El Sol Latino | May 2020 | 16.6

May 2020

Volume 16 No.6

Un Periódico Diferente / A Different Kind of Newspaper

The Impact of Coronavirus on the Working Poor and People of Color

TheEconomicand HealthFalloutof theCoronavirus forPeopleofColor

Un Periódico Diferente / A Different Kind of Newspaper

Un Periódico Diferente / A Different Kind of Newspaper

Professions that were pathways to the middle-class expose workers to the coronavirus The Impact Public sector occupations have for decades provided a reliable path into the middle class of forCoronavirus on the Working Poor and People of Color Black and Latino workers, who often face intense employment and wage discrimination in the private sector.23 Many of these jobs are stable because they are deemed “essential”—that is, they remain in operation even during economic downturns because they are often required for the country to function at a basic level.

Un Periódico Diferente / A Different Kind of Newspaper

These stable jobs have proven to be a double-edged sword during the coronavirus outbreak because most of them cannot be done from the safety of home. To bring home a paycheck, these middle-class workers are at greatly increased risk of becoming infected with the coronavirus and infecting their families.

Tragic reports are surfacing daily of public transit workers, grocery store workers and health care assistants being exposed to coronavirus, contracting COVID-19 and in some cases dying because they did not have the choice to stop working to protect themselves.24

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In 2019, just 1% of all workers in service occupations had access to a flexible workplace, which would allow them to complete their work at home or an approved alternate location. In comparison, 22% of workers in management, business and financial occupations had access to a flexible workplace. Without options for paid sick leave and working from home, workers in the

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Editorial / Editorial

The Economic and Healthcare Fallout of the COVID-19 for People of Color On April 24, 2020, a report was released by the office of Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA), that explains why Black, Latino, and low-income communities are disproportionately impacted by the Coronavirus or Covid-19.

According to the report, African American, Latino and low-income Americans are more likely to have pre-existing conditions such as hypertension, chronic lung disease, diabetes and heart disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report had found that 9 of 10 Americans hospitalized for Covid-19 had these health conditions. This population tends to be employed in the service industry, often doing person-to-person work. In addition, many oof them don’t have health insurance neither the flexibility to work from home.

According to the report, this is the same group that is more likely to be impacted by the economic recession that results in high unemployment rates, part-time jobs with lower incomes and less benefits.“ Not everyone has a job that will allow them to work from home and those that do not are disproportionately low-income and people of color,” Congressman Beyer said.

In an article published in the Center for American Progress by Connor Maxwell and Danyelle Solomon on April 14, 2020, the authors highlight

contents

2 Editorial / Editorial The Economic and Healthcare Fallout of the COVID-19 for People of Color

the same socio-economic inequalities in this sector of the population, “Nowhere are the effects of this current emergency more acute than in communities of color, which have long endured occupational segregation, economic exploitation, and employment discrimination.

These factors put people of color at greater risk of unemployment and limit their ability to weather economic downturns. The coronavirus does not discriminate based on race, but without immediate action, its economic fallout will disproportionately affect communities of color. “

3 Portada / Front Page Coronavirus Compounds Inequality and Endangers Communities of Color

“As a result of a corrosive cocktail of systemic inequalities, tens of thousands of people across the country are more likely to die from the coronavirus because of who they are, what they do and where they live,” Congressman Beyer said.

7 EforAll Holyoke Launches Spanish Accelerator Program, EparaTodos Holyoke

This portray of the current situation affecting people of color was shared by Swapna Reddy in an interview for The State Press newspaper on April 16, 2020. She explained that while COVID-19 is an egalitarian disease that can affect anyone or a “kind of an equal opportunity offender,” it impacts some groups more than others because of existing inequalities. Reddy is a clinical assistant professor in the College of Health Solutions who researches health disparities and health law.

9 Increasing Need for Food Assistance

Cita del Mes/ Quote of the Month “When we get this virus that is, quote-unquote, kind of an equal opportunity offender, it is going to seep into those cracks,” Reddy said. “And really where we have our largest weaknesses already — before we were dealing with the virus — those extreme areas of inequity, those extreme cracks in our society, are really going to feel the pressures of these viruses the most.”

4 Growing Data Underscore that Communities of Color are Being Harder Hit by COVID-19 5 COVID-19 is Hitting Black and Poor Communities the Hardest, Underscoring Fault Lines in Access and Care for those on Margins 6 Mass Graves for Coronavirus Victims shouldn’t come as a Shock – it’s how the Poor have been Buried for Centuries

8 Opinión / Opinion New England Pubilc Media: Un Recurso Valioso para la Comunidad 10 Libros/ Books Patria: formación de la comunidad puertorriqueña en Nueva York 11 Sunbelt Diaspora: Race, Class, and Latino Politics in Puerto Rican Orlando 12 Educación / Education STCC Virtual Tea Series to Highlight Women in Leadership Roles

HCC Student First from a Community College to Win Prestigious Poetry Contest

13 Ciencias / Science Unidos el RUM y la Universidad de Vermont por la Resiliencia Alimentaria

Swapna Reddy • TheStatePress.com /April 16, 2020• Swapna Reddy, a clinical assistant professor in the College of Health Solutions who researches health disparities and health law.

Founded in 2004

Foto del Mes/Photo of the Month

Donation Made to the Holyoke Senior Center On April 21, 2020, Holyoke Old Timers Softball League partnered with Golden Years Elderly Services to donate100 masks and 100 bottles of sanitizer to the Holyoke Senior Center. The items will be distributed by Western Mass Elder Care. Emil Morales, a police officer with the Holyoke Police Department, and President of the Holyoke Old Timers Softball League, is shown above with the donated items.

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Volume 16, No. 6 n May 2020

Editor Manuel Frau Ramos manuelfrau@gmail.com 413-320-3826 Assistant Editor Ingrid Estrany-Frau Managing Editor Diosdado López

Art Director Tennessee Media Design Business Address El Sol Latino P.O Box 572 Amherst, MA 01004-0572

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El Sol Latino is published monthly by Coquí Media Group.

El Sol Latino es publicado mensualmente por Coquí Media Group, P.O Box 572, Amherst, MA 01004-0572.

Portada / Front Page

El Sol Latino May 2020

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Coronavirus Compounds Inequality and Endangers Communities of Color by CONNOR MAXWELL This article was created by the Center for American Progress (www. americanprogress.org) | March 27, 2020.

elsewhere have been caught in the middle of a major health emergency as a result of long-standing segregation and economic oppression.

Inequality is magnified in times of national hardship. Perhaps nowhere is this clearer than in communities of color, which have long endured inequalities across American economic, social, and civic systems. Persistent segregation has restricted tens of millions of people of color to some of the most densely populated urban areas in the country; structural and environmental racism has produced extraordinarily high rates of serious chronic health conditions among people of color; and entrenched barriers in the health system continue to prevent people of color from obtaining the care they need. Now, these same factors threaten to exacerbate the current national hardship: a potentially deadly coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, that has infected tens of thousands of Americans and could affect millions more.

Higher rates of serious chronic health conditions make the coronavirus potentially more dangerous for people of color From automobile and refinery pollution to lead-contaminated water and food deserts, structural and environmental racism has contributed to higher rates of serious chronic health conditions in communities of color. Today, approximately 24 percent of AI/AN people, 23 percent of multiracial Americans, and 18 percent of Black Americans have been diagnosed with asthma. As many as 18 percent of AI/AN people, 15 percent of Black Americans, and 12 percent of Hispanic and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Americans have been diagnosed with diabetes. People of color also experience higher rates of obesity, HIV/AIDS, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and other chronic conditions. On a good day, these conditions make life more complicated and difficult—but during a global pandemic, they are life-threatening.

Amid this major public health crisis, the compounding effect of existing inequities puts people of color in an increasingly precarious situation. As federal, state, and local officials consider sweeping initiatives to address the human and economic cost of COVID-19, they must center America’s most vulnerable communities. It is crucial that lawmakers understand why and how this crisis could disproportionately harm people of color and take steps to mitigate the effects of entrenched structural racism and promote health equity for all.

Pandemics and people of color: Lessons from the H1N1 virus According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “In the spring of 2009, a novel influenza A (H1N1) virus emerged. It was detected first in the United States and spread quickly across the United States and the world.” In just one year, the CDC estimated 60.8 million H1N1 cases, 274,304 hospitalizations, and 12,469 deaths in the United States alone.

According to the CDC, while COVID-19 can affect anyone, people with serious chronic medical conditions are among the groups more likely to get very sick if they contract the disease. Therefore, the agency has warned such people to take extra precautions to avoid the virus. However, as noted above, while people of color are more likely to have these conditions, they are less likely to be able to avoid exposure. As a result, this virus could lead to even worse outcomes if it begins to spread rapidly in communities of color.

During this pandemic, people of color were far more likely to self-report influenza-like illness and to experience hospitalization due to the H1N1 virus. Data also suggest that Hispanic and American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) people in particular endured far higher H1N1-related mortality rates than non-Hispanic white Americans.

Experts believe that urban crowding, reliance on public transportation, absence of paid sick leave, and language barriers contributed to increased H1N1 exposure and susceptibility as well as delayed treatment in communities of color. In other words, structural racism put people of color at greater risk during the H1N1 pandemic. Many of the factors that put people of color at greater risk of exposure remain present today.

