Among the jumble of Moody Street's posh restaurants and varied bars, a smattering of small, family-owned ethnic markets are helping diversify Waltham's town center.Inside, most of these shops are dingy and cramped, but the owners are welcoming and the atmosphere is genuine.

And a closer look at these markets and their prosperity shows the changing face of Waltham-a white, middle-class town giving way to ethnic and cultural diversity.

Waltham's small population of around 60,000 is traditionally known as white, working-class Protestants, but a new culture of different ethnic backgrounds is continually growing here.

As these minority communities have developed, culturally-proud business owners have begun to sense opportunities to cater to the new ethnic groups. The foreign populations are continuously growing in the Waltham area, and new businesses are opening to supply these communities with foods, media and services consistent with their cultural backgrounds.

Walking in to Indus Valley, a petite Indian market, customers are hit with the strong scent of curry. The market offers authentic Indian foods like cooking oils, dried fruits and buts, ghee, a clarified butter with a nutty aroma, and chapattis, a flat, unleavened, disk-shaped bread.

The young owner, Suraj Bonniah, speaks excitedly about his new venture into Waltham's economy. Formerly a software engineer, he bought the business from its previous owner a year and a half ago. Bonniah said that customers from across the Northeast and as far away as Maine and New Hampshire come to shop at Indus Valley because the store is able to cater to a culture with specific languages and traditions.

"In the past 10 years [ethnic businesses] have blossomed tremendously there," John Peacock, executive director of Waltham West Suburban Chamber of Commerce told The Boston Globe last year. "Moody Street is a popular place. Success draws people."

According to U.S. Census data from 2000, 83 percent of Waltham citizens are of Caucasian descent. From 1990 to 2000, the number of white Walthamites declined by 7.1 percent, while Hispanics grew by 55.3 percent, Asians by almost 112 percent and blacks by 47 percent.

A staff member from the Waltham planning department, who wished to remain anonymous, said that the commission has noticed two trends through analysis of 2000 Census data. First, a surge of immigrants-especially from Central America and Southeast Asia-have altered the city's residential makeup. He said that these workers, who "tend to be less affluent," benefit from the relatively inexpensive housing in Waltham.

He said that these immigrants may be attracted to the many jobs and services located along Route 128. Additionally, Waltham has many hotel, landscaping, construction and maintenance jobs that can attract immigrant labor.

He also said Waltham established a reputation for its manufacturing sector that endured for many years and attracted a large immigrant population. While less blue-collar jobs are available in Waltham today, he said, immigrants may well be a response to the city's traditional reputation.

Countering the immigrant influx, he continued, is a wave of "more affluent professionals" attracted to Waltham's proximity to Boston and Route 128.

Indus Valley rents out movies in Tamil and Malayalam, two Indian languages, which are subtitled in English. Some of the features are comparable to "Bollywood" films, the visually rich and colorful Indian cinema; other films are older.

"People can experience a different culture," Bonniah said of the films. He said the store does a fairly good business in rentals, but some films are rented out for weeklong periods because customers travel so far to visit the store.

According to the U.S. Census data, although Indus Americans are the largest cultural group in Waltham, the community is also receiving many people from other countries as well. The Hispanic community has especially proliferated within the past 10 years, as reflected by the success of the convenience store La Tienda.

"We noticed that people are going back and forth to their countries, and we are seeing new faces, new people," said Waltham resident Gabrieal Millan, who opened La Tienda two years ago; he also runs a larger Hispanic market store in nearby Allston.

Millan said that while walking down Moody Street years ago, he noticed only one business serving the Hispanic community. Sensing an opportunity, Millan bought a vacant lot at 420 Moody Street and began a smaller version of his Allston store, offering food from different countries in the Spanish-speaking world.

As he began to meet customers, Millan noticed that many of them, typically from Central American countries like Guatemala or El Salvador, didn't have a place to send money to other countries or pay their bills.

"We said, lets give [money-wiring services] a try and then we will know more about people living around here; we'll test to see how a double business will do," Millan said of adding the financial aspect of his business.

The store prospered even more than expected, and, with the help of its international money transferring service, has since grown into a business resembling a tiny accounting firm. People come in daily to send money to bill collectors and home to family members.

The store also has a variety of CDs behind its counters, which Millan said sell very well. He began selling these CDs when he noticed that Brazilian and Argentine customers lacked a source of music from their indigenous countries. The store also features Spanish and Portuguese standards and new releases.

Millan's economic success in Waltham can be attributed to the burgeoning population of Hispanic citizens in the Waltham area, as evidenced by 2000 census data.

The staff member from the Waltham Planning Department supported this data with further elaborations. He said that Waltham's "strategic location" has helped to propel Waltham's commercial development, including restaurants and bars.

The development of the opposing trends likely accounts for the disparity in Waltham's business district between its more classy restaurants and bars and the comparatively downscale ethnic markets and independent stores that neighbor them.

As La Tienda owner Millan noted, as Waltham's population becomes increasingly diverse, the business district will likely alter along with the cultural makeup.

"The community is growing and my customers are growing," he said.