with her family in Tlaxcala, Mexico, but she doesn't know when that will be.

"It's hard to make a decision when you know all your family is dependent on the money you send," she said. "The money I send makes a lot of difference."

By the numbers:

$335 million
Value of money transfers to Latin American countries from Wisconsin in 2006.
$152 million
Amount sent in 2004.
$2,676
Average amount sent per adult Latino immigrant.
71%
Latino immigrants who send money regularly.

Source: Inter-American Development Bank