People of color disproportionately reside in densely populated metropolitan areas that could increase exposure to the coronavirus American housing policies have long restricted people of color to segregated neighborhoods in urban areas. People of color now constitute a majority of residents in the five most densely populated cities in the country. They have less access to green space and are more likely to reside in substandard housing than their white counterparts. Many people of color also rely on crowded public transportation systems to travel to work, purchase groceries, and obtain medical care.

America’s failure to ensure adequate coronavirus testing has caused the disease to spread undetected through some cities, and communities are rushing to reduce transmission by limiting mobility and person-to-person contact. Social distancing is essential in combating COVID-19 in order to reduce the risk of contagious people coming into contact with healthy people. But rampant segregation makes social distancing much more difficult for people of color, many of whom consider crowded laundromats, grocery stores, elevators, and sidewalks unavoidable features of daily life in a densely populated area. New York City has emerged as an epicenter of the outbreak and a clear example of the dangers of population density during a pandemic. Two-thirds of the city’s residents are people of color, and many do not have the luxury of self-isolation. People of color in New York and

Barriers in the health care system may prevent people of color from obtaining necessary care While the U.S. health care system has made remarkable progress in dismantling structural barriers, too many people of color struggle to obtain the care they need due to cost, language access, and outright discrimination.

Millions of people gained coverage under the Affordable Care Act, but people of color, especially AI/AN and Hispanic people, remain far more likely to be uninsured than their white counterparts due to many states’ refusal to expand coverage. According to a new CAP analysis of CDC data, 16 percent of Black people, 20 percent of Hispanic people, 19 percent of AI/AN people, and 18 percent of Asian Americans were unable to see a doctor in 2018 to due cost. By contrast, just 10 percent of white Americans were unable to see a doctor due to cost. Racial disparities in self-reported inability to afford care persist even after controlling for insurance coverage. continued on page 9

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Portada / Front Page

El Sol Latino May 2020

Growing Data Underscore that Communities of Color are Being Harder Hit by COVID-19

by SAMANTHA ARTIGA, KENDAL ORGERA, OLIVIA PHAM, and BRADLEY CORALLO This article was created by the KFF Policy Watch (www.kff.org/coronaviruspolicy-watch) | April 21, 2020.

In a recent analysis, we highlighted the higher risks COVID-19 poses for communities of color due to underlying health, social, and economic disparities. When we released that analysis, only a handful of states were reporting racial and ethnic data for confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths, but those data were already showing stark, disproportionate impacts for some groups of color. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began reporting national data on confirmed coronavirus cases by race and ethnicity as of April 17, 2020. Similar to earlier state data, they suggest that the virus is having disproportionate effects, with Black people accounting for 34% of confirmed cases with known race/ethnicity compared to 13% of the total population as of April 20, 2020. However, race and ethnicity is missing or unspecified for nearly two-thirds (65%) of the CDC-reported cases, limiting the ability to interpret the data. In addition to the CDC data, a growing number of states have started reporting racial and ethnic data for cases and deaths, which provide further insight into how the virus is affecting communities across the country: As of April 15, 2020, 33 states, including DC, were reporting data on distribution of confirmed coronavirus cases and/or deaths by race/ethnicity.

Our analysis of these data finds that they continue to paint a sobering picture of how the virus is disproportionately affecting communities of color, as described and illustrated below (Figure 1). These data will continue to evolve as states update their data and additional states begin reporting data by race and ethnicity. Going forward, we will update these data on a regular basis and add them to our State Data and Policy Actions to Address Coronavirus dashboard.

COVID-19: Confirmed Cases & Deaths

by Race/Ethnicity as of April 15, 2020 Hover over a State below to see details.

Select Race/Ethnicity

Select Cases or Deaths

Black

Cases

Ratio of % Cases to % Total Population

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© 2020 Mapbox © OpenStreetMap Note: Total cases and/or deaths in each state may not sum to 100% due to rounding or pending or missing information. In most states, percentages are based on a total of all confirmed cases and deaths, including those with unknown race/ethnicity. The percentages in California, New York state (excluding New York City), New York City, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Washington were adjusted to include those with unknown race/ethnicity in the total. Shares of cases and deaths may not be directly comparable due to differences in unknown rates. The data in Colorado and Mississippi are based only on cases and/or deaths where race and ethnicity information is known. Some states report data on cases and deaths for Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander individuals, but data are insufficient for comparisons to total population distribution. Ratio relative to total population cannot be calculated for Black individuals in Wyoming, and AIAN individuals in Michigan and Colorado.

Source: Distribution of Cases/Deaths by Race/Ethnicity based on KFF analysis of publicly available state websites. Total State Population Distribution

by Race/Ethnicity based on KFF analysis of 2018 American Community Survey.

In the majority of states reporting data, Black people accounted for a higher share of confirmed cases (in 20 of 31 states) and deaths (in 19 of 24 states) compared to their share of the total population. These disparities were

particularly large in Wisconsin, where Black people made up a four-times higher share of confirmed cases (25% vs. 6%) and an over six-times higher share of deaths (39% vs. 6%) compared to their share of the total population.

Similarly, in Kansas, Black people accounted for a three-times higher share of cases (17% vs. 6%) and an over five times higher share of deaths (33% vs. 6%) than their share of the total population. Other states where the share of deaths among Black people was at least twice as high as their share of the total population included Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Arkansas and Indiana.

Moreover, Black people accounted for over half of all deaths in DC (75%), Mississippi (66%), Louisiana (59%), Alabama (52%), and Georgia (51%).

We also observed disparate impacts for Hispanic and Asian individuals in some states. In 6 of 26 states reporting data, Hispanic individuals made up a greater share of confirmed cases compared to their share of the total population, with the largest relative differences in Iowa (17% vs. 6%) and Wisconsin (12% vs. 7%). Asian people made up a higher share of cases or deaths relative to their share of the total population in a few states, although the differences generally are small. In Alabama, Asian people accounted for 4% of deaths compared to 1% of the total population. Although we identified fewer disparities for these groups compared to Black people, less states report data for these groups and states differ in how they report these data. For example, states vary in whether they include or exclude Hispanic individuals from racial categories and some report data for Asian people alone, while others combine Asian people with another racial group.

Moreover, states do not provide data for subgroups of Asian people, which can mask disparities for subgroups who are at higher risk.

Data remain largely unavailable for smaller groups, including people who are American Indian or Alaska Native (AIAN) and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander (NHOPI), limiting the ability to identify impacts for them.

These groups are at high risk given large pre-existing disparities in health, social, and economic factors, and there are large disparities in some of the states where data are available. For example, AIAN people make up a larger share of confirmed cases compared to their share of the total population in New Mexico (37% vs. 9%), and AIAN individuals make up five times more deaths compared to their share of the total population in Arizona (21% vs.

4%). The Indian Health Service (IHS) also reports confirmed cases among IHS patients. However, not all AIAN people are able to access services through IHS, and IHS has historically been underfunded to meet the needs of AIAN people, so these data do not provide for a complete understanding of impacts for this group.

Comprehensive nationwide data by race and ethnicity will be key to understanding how COVID-19 is affecting communities as well as shaping and targeting response efforts. While the majority of states are reporting racial and ethnic data, in many states, race and/or ethnicity is unknown for a significant share of cases and deaths. The unknown race share exceeds 20% for cases in 14 states and for deaths in 4 states. Moreover, as noted earlier, there are inconsistencies in how states report data that limit comparability across states. As such, the availability of comprehensive, consistent nationwide data disaggregated by race and ethnicity remains important for understanding the impact of COVID-19 across communities.

Moreover, going forward, these data will be important to broader efforts to advance equity and address disparities that existed prior to COVID-19 and that will likely widen due to COVID-19.

The KAISER FAMILY FOUNDATION is a non-profit organization focusing on national health issues, as well as the U.S. role in global health policy. Unlike grant-making foundations, KFF develops and runs its own policy analysis, journalism and communications programs, sometimes in partnership with major news organizations. KFF serves as a non-partisan source of facts, analysis and journalism for policymakers, the media, the health policy community and the public. Our product is information, always provided free of charge — from the most sophisticated policy research, to basic facts and numbers, to in depth health policy news coverage provided by our news service.

Portada / Front Page

El Sol Latino May 2020

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COVID-19 is Hitting Black and Poor Communities the Hardest, Underscoring Fault Lines in Access and Care for those on Margins by GRACE A. NOPPERT This article was originally published in The Conversation | April 9, 2020 As the COVID-19 epidemic continues to ravage the American public, an unsurprising story emerges: Poor communities are hot spots for COVID transmission. The death rate from COVID-19 appears to be staggeringly high among African Americans compared to whites. The Washington Post reports, for example, that while 14% of the Michigan population is black, 40% of COVID-19 deaths are among blacks.

This is a familiar pattern to a social and infectious disease epidemiologist like myself.

It is evidence of centuries of segregation and discrimination that have disproportionately placed people of color in communities without access to health care, with degraded and crowded living conditions and a lack of basic opportunities for health and wellness.

In the context of the current pandemic, blacks are more likely to have lowpaying jobs that do not allow remote work options or offer health insurance or paid medical leave. The result of centuries of sidelining by American society plays out most obviously in worse health.

As the COVID-19 epidemic continues to ravage the American public, an unsurprising story emerges: Poor communities are hot spots for COVID transmission. The death rate from COVID-19 appears to be staggeringly high among African Americans compared to whites. The Washington Post reports, for example, that while 14% of the Michigan population is black, 40% of COVID-19 deaths are among blacks.

This is a familiar pattern to a social and infectious disease epidemiologist like myself. It is evidence of centuries of segregation and discrimination that have disproportionately placed people of color in communities without access to health care, with degraded and crowded living conditions and a lack of basic opportunities for health and wellness.

In the context of the current pandemic, blacks are more likely to have lowpaying jobs that do not allow remote work options or offer health insurance or paid medical leave. The result of centuries of sidelining by American society plays out most obviously in worse health.

No wealth, poor health The poor and marginalized already unfairly bear the burden of other diseases such as asthma, certain kinds of cancer, stroke and cardiovascular disease.

This ongoing pandemic looks to be no different. And poverty in the U.S. is very much tied to race and ethnicity. In 2018, 11% of whites had a household income below the federal poverty level compared to 23% of blacks and 19% of Hispanics. People of color are also more likely to live in low-income communities with a lack of access to basic resources for health and wellness.

The link between poverty and infectious disease is well-documented. Influenzarelated hospitalizations in low-income neighborhoods are nearly twice that of high-income neighborhoods. Pediatric hospitalizations from bacterial pneumonia are significantly higher in low-income neighborhoods compared to high-income neighborhoods. The same is largely true of tuberculosis in the U.S. where active transmission of TB is ongoing in poor neighborhoods – patterns that are not simply due to more people living in these areas.

TB, in particular, has long been tied to socioeconomic status. Even in the face of a widespread TB epidemic in the U.S. in the early 1900s, there was a noticeable pattern in which people of color, immigrants and those living in poor environments were more likely to be infected with TB and less likely to receive care.

Those of us who study the burden of disease on the poor have seen the same basic pattern play out in the U.S. today. People with TB often experience extreme socioeconomic disadvantage. Poor neighborhoods and people of color continue to disproportionately bear the burden of TB among U.S.-born individuals.

TB: A striking case in point The case of TB offers a unique vantage point to understand how these inequities emerge. Processes that operate at a societal level, such as residential

segregation, have been at work since the early 20th century. Such processes have systematically placed racial and ethnic minority populations in low-income communities with fewer resources and more exposure to environmental hazards.

Urban renewal and development efforts of the 1900s systematically benefited whites, further displacing communities of color. This resulted in minority communities with greater proportions of dilapidated low-quality housing and poverty with direct implications for the subsequent risk of infectious diseases.

Thus, non-white populations are unduly placed in settings that both increase exposure to infectious pathogens, such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis (the pathogen causing TB), and limit individuals’ ability to access health care to mitigate the effects of the subsequent disease.

The lack of resources also means that low-income communities have a higher prevalence of chronic conditions. For example, low-income neighborhoods with reduced access to healthy food and fewer opportunities for physical activity have higher rates of high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes. Such chronic conditions often result in compromised immunity, making individuals more vulnerable to infectious diseases.

One of the most insidious effects of living in a low-income community is the chronic toll of stress on the body, particularly the immune system. Socioeconomic disadvantage, via discrimination, job and housing instability, and food insecurity result in increased stress. This stress exposure is biological costly to the body.

Infectious diseases, like TB or COVID-19, can then thrive among populations that are living in low-income communities both because of increased exposure to infectious pathogens and a reduced ability of individuals to fight infections.

Now is the time for action COVID-19 seems to be following a similar, albeit amplified, trajectory as TB. If we take no action, the inequities we see will only increase in the coming months and years.

People of color continue to face discrimination in housing and labor markets. For example, redlining practices still exist, though in subtler ways, as evidenced by increased predatory lending practices and diminished access to goods and services in minority neighborhoods. Disinvestment in these communities has created spaces and places where everyone’s life does not count equally, where it is allowable for some people to not have access to the resources to live healthy lives.

While infectious disease epidemics like TB, or now COVID-19, can undoubtedly create health disparities, they will almost certainly exacerbate existing ones, pulling back the curtain on the consequences of the inequality to which we have all become accustomed.

COVID-19 offers us a moment in time to pay attention to these inequities.

Pockets of COVID-19 transmission in any community keep the risk of an enduring epidemic alive for every community.

I believe it should be a high priority for policymakers to partner with local health care practitioners and community organizations to provide low-income communities with resources to deal with this epidemic. These interventions should reduce or eliminate the cost of testing and treatment, and offer social and economic support for families that may need time from work for medical treatment, or have lost jobs because of COVID-19. Finally, as the possibility of treatments and vaccines develop, plans need be put in placed that deliver the interventions to low-income communities first, not last.

GRACE A. NOPPERT - Postdoctoral Scholar in Epidemiology, Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill I am a social and infectious disease epidemiologist. My work lies at the intersection of biology, sociology, and epidemiology. I am interested in how social processes across the life course, particularly structural disadvantage, impact a person’s biology through exposure to infections.

The central premise of my body of work is that those who are most structurally disadvantaged are also more likely to be exposed to and develop disease from infectious pathogens, resulting in a process of accelerated aging. I have a PhD in Epidemiologic Science from the University of Michigan. I hold masters degrees from Columbia University and Johns Hopkins University. I am currently a post-doctoral scholar at the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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Portada / Front Page

El Sol Latino May 2020

Mass Graves for Coronavirus Victims shouldn’t come as a Shock – it’s how the Poor have been Buried for Centuries by VICKI DANIEL This article was originally published in The Conversation | April 24, 2020 The coronavirus is not only controlling how we live, but increasingly what happens after we die.

In early April, New York City’s Council Health Committee chair Mark Levine generated buzz after tweeting that the city was considering temporary burials in local parks for victims of COVID-19. News outlets and social media users eagerly circulated his tweets, which seemed to be an ominous sign of the disease’s toll.

Although city officials assured residents that such temporary burials had not yet taken place, aerial footage of workers in protective gear interring bodies on Hart Island, the city’s “potter’s field,” seemed to confirm that the epidemic was overwhelming both our health care and our death care industries.

For people who expect a “proper” send-off when they die, the images were shocking, but for thousands of poor Americans, the prospect of burial in such a grave is a growing reality. It also is nothing new.

Cost of dying Burial on Hart Island has been the fate of indigent New Yorkers for years.

The city purchased the island in 1868 and performed its first burial there the following year. With approximately 1,000,000 individuals interred there since, the island off the Bronx is one of the nation’s largest potter’s fields, but it certainly is not the only one.

Programs exist throughout the country to handle the indigent dead, a category that includes unidentified bodies or deceased individuals whose families cannot or will not claim their bodies. These programs vary by state and, in many cases, by county. Most allow for an extended period of time for family to claim the remains, then rely on various methods for disposing of the bodies left behind.

Chicago inters remains in plots donated by the Catholic Archdiocese at Mount Olivet cemetery. San Francisco contracts with a cemetery in nearby Oakland to dispose of cremated remains at sea.

Costs for handling these remains can range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars per body, creating a financial burden for some cities and counties. Often, cremation is the preferred method of disposal because of its lower cost, but in some cases, counties donate the dead to medical science, which is free.

Rich and fulfilling death As a historian of death in America, I have seen how socioeconomic standing has dramatically shaped the final disposition of the dead throughout time, especially after the rise of the funeral industry following the Civil War. By the end of the 19th century, the more affluent could afford to be embalmed, laid out in a casket, transported to a cemetery, and put to rest in a marked plot, all which might cost around US$100 – around $3,000 in today’s dollars.

But those without means have long relied on the community to properly dispose of their remains. In rural communities, where most residents knew one another, the poor might at least hope to receive an unmarked plot in the local churchyard – the primary burial site until the establishment of public burying grounds in the 19th century.

In cities, however, the indigent dead often became the responsibility of municipal departments, such as the board of health. As better wages drew laborers to urban areas in the late 19th century, officials worked to address perceived problems stemming from industrialization and rapid population growth: poverty, vice, crime and disease. Those who died in public

hospitals, poorhouses, workhouses, orphanages or prisons were usually buried by the city with little ceremony. Bodies were placed in simple coffins and carted straight to the public burial grounds with minimal funeral service.

Sadly, burial in a potter’s field also sometimes rendered the poor more vulnerable in death than they had been in life. In an era before willed body donation programs, medical schools throughout the country often targeted the poor – as well as criminals and African Americans – for the dissecting lab. Medical students or professional grave robbers disinterred remains under the cover of night, sometimes with the explicit permission of bribed public officials or cemetery employees. What’s more, the practice of grave robbing eventually became legally sanctioned through the passage of anatomy acts, whereby states like Massachusetts and Michigan permitted medical students to dissect unclaimed bodies from poorhouses.

Even without the threat of dissection, the potter’s field – named after the biblical, clay-rich burial ground the high priests of Jerusalem bought with Judas’ 30 pieces of silver – was a place of stigma. As a result, many communities did what they could to protect their own from such a fate. For example, black churches, such as Baltimore’s African Methodist Episcopal Church, founded burial grounds for the city’s enslaved and free residents.

Similarly, African American benevolent societies in the 19th and 20th centuries often paid funeral and burial costs for their members.

Permanently parked Likewise, New York’s Jewish community had burial societies and immigrant aid societies that provided similar services, assuring individuals remained part of their community, even in death.

Such practices were difficult to uphold during periods of crisis. For example, during deadly outbreaks of yellow fever and cholera in the 19th century, New York officials – fearing that the dead were contagious – hastily interred bodies in local parks. In such instances, corpses were placed in large trenches with little ceremony or intimate care. Similarly, when the flu overwhelmed Philadelphia in 1918, bodies were buried in mass graves all around the city. Such graves were also common after mass fatality events, like the 1889 Johnstown Flood, especially before DNA testing allowed for the identification of unknown remains.

Recent angst about Hart Island allows us to consider why these mass burials trouble us. They serve not only as reminders of our own mortality, but also the fragility of our death rituals in times of crisis. We all hope that our deaths will be good deaths, surrounded by loved ones, but COVID-19 kills people in isolation and limits our rituals. Yet, this is already a reality for many Americans.

Indigent burials have been on the rise for years due to both the increase in funeral costs and the widening gap between rich and poor, now further exacerbated by the pandemic’s economic effects. We will likely see an increase in the number of people for whom such burial remains a real possibility even after the pandemic resides.

VICKI DANIEL - Teaching Fellow and Instructor of History, Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Daniel is an historian of American medicine and the body, with specific interests in the practices centered on the dead body. Her current research focuses on the history of disaster victim identification in the United States in the late nineteenth and early-twentieth century. This project explores how objective scientific perspectives on the unidentified dead came to gain authority over the subjective views held by victims’ family and friends, particularly through the use of new visualizing technologies that abstracted the corpse into forms of data.

Portada / Front Page

El Sol Latino May 2020

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EforAll Holyoke Launches Spanish Accelerator Program, EparaTodos Holyoke HOLYOKE, MA | EforAll | April 21, 2020 — Continuing to expand its proven approach to help underresourced individuals successfully start and grow their businesses, the nonprofit Entrepreneurship for All (EforAll) announced today that it is accepting applications for its new EparaTodos program in Holyoke which will focus on supporting Spanish speaking entrepreneurs in the Greater Holyoke community.

“The mission of Entrepreneurship for All is to accelerate economic and social impact in communities nationwide through inclusive entrepreneurship”, says Tessa Program Manager Gabriella Candelario Murphy-Romboletti, Executive Director of EforAll/EparaTodos Holyoke. “42% of the population of Holyoke speaks Spanish, so launching our EparaTodos Holyoke program is filling a need for the many Spanish speaking entrepreneurs in our community.”

EforAll’s free one year business accelerator program helps under-resourced individuals successfully start and grow their businesses or nonprofits, across a wide range of industries including personal and professional services, food, manufacturing and online/traditional retail.

The program offers a unique combination of immersive business training, dedicated mentorship and access to a professional network. The organization typically offers its programs in-person but it is prepared to deliver classroom training and mentor sessions online if necessary.

Among the businesses started

by EforAll participants, 75 percent are owned by women, 56 percent are owned by people of color, 54 percent are owned by immigrants and 56 percent are owned by people who were previously unemployed.

EforAll is accepting applications for this new Spanish language accelerator (EparaTodos) as well as its English Accelerator program (EforAll) through Wednesday, May 20th at 5pm. Interested applicants can learn more and apply at www.eforall.org where they will find information in both English and Spanish.

To support its new Spanish language programming, EforAll Holyoke has hired a dedicated EparaTodos program manager, Gabriella Candelario.

Before joining EparaTodos Holyoke, Gabriella Candelario worked with the Springfield Public Schools as a Program Coordinator. According to Candelario, “The opportunity to work with the EforAll Holyoke team to expand its impact with the Hispanic and Latino communities is an exciting opportunity. I’m ready to hit the ground running!” Gabriella can be reached at gabriella@eparatodos.org.

Entrepreneurship for All (EforAll) is a nonprofit organization that partners with communities nationwide to help under-resourced individuals successfully start and grow a business through intensive business training, mentorship and an extended professional support network. Programs are available in both English and Spanish. EforAll is currently available in the following MA communities: Berkshire County, Cape Cod, Fall River, Holyoke, Lawrence, Lowell, Lynn, New Bedford, and Roxbury as well as Longmont CO. To learn more about EforAll, please visit eforall.org.

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Opinión / Opinion

El Sol Latino May 2020

New England Pubilc Media: Un Recurso New England Pubilc Media: An Invaluable Valioso para la Comunidad por ROBERT S. FELDMAN Asset to the Community by ROBERT S. FELDMAN Los medios de comunicación públicos han prosperado en el oeste de Nueva Inglaterra desde principios de la década de 1960, cuando 88.5FM WFCR comenzó a transmitir desde sus estudios en el campus de Amherst de la Universidad de Massachusetts (UMass Amherst). Una década más tarde llegó WGBY / 57 Springfield, quien trajo la televisión pública a la región. Y ahora, durante casi un año, estas dos venerables instituciones financiadas por la comunidad se han unido para formar New England Public Media, una organización de medios públicos que sirve a nuestra comunidad.

New England Public Media (NEPM) ya ha demostrado ser un recurso valioso para la comunidad en estos momentos en que estamos lidiamos con la pandemia del COVID-19. Junto a nuestros socios en la red nacional de estaciones públicas de radio y televisión, NEPM ha estado trabajando para ayudar a nuestras comunidades a entender y a adaptarse a nuestro mundo que ha cambiado radicalmente.

Public media has thrived in western New England since the early 1960’s, when 88.5FM WFCR first began broadcasting from its studios on the UMass Amherst campus. A decade later came WGBY/57 Springfield, which brought public television to the region. And now, for almost a year, these two venerable, community-funded institutions have joined together as New England Public Media, a single public media organization serving our community.

New England Public Media (NEPM) has already proven to be an invaluable asset to the community as we grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic. Along with its partners in the nationwide network of public radio and television stations, NEPM has been working to help our communities understand, and adapt, to our radically-changed world.

ROBERT S. FELDMAN

Consideremos algunas de las maneras en que NEPM ha proporcionado contenido que llena las necesidades actuales y urgentes de nuestra comunidad: • NEPM ha proporcionado acceso crítico a material para ayudar a los estudiantes y a las familias a medida que navegan el aprendizaje remoto durante el resto del año escolar. Con las escuelas cerradas en todo el estado, NEPM (en asociación con WGBH en Boston) se ha asociado con el Departamento de Educación Primaria y Secundaria de Massachusetts para proveer oportunidades de aprendizaje a distancia en línea y por televisión, asegurando que los estudiantes continúen teniendo acceso a programas educativos independientemente de la disponibilidad de internet de banda ancha en sus hogares.

• En respuesta al limitado contenido en español disponible localmente en torno a la pandemia, el equipo de NEPM Presencia se ha asociado con varios periodistas Latinos y profesionales de los medios que trabajan en el oeste de Massachusetts (incluyendo a El Sol Latino) para formar el Colectivo de Medios Latinos (facebook.com/colectivodemedioslatinos), un recurso completamente en español que brinda diariamente información objetiva y confiable para la comunidad Hispanoparlante.

• También en respuesta a la pandemia, Connecting Point, el programa diario de asuntos públicos de WGBY, ha agregado la producción de una versión de radio del programa a la programación diaria (nocturna – de lunes a viernes) de New England Public Radio.

• En colaboración con el New England News Collaborative y el proyecto America Amplified, New England Public Radio ha transmitido varios especiales regionales de llamadas para solicitar o compartir información (call-in specials). Los mismos han abordado temas que van desde educación hasta los trabajadores esenciales y la economía en Nueva Inglaterra. Además, de lunes a viernes, 88.5FM ha estado transmitiendo In It Together por la noches, un nuevo programa interactivo que conecta a Massachusetts con información e historias sobre cómo todos estamos lidiando durante este momento difícil.

A medida que buscamos las maneras de lidiar con la pandemia del coronavirus, el compromiso de New England Public Media con el periodismo local nunca ha sido más fuerte, y el valor del periodismo reflexivo e imparcial, la educación y el liderazgo cívico que NEPM provee en estos tiempos inciertos, nunca ha sido tan crítico.

ROBERT S. FELDMAN, Chair, New England Public Media Board of Directors Traducción por El Sol Latino

Consider just some of the ways that NEPM has provided content that meets our community’s current, pressing needs:

• NEPM has provided critical access to material to assist students and families as they navigate remote learning through the remainder of the school year. With schools closed across the state, NEPM (in partnership with WGBH in Boston) has partnered with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to provide distance learning opportunities on online and on broadcast television, ensuring that students continue to have access to educational programs regardless of the availability of broadband internet in their homes.

• In response to the limited Spanish language local content around the pandemic, the NEPM Presencia team has partnered with several Latino journalists and media professionals working in western Massachusetts (including El Sol Latino) to form Colectivo de Medios Latinos (facebook. com/colectivodemedioslatinos), an all-Spanish resource providing daily reliable and objective information for the Spanish speaking community.

• Also in response to the pandemic, Connecting Point, WGBY’s daily public affairs program, has added the production of a radio version of the show to New England Public Radio’s lineup each weeknight.

• In collaboration with the New England News Collaborative and the America Amplified project, New England Public Radio has aired several regional call-in specials focused on New England addressing issues ranging from education, to essential workers, to the economy. And weeknights, 88.5FM has been airing In It Together, a new interactive program connecting the Commonwealth with information and stories about how we are all coping during this difficult time.

As we seek to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, New England Public Media’s commitment to local journalism has never been stronger, and the value of the thoughtful, unbiased journalism, education, and civic leadership that NEPM provides in these uncertain times has never been more critical.

ROBERT S. FELDMAN, Chair, New England Public Media Board of Directors

Opinión / Opinion

El Sol Latino May 2020

Increasing Need for Food Assistance

Coronavirus Compounds Inequality and Endangers Communities of Color

In my 15 years at The Food Bank, we have never experienced anything like we are now – not even during the Great Recession. COVID-19 has closed temporarily about a dozen of our 175 local members feeding sites dotted across our region and about an equal number of our 51 Brown Bag sites at senior centers and 26 Mobile Food Bank sites in food deserts. The situation is very fluid as circumstances change daily on the ground. Above all else, we have adapted to uphold food and public safety through social distancing, protected food handling and other measures. Many sites have changed their distribution methods to keep visitors safe. Most meal programs are now making meals to go, which patrons can pick up and take with them.

Many pantries are also distributing food outdoors to help reduce risk of the coronavirus spreading to staff and guests.

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by ANDREW MOREHOUSE

With unemployment claims skyrocketing, we expect that food insecurity – not knowing where your next meal is going to come from – will continue to grow even more. We have experienced a 23% increase in food distribution since March.

Our job is to provide food assistance to whomever needs it, regardless of their circumstances. All our local feeding partners, and our own direct food distribution, provide food assistance with compassion, respect, and dignity.

It is a service for anyone whether they have needed help before or need assistance for the first time.

There should be no stigma in seeking food assistance. Those in need are our neighbors, members of our congregations, our fellow employees and just about anybody.

Our warehouse staff and drivers are very busy receiving, storing, picking, and distributing vast quantities of healthy food to households across our four-county region. Not since the Great Recession, we are now buying tractor trailer loads of pre-packaged meal boxes to deliver to communities hit hardest by COVID-19. We are also preparing for the arrival of unprecedented levels of federal food for distribution to our communities.

In addition, our SNAP team is working very hard to keep up with the increased demand for SNAP application assistance.

If you’re interested in learning more about our COVID-19 response, you can find our updates here: https://www.foodbankwma.org/ We have received an outpouring of support from the community — individuals, businesses, and foundations from our region, across the commonwealth and even nationally. We are grateful for this commitment to our neighbors in need when they and we all need it most.

ANDREW MOREHOUSE is responsible for the overall management of The Food Bank. He also engages in public education and advocacy, carries out fundraising and “friendraising,” and serves on several non-profit boards of directors. Morehouse has served as the Executive Director since 2005.

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Language barriers also prevent countless people of color from obtaining crucial information about disease treatment and prevention. More than 350 different languages are spoken in the United States. Millions of Americans—including 35 percent of Hispanic and Asian Americans and 14 percent of Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander people—are also limited English proficient (LEP), meaning they speak English “less than very well.” LEP Americans have the legal right to access care in their preferred language. However, few hospitals require their medical residents to receive interpreter services training or offer medical staff formal assessments of their foreign language proficiency.

Lastly, racial discrimination remains an ever-present barrier to treatment for people of color. In fact, 32 percent of African Americans, 20 percent of Latinos, 23 percent of Native Americans, and 13 percent of Asian Americans have experienced racial discrimination when going to a doctor or health clinic. By contrast, only 5 percent of white Americans have experienced racial discrimination when seeking care.

People of color have always needed and deserved access to affordable, safe, and high-quality health care. Now, as the coronavirus spreads to these at-risk communities, there is renewed urgency in ensuring lawmakers and health officials dismantle financial and linguistic barriers to affordable and quality health care.

Recommendations As the Trump administration, Congress, and elected officials across the country continue to put forward policy to help Americans, it is essential that they put the most vulnerable people at the center of their discussions.

Unfortunately, the Trump administration has revealed, through its policy proposals and public statements, that it cares far more about corporations, the stock market, and its own reputation than it does about the health and well-being of American families. Many governors and local elected officials are leading the way by adopting policies to limit exposure and promoting information transparency.

States and localities have demonstrated that they are willing to make difficult choices in order to save lives and support communities. Lawmakers who are interested in doing more to ensure that people of color are protected should pursue the following measures: • Ensure paid sick leave and paid family and medical leave for all workers • Secure additional translation services for hospitals and health clinics • Ensure low-income individuals have access to no-cost testing and treatment related to COVID-19 • Ensure official coronavirus-related publications are translated for singlelanguage minority groups with a large presence in their jurisdiction • Send cash and other financial assistance directly to households The COVID-19 pandemic is a glaring reminder that inequality puts America’s most vulnerable communities at increased risk. To prevent such occurrences from disproportionately harming people of color, lawmakers must consider serious equity implications highlighted by the civil rights community and work to dismantle structural racism in American economic, housing, and health care systems. By doing so, they will ensure that America is better able to equitably respond to unexpected emergencies in the future.

CONNOR MAXWELL is a senior policy analyst for Race and Ethnicity Policy at American Progress.

His work focuses on criminal justice, racial justice, diversity, and inclusion issues. Prior to joining American Progress, he interned at the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, the American Civil Liberties Union, and The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

He earned his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Public Policy from the University of Virginia.

The CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS is an independent nonpartisan policy institute that is dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans, through bold, progressive ideas, as well as strong leadership and concerted action. Our aim is not just to change the conversation, but to change the country.

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Libros/ Books

El Sol Latino May 2020

Patria: formación de la comunidad puertorriqueña en Nueva York por EFRAÍN BARRADAS • Este artículo fue publicado originalmente en 80grados.net | 3 de abril de 2020 Tras la aparición de Memorias: contribución a la historia de la comunidad puertorriqueña en Nueva York de Bernardo Vega en 1977 la imagen de nuestra historia, particularmente la de nuestra presencia en los Estados Unidos, cambió drásticamente. En su libro Vega documenta los orígenes de esta comunidad en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX y nos hace pensar aún en tiempos más remotos, en el siglo XVIII; hay que recordar los importantes contactos comerciales entre las Antillas y las entonces colonias inglesas en Norte América.

Tras la aparición del libro de Vega, otros estudiosos han ampliado lo establecido por este y hasta han abierto nuevos caminos en ese campo. Es en ese contexto donde hay que colocar el nuevo estudio de Edgardo Meléndez, “Patria”: Puerto Rican revolutionary exiles in late nineteenth century New York (New York, Centro Press, 2020). No me cabe duda alguna de que hay que darle la bienvenida a este nuevo libro que, a pesar de ciertas pequeñas fallas y algunas ausencias bibliográficas, es una importante contribución para el mejor entendimiento de la formación de la comunidad boricua en Nueva York.

El centro del libro e s el periódico Patria (1892-1898) fundado por José Martí como otro medio más para organizar la lucha por la independencia de Cuba. El editor de este periódico fue un tipógrafo negro puertorriqueño, Sotero Figueroa (1851-1923), amigo íntimo y fiel colaborador de Martí. Los tres adjetivos que uso para describir a Figueroa – tipógrafo, negro, puertorriqueño – apuntan a aspectos claves de la lucha que Martí fomentaba entre los emigrantes antillanos en los Estados Unidos. Tipógrafo: Sotero Figueroa pertenecía a una élite de obreros ilustrados – tabaqueros y tipógrafos – que, dados su conciencia política y su desarrollo intelectual, era la base de los que apoyaban a Martí en su lucha. Negro: para Martí era importante la unidad de todos los antillanos que, en el fondo, estaban divididos por prejuicios raciales que él mismo denunciaba y que quería erradicar, como lo postula en su conocido ensayo “Mi raza”. Puertorriqueño: la lucha por la independencia de Cuba que dirigía Martí estaba fundada en una visión panantillanista que tenía sus orígenes en las ideas y los ideales de Betances, que fueron desarrollados por Hostos antes de ser aceptados por el prócer cubano. Sotelo Figueroa era, pues, una figura representativa y hasta emblemática de la lucha independentista que trataba de unir a la vanguardia de los obreros cubanos y puertorriqueños, sin que importara su razas. Por ello – y dada la estrecha amistad entre los dos – es que este puertorriqueño ocupó un puesto tan importante en el aparato político creado por el prócer cubano.

Meléndez en este nuevo libro se enfoca en la presencia de Puerto Rico y la colaboración de los puertorriqueños en Patria. Para hacerlo estudia en el primer capítulo de su libro el ambiente político de las colonias antillanas en Nueva York en ese momento y, al hacerlo, presta atención especial a la participación de los boricuas en el “Partido Revolucionario Cubano” fundado por Martí el mismo año que el periódico. Recordemos que este partido tenía una sección puertorriqueña cuyo objetivo era fomentar la independencia de nuestra isla mientras se preparaba la lucha armada para obtener la de Cuba. Sotero Figueroa no fue el único boricua que se destacó en esa lucha con base en Nueva York; múltiples otros compatriotas suyos – Pachín Marín, Schomburg, Hostos, Henna, Rius Rivera, entre otros y otras – desempeñaron roles de importancia en esta.

En el capítulo central del libro, Meléndez examina la presencia de Puerto Rico y los puertorriqueños en Patria. Presta atención especial, dado su acercamiento historiográfico, a la economía del momento y su impacto en la lucha y vida de los cubanos y boricuas en Nueva York. Meléndez nos recuerda que esta ciudad se convirtió en el centro del proceso de refinación del azúcar caribeño y en una gran productora de cigarros, industrias ambas que impactaron a los antillanos emigrados a Nueva York y a las Antillas mismas.

El último capítulo de la primera parte del libro, el que más me interesa, intenta ver cómo las comunidades boricuas y

cubanas en Nueva York quedan retratadas en las páginas de Patria. Aquí, como en todo el estudio, la labor de Meléndez es rigurosa y nos ayuda grandemente a entender mejor la historia de los antillanos en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX en Nueva York. Por ello, la primera parte del libro – la segunda, la más amplia, es una utilísima recopilación de documentos, especialmente de artículos publicados en Patria – termina con las siguientes palabras que establecen claramente el propósito central de su estudio: … the newspaper can be used to document the historical record of the nascent Puerto Rican community in this city and remind current generations that the origins of Puerto Rican presence in New York goes back years before the US invasion of their patria in 1898. (96) Con esta oración Meléndez afirma que parte de una mirada amplia de la historia de los boricuas en Nueva York y que, como Bernardo Vega ya había propuesto y adelantado, hay que ver la continuidad de la historia de los puertorriqueños en Nueva York como un proceso, como una secuencia que, a pesar de los cambios o por estos mismos, sirve para explorar el pasado y para entender mejor el presente.

Por ello me interesa especialmente este capítulo final donde se esboza la situación de los puertorriqueños en Nueva York en ese periodo de formación.

Uno de los rasgos más destacados de ese retrato de esta comunidad en el siglo XIX es la división de clases: obreros y profesionales. Meléndez hasta marca la presencia física – viviendas y negocios – de esos puertorriqueños en la ciudad y esto le sirve para ilustrar mejor esta división. Por un lado, estaban los profesionales de clase acomodada como Henna y Todd y, por otro, los obreros como Marín y Figueroa. Esa división se manifestaba no sólo dónde vivían o trabajaban sino también y sobre todo en sus respectivas ideologías políticas: muchos de los primeros querían la separación de Puerto Rico de España para asimilarse a los Estados Unidos, mientras que los segundos tenía como objetivo último la creación de una nación independiente. Esa misma división se ve entre los cubanos y, por ello, tras la muerte de Martí y al alcanzar el poder del Partido Revolucionario Cubano Tomás Estrada Palma, domina el ala conservadora de este, lo que tiene como consecuencia que disminuya en Patria el interés por Puerto Rico, que se proponga la asimilación de la Isla a la nueva metrópoli como solución política y que sea menor la colaboración de los puertorriqueños en el periódico.

Como ya señalaba, Meléndez comienza a rastrear el desarrollo de los comercios en la comunidad puertorriqueña en Nueva York. Para hacerlo nos ofrece al principio del libro un revelador mapa de Manhattan donde aparecen identificados las residencias y los negocios de muchos de los puertorriqueños que son protagonistas de su estudio. Este es un trabajo que hay que continuar, pero ya aquí se ofrece una base sólida para futuros investigadores. En este mapa Meléndez señala la presencia de tres “boticas”. Poca información adicional se nos ofrece sobre estos negocios que, desafortunadamente, confunde con “botánicas”.

En el siglo XIX todavía las manifestaciones religiosas que no fuesen expresión ortodoxa de la cultura dominante estaban en un proceso de formación y no tenían la posibilidad de manifestarse abiertamente. Por ello esas “boticas” tenían que ser farmacias o negocios afines a estas y no “shops for spiritist products and practices” (91), como sugiere Meléndez. Faltarán todavía muchas décadas antes de que esas manifestaciones religiosas que en el momento eran secretas pudieran aparecer públicamente y pudieran tener ámbitos propios para comerciar. Pero, a pesar de pequeños errores como este, Meléndez nos ofrece una base sólida para estudiar la comunidad boricua en Nueva York en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX. Sorprende también la ausencia de ciertos estudios que pudieran servir para sustentar y ampliar la tesis central de este estudio. Por ejemplo, Lisandro Pérez, a quien Meléndez cita, aunque por un trabajo temprano pero que resume los importantes hallazgos que más tarde ampliará en un libro, Sugar, cigar and revolution: the making of Cuban New York (2018), es otro historiador que ha hecho una contribución de importancia al campo. Pero sorprende que Meléndez no haya consultado el importante libro de Lillian Guerra sobre la transformación de la figura de Martí en Cuba tras la guerra del 98, The myth of José Martí: conflicting nationalisms in early twentieth-century Cuba (2005). Ese trabajo le

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Libros/ Books

El Sol Latino May 2020

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Sunbelt Diaspora: Race, Class, and Latino Politics in Puerto Rican Orlando by PATRICIA SILVER Austin, TX: University of Texas Press | September 2020 | 320 pages Description: Puerto Ricans make up half of Orlando-area Latinos, arriving from Puerto Rico as well as from other long-established diaspora communities to a place where Latino politics have long been about Cubans in Miami. Together with other Latinos from multiple places, Puerto Ricans bring diverse experiences of race and class to this Sunbelt city. Tracing the emergence of the Puerto Rican and Latino presence in Orlando from the 1940s through an ethnographic moment of twenty-first-century electoral redistricting, Sunbelt Diaspora provides a timely prism for viewing how differences of race, class, and place play out in struggles to claim political, social, and economic ground for Latinos.

Drawing on over a decade of ethnographic, oral history, and archival research, Patricia Silver situates her findings in Orlando’s historically black-white racial landscape, post-1960s claims to “color-blindness,” and neoliberal celebrations of individualism. Through the voices of diverse participants, Silver brings anthropological attention to the question of how social difference affects collective identification and political practice. Sunbelt Diaspora asks what constitutes community and how criteria for membership and legitimate representation are negotiated.

Reviews: “Patricia Silver displays an intimate and extensive knowledge of her topic, having conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Orlando, Puerto Rico, and New York. She moves from the historical background of Orlando as a “Sunbelt City,” to tracing the origins of the Puerto Rican exodus after World War II to the present day, while focusing on the emergence of a large but marginalized community that doesn’t fit well within the established fault lines of race and class.” Jorge Duany, Director of the Cuban Research Institute, author of Puerto Rico: What Everyone Needs to Know.

PATRICIA SILVER Patricia Silver is an anthropologist affiliated with the National Coalition of Independent Scholars. For more than a decade, she has conducted ethnographic, oral history, and archival research about Puerto Rican experiences in Orlando, with an emphasis on sociocultural heterogeneity and collective identification. Silver holds a PhD in cultural anthropology from American University. She has published her findings in numerous academic journals and authored expert testimony as part of a 2014 federal case against Orange County, Florida, for diluting the Latino vote during redistricting.

Patria continued from previous page hubiera ayudado a entender mejor la transformación del Partido Revolucionario Cubano tras la muerte de Martí y, particularmente, el final de la vida de Sotelo Figueroa y Lola Rodríguez de Tió en Cuba. Otra ausencia que sorprende es el excelente libro de Patricia A. Cooper, Once a cigar maker: men, women and work culture in American cigar factories, 1900-1919 (1987), libro que, aunque se sale algo del marco histórico de este estudio, podría haber ayudado a crear un mejor cuadro de esa industria tan importante en el desarrollo de la comunidad antillana en Nueva York. Tampoco aparece el estudio de Josianna Arroyo sobre la masonería antillana, Writing secrecy in Caribbean freemasonry (2013), libro que estudia el gran e importante impacto de la masonería en los intelectuales antillanos del momento, mucho de los cuales son los protagonistas del libro de Meléndez. Para desarrollar el tema central de su libro, Meléndez depende sobre todo de las memorias de Bernardo Vega. Esta es una excelente fuente, pero siempre cabe la posibilidad de ampliar el panorama con el trabajo de otros investigadores, como los que menciono.

A pesar de estas pequeñas críticas y ausencias, no me cabe la menor duda de que tenemos en nuestras manos un excelente libro que hace un aporte importante a la construcción de la historia de los puertorriqueños en Nueva York. Hay que felicitar a Meléndez por su trabajo y la mejor forma de hacerlo es leyendo su libro.

EFRAÍN BARRADAS es puertorriqueño, de Aguadilla específicamente, pero se siente de todas partes, aunque mire esas otras partes del mundo desde la perspectiva que la suerte le asignó en esta lotería vital. Enseña, para ganarse la vida, y lo hace en la Universidad de Florida. De sus clases ha nacido casi todo lo que ha escrito. Ha publicado varios libros sobre cultura puertorriqueña y muchísimos comentarios sobre todo lo que lee. Lee, enseña, cocina, viaja y visita museos: hace todo eso para que sus amigos lo quieran un poquito más cada día, pero nunca sabe si alcanza su gran meta.

Her publications for this project, as well as a previous project on Puerto Rican school reform in the 1990s, have appeared in American Ethnologist; CENTRO Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies; Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power; Op. Cit.: Revista del Centro de Investigaciones Históricas; Southern Cultures; Memory Studies; and Latino Studies.

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Educación / Education

El Sol Latino May 2020

STCC Virtual Tea Series to Highlight Women in Leadership Roles SPRINGFIELD, MA | SPRINGFIELD TECHNICAL COMMUNITY COLLEGE | April 24, 2020 –Springfield Technical Community College’s (STCC) will celebrate achievements by female leaders with a virtual tea series called “We the Women.” STCC will feature local speakers who will discuss their careers, accomplishments and the barriers they faced in a live video conferencing format. Viewers will have a chance to enjoy a cup of tea while watching the presentations and ask questions at the end.

“We wanted to hold an event in March, which was Women’s History Month, but had to postpone due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Lidya Rivera Early, Director of Community Engagement at STCC. “We decided to organize a virtual event held over three dates. We’re excited to highlight women in leadership positions who come from diverse backgrounds. They will talk about the trajectory of their careers, including barriers they faced, and also will discuss the impact of COVID-19 on their current work.”

STCC has temporarily restricted on-campus access and transitioned to remote learning and remote events for the remainder of the term. STCC plans to resume face-to-face classroom teaching and events when cleared and in alignment with state and federal guidelines.

Here is the schedule for the virtual tea series: Talia Gee, Diversity and Inclusion, April 30, 2 p.m.: Gee works as Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer for the City of Springfield.

An attorney, Gee is a graduate of St. John’s University in New York City and received her MBA and Law Degree from Western New England University. Gee previously worked at Community Legal Aid, the law firm of Sullivan, Hayes & Quinn, and the New York Yankees. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Springfield Boys & Girls Club and co-creator of the “How to Wear Your Crown” event which focuses on the empowerment of

Springfield area teenage girls.

Lydia Martínez, Education, May 7, 2 p.m.: Martinez grew up in the North End neighborhood of Springfield and is the first Hispanic to serve as assistant superintendent in the city of Springfield. A 1983 graduate of Springfield Technical High School, Martinez became a first generation college student completing her undergraduate studies at Westfield State University in three years, earning a bachelor’s degree in business management. She earned a master’s degree in education with a minor in Spanish from Elms College and a Certificate of Advanced Graduate studies from Westfield State University. Martínez has received awards and recognition for her dedication, commitment and service to the community.

Karla Medina, Entrepreneurship, May 12, 2 p.m.: Medina, an entrepreneur who owns a fitness studio, holds many local and national press, book publication and video production credits. She is the owner and master trainer at Sudor Taino ® Group Fitness, a studio dedicated to enhancing people’s individual journey towards health, fitness and life. Her spirit, mind, body approach contributes to her authentic style and allows her to move people individually, motivate them collectively and move them culturally.

The series is collaboration between Community Engagement and the Office of Multicultural Affairs. To view the series, you will need to join a Zoom meeting when the events are live. Please click through the following link: https://stcc. io/teaseries

HCC Student First from a Community College to Win Prestigious Poetry Contest HOLYOKE, MA | HOLYOKE COMMUNITY COLLEGE | April 1, 2020 – As a student at Smith College in 1955, a young Sylvia Plath won the prestigious Glascock Poetry Prize, lanching her career as an esteemed poet and author of works such as her collection “Ariel” and autobiographical novel “The Bell Jar.” James Agee, Kenneth Koch, James Merrill, Katha Pollit, Muriel Rukeyser, Mark Halperin, and Mary Jo Salter are among the other famous writers who were also Glascock entrants.

Judges in the annual, intercollegiate contest administered by Mount Holyoke College have over the years included the legendary poets Robert Frost, Seamus Heaney, Adrienne Rich, Richard Wilbur, William Carlos Williams, and Martin Espada, among others.

On Monday, the 2020 Glascock Poetry Prize was awarded to Marissa Perez of Florence, Mass., a 24-year-old liberal arts major at Holyoke Community College.

“This is a huge deal,” said HCC English professor Carolyn Zaikowski, who nominated Perez. “The contest is considered a career starter, and it has never been won by a community college student before. I hope the academic writing community will get the clear message here – that community college students are amazing and talented and deserve to be taken seriously.”

The annual poetry contest honors the memory of Kathryn Irene Glascock, a promising young poet who graduated from Mount Holyoke in 1922 and died of pneumonia a year later.

In their comments, the judges wrote that they especially admired a poem called “Pacific Coast Highway,” “for its pacing, emotion and its poetics of the winding line mirroring the winding road of California Route 1 itself.”

“I am sincerely fascinated by this poet’s often staggering treatment of language as the subject of their interrogation, language itself as the antidote to its own venom.”

“I’m excited to watch this poet continue to grow!”

Zaikowski said she knew Perez was an exceptional writer from the first time she shared her work in their Creative Writing course.

“The rest of the class knew it, too,” Zaikowski said. “In all of the genres we worked in, she had a bone-level radar for a particular mix of the personal and the political, and a way of using subtle, surprising images, moods, and lyricism to convey it.”

At one point, Zaikowski said she sat down with Perez and asked her what kind of writer she wanted to be.

“There are a couple types of writers,” Zaikowski said, “writers who write as a hobby, and writers who kind of feel like they would not know who they were or that they’d die inside if they couldn’t write – I asked her what category she was in? I knew the answer already, but she confirmed she was in the latter. And I felt like she wasn’t just writing for herself, she was using her writing skills to articulate, and try to heal, larger social issues. The world needs more voices like that.”

Perez is the 97th winner of the Glascock Poetry Contest, which is believed to be the oldest, intercollegiate poetry contest in the U.S. Students must be nominated by a faculty member at their college or university. A collection of their work is judged by a panel of three distinguished poets. This year’s judges were Kaveh Akbar, Franny Choi and Erica Hunt.

“When it dawned on me what was happening, and what this would mean, I was euphoric,” Perez said from her home in Northampton. “Generally, I’ve been detached from the poetry world, as I’ve never been involved in any inner literary circles and don’t often share my work. The experience of participating was at once cathartic and terrifying.

Kaveh Akbar, one of this year’s judges, is one of my most beloved contemporary poets.”

Perez submitted eight poems for their consideration.

“The selection team was comprised of exquisite writers whose company I initially felt I wasn’t worthy of,” she said. “I felt I was giving a piece of my soul to these judges when I handed over the manuscript. It was raw, messy, and cathartic material. In the grand scheme of things, I realize I put my trust in them to take care of my work and give it life. I’m so honored and grateful to have been able to do such a thing.”

PHOTO by CHRIS YURKO: Marissa Pérez at HCC

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Unidos el RUM y la Universidad de Vermont por la Resiliencia Alimentaria por ÍDEM OSORIO DE JESÚS • (idem.osorio@upr.edu) - Prensa RUM MAYAGÜEZ, PR | UPR - RECINTO UNIVERSIRARIO DE MAYAGÜEZ | 27 de marzo de 2020- Un grupo de estudiantes y profesores de la Universidad de Vermont (UVM) visitó el Recinto Universitario de Mayagüez (RUM), como parte de un acuerdo colaborativo que les ha permitido tomar un curso en conjunto con sus pares colegiales sobre Resiliencia en los sistemas alimentarios en Puerto Rico.

colectivo a comenzar la alianza educativa con ese centro docente que también es Universidad por concesión de tierras.

Su anfitrión, el doctor Robinson Rodríguez Pérez, catedrático del Departamento de Economía Agrícola y Sociología Rural del Colegio de Ciencias Agrícolas (CCA), gestó la iniciativa con sus colegas invitados y dicta la clase de nivel graduado en el campus mayagüezano de la Universidad de Puerto Rico (UPR).

“Este esfuerzo surgió por dos razones muy particulares. La primera es por uno de nuestros egresados, el joven Luis Alexis Rodríguez, de esos embajadores que forjamos aquí y al que tuvimos la fortuna de tener en nuestro comité de trabajo la doctora María del Carmen Rodríguez y yo. Él fue admitido al programa graduado de la Universidad de Vermont en Burlington y tan pronto empezó a hablar allá de Puerto Rico, de las experiencias que tenemos a través del Instituto de Desarrollo de las Comunidades (IUDC) y el Servicio de Extensión Agrícola (SEA), despertó el interés de los profesores Travis Reynolds y David Conner. Ambos vinieron a la isla tras el huracán María buscando ver cómo establecer lazos de colaboración”, relató el doctor Rodríguez Pérez.

Agregó que en la reunión inicial se les hizo difícil encontrar puntos en común, ya que Vermont y Puerto Rico no comparten ni el clima, ni la geografía, ni la mayoría de las consideraciones económicas, sin contar con aspectos culturales, como el idioma. No obstante, ese intercambio les hizo darse cuenta de que la agricultura de ese estado enfrenta retos de cambio climático, igual que en la isla. Asimismo, su principal industria es la del ganado lechero y sus vaquerías son parecidas a las boricuas. Este fue el segundo componente que motivó al

Un grupo de estudiantes y profesores de la Universidad de Vermont visitó el RUM, como parte de un acuerdo colaborativo (Foto por Carlos Díaz / Prensa RUM)

“Un área fundamental de colaboración es el aspecto de resiliencia institucional, lo que llamamos instituciones anclas, en lo que ellos tienen gran experiencia porque al igual que nos pasó a nosotros con María, que no estábamos preparados, en Vermont azotó el huracán Sandy en el 2011 en iguales condiciones. Ellos han estado trabajando con la empresa privada, las fincas productivas, universidades, escuelas, y hospitales con el fin de crear una red de apoyo que, en caso de una emergencia, ayude a las comunidades y estimule el crecimiento económico a través del ecosistema formado por empresarios, consumidores y productores. Estamos esperanzados en esta conferencia y que los proyectos que estamos corriendo puedan atar ese modelo y ampliarlo en la isla”, reiteró.

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Unidos el RUM y la Universidad de Vermont por la Resiliencia Alimentaria continued from pevious page El esfuerzo, que recibió una subvención del Proyecto USDA Smith-Lever, dio paso al ofrecimiento del curso, que se dicta este semestre de manera cónsona y en línea entre ambas instituciones. Alrededor de 15 alumnos subgraduados y graduados del Departamento de Desarrollo Comunitario y Economía Aplicada de la Universidad de Vermont, así como su directora, la doctora Jane Kolodinsky, y los doctores Reynolds y Conner, asistieron al viaje de campo a la isla, que se extendió por una semana.

“Me siento afortunada de estar en Puerto Rico trabajando con la Universidad.

Yo estuve mirando la industria lechera y cómo hacerla más resiliente ante los mercados cambiantes. Mi concentración es en Desarrollo comunitario e internacional y he podido aplicar lo aprendido en una instancia real. He disfrutado trabajar con todos aquí, conocer la gente y aprender de la cultura”, expresó Meg. Mientras, Conor, quien es estudiante graduado, agradeció la amabilidad en el trato recibido en su visita a la isla y al Recinto.

La agenda inició con una bienvenida y recorrido por la Finca Alzamora y sus laboratorios, así como a varios lugares de interés para los proyectos alrededor de la isla, en especial la región suroeste.

“El doctor Robinson Rodríguez ha sido un anfitrión increíble y hemos tenido la oportunidad de visitar unos lugares culturales maravillosos que nos han permitido acercarnos más a las personas en el área suroeste. Yo trabajo el tema de acuapónicos y he podido contactar recursos del Servicio de Estensión Agrícola y pescadores, lo que ha sido una gran experiencia”, compartió.

“Decidimos auscultar varias áreas estratégicas: la agroecología, el ganado lechero, la industria agrícola, villas pesqueras, producción acuapónica y el establecimiento de una red de instituciones anclas. Los jóvenes que están con nosotros han estado trabajando con estudiantes de mi curso, en un team teaching education. Nos reunimos todos los lunes en la tarde, ellos en Vermont y nosotros acá en línea y estamos enfocados en fortalecer la resiliencia ante eventos catastróficos en Puerto Rico”, aseveró el catedrático de Ciencias Agrícolas.

Es por eso que las visitas guiadas en suelo boricua incluyeron la finca modelo Tai South Farm, de ganado lechero en Lajas; la villa pesquera en Puerto Real en Cabo Rojo, así como charlas con pescadores, dueños de restaurantes y pescaderías del área. Igualmente, el hospital La Concepción, en San Germán, recibió al grupo para hablarles sobre su política administrativa de autosuficiencia en la generación de energía, agua y abastos de alimentos y medicamentos hasta para un periodo de seis meses.

“Cuando ocurrió María, este hospital no solo fue el único que quedó operacional en el oeste, sino que también ha mostrado disposición en dedicar unos terrenos que tienen para que nuestros productores agroecológicos puedan establecer una operación económica y producir alimentos de mejor calidad, frescos, accesibles. Su colaboración ha sido fundamental. En este proyecto, tenemos empresas privadas, dueños de restaurantes y distribuidores porque queremos que la próxima vez que tengamos desastres y eventos catastróficos, nuestras cocinas estén inmediatamente disponibles para alimentar a nuestras comunidades adyacentes”, reiteró el doctor Rodríguez Pérez.

Una de las embajadoras colegiales es Neyshalí Serrano Cortés, alumna subgraduada de Extensión Agrícola, quien toma el curso en el RUM junto a sus pares estadounidenses.

“Lo que buscamos es ver qué vulnerabilidades hay en nuestros sistemas alimentarios en la adversidad. Cuando terminemos, esto va a ser un ejemplo que nos debe ayudar ante futuros fenómenos atmosféricos, a otros países también y para asistir a los agricultores a que puedan mejorar sus prácticas y tener una sustentabilidad en el país”, afirmó la también representante de su Facultad en el Consejo General de Estudiantes y en el de Ciencias Agrícolas.

La jornada culminó con el taller Enhancing Food System Resilience: the Role of Anchor Institutions que se llevó a cabo en el Mezzanine del Complejo de Canchas de Tenis, con las presentaciones Capstone de los grupos de trabajo del curso CDAE 295, divididos por temas. A estas se unieron catedráticos del Colegio de Ciencias Agrícolas, quienes fungieron como presentadores de los colectivos.

“El objetivo final es desarrollar material bilingüe que pueda utilizarse en toda la costa de Estados Unidos donde hay una gran población de latinos y puertorriqueños para promover la resiliencia comunitaria y empresarial. Ya tenemos un proyecto aprobado por el USDA para trabajar ese componente y contamos con propuestas sometidas enfocadas en los sectores costeros para promover la autogestión ante los posibles eventos climáticos”, puntualizó el doctor Rodríguez Pérez, quien admitió sentirse satisfecho como pocas veces en su vida con “este nivel de esperanza y motivación”.

Por su parte, la doctora Kolodinsky, catedrática y directora del Departamento de Desarrollo Comunitario y Economía Aplicada de la universidad visitante, explicó que, afortunadamente, ocurrió este junte de voluntades entre dos entidades educativas con enfoques muy parecidos. Tanto ella como su colega, el doctor Reynolds, redactaron propuestas para consolidar el esfuerzo.

“Decidimos traer a nuestros estudiantes durante el receso de primavera para que elaboraran a fondo sus proyectos sobre los diversos temas. Esperamos que este intercambio de ideas sea solo el principio de una alianza duradera. Ha sido fabuloso; ellos están muy emocionados, han aprendido mucho. Debemos mantenernos unidos, igual que nuestras comunidades, ya que la resiliencia ocurre desde esa base hacia arriba y no del nivel gubernamental hacia abajo.

Es necesario más que nunca, porque vivimos en una sociedad global”, subrayó.

Su colega, el doctor Conner, quien es catedrático asociado del mencionado departamento, también se mostró satisfecho con los resultados de la visita y del acuerdo en general que pone al relieve la convergencia de fortalezas y retos.

“En este trabajo juntos, tenemos tanto que aprender uno del otro. Aunque nos separan muchas millas de distancia, enfrentamos los mismos problemas de desarrollo comunitario, viabilidad de las fincas, importación de alimentos con costos menores, y proveer empleos a los jóvenes para incentivarlos a que se queden en el país. También he aprendido que tenemos el enfoque de acción participativa para empoderar a nuestras comunidades a través de nuestros estudiantes. Es una alianza maravillosa de la que he aprendido y que valoro como profesor”, aseveró, al tiempo que agradeció el trato amable y la bienvenida de todo el equipo de trabajo colegial y puertorriqueño en general.

De igual manera opinaron algunos de los integrantes del curso en Vermont, como Meg Karol y Conor McCracken, quienes pudieron aprender de sus respectivos temas.

El Centro por Americanos Nuevos (CNA) ofrece asistencia gratuita a residentes legales permanentes con aplicaciones de ciudanía.

Durante ese tiempo de COVID-19, miembros de la oficina CNA están conectando con clientes por email, teléfono, correo postal y por “Zoom.” Todavía estamos completando y archivando aplicaciones. ¿Por qué no la suya?

La asistencia que ofrecemos incluye: -completando la aplicación de ciudanía; - formulario de exención de tarifas (si usted no puede pagar el cargo de aplicación y esta elegible) -y exención de discapacidad (si aplica) – debe ser completada por un doctor.

Favor de tenga cuenta: La Regla de Carga Publica NO afecta aplicaciones de ciudanía. Entonces, si usted ha recibido beneficios públicos, por ejemplo, MassHealth, todavía puede aplicar por la ciudanía sin cualquier penal. También significa que no hay ningún riesgo si quiere aplicar por la ciudanía.

Por más información: email: citizen@cnam.org o puede llamar y dejar una mensaje, con su nombre completo, su número de teléfono y/o su dirección completa. Llame a 413 587-0084 extension 1.

CNA es una organización sin ánimo de lucro con 501-C-3 exenta de los impuestos de IRS. CNA es una organización de base de comunitaria y centro de recursos por inmigrantes y refugiados en el oeste de Massachusetts. Ofrecemos clases de inglés, gratis, por hablantes de otros idiomas, servicios de inmigración con precios razonables, asistencia con el Censo 2020, y referencias a otros recursos en su comunidad. Visítanos en línea: www.cnam.org Maureen McMahon, Coordinadora de Programa de Inmigración y Ciudadanía Teléfono/Email: 413/587-0084 maureen@cnam.org Durante: 13 de abril hasta 31 de mayo 2020

El Sol Latino May 2020

El COVID-19 y el embarazo Creado por el COVID-19 Health Literacy Project en colaboración con Harvard Health Publishing

Estoy embarazada. ¿Cómo me va a afectar esto? ¿El COVID-19 es más grave en embarazadas? ¿Soy más susceptible si estoy embarazada?

¿Si me contagio con el COVID-19 durante el embarazo voy a tener complicaciones? ¿Cómo puedo protegerme de contraer el COVID-19 si estoy embarazada? ¿Habrá suficientes médicos en el hospital para atenderme a mí y a mi bebé?

Todavía no sabemos si las embarazadas son más susceptibles. Sí se conoce que tienen un mayor riesgo de enfermedades graves causadas por virus similares, por lo cual son consideradas una población sensible en estos momentos. Sin embargo, esperamos que la mayoría de las embarazadas presenten síntomas moderados o leves de gripe o influenza.

Todavía no sabemos si el COVID-19 impacta negativamente el embarazo. Se han observado pérdidas de embarazo en casos de infección con otros coronavirus (por ejemplo, SARS). Las fiebres altas en el primer trimestre también pueden ser perjudiciales para el bebé.

Las medidas de prevención para las mujeres embarazadas son las mismas que para el público general. Consulte las recomendaciones de la CDC. Sí. El hospital tomará todas las medidas necesarias para asegurar el bienestar de ambos.

¿Qué debería hacer? ¿Cómo puedo manejar la ansiedad que siento?

Este es un momento estresante para muchas personas, especialmente las embarazadas. Hay varios recursos que sugieren formas de minimizar la ansiedad durante esta etapa.

¿Durante esta pandemia, debo asistir a las citas prenatales con mi obstetra/ginecólogo(a)?

Llame a su obstetra/ginecólogo(a) para pedir recomendaciones. Estas pueden variar según los recursos disponibles, su historial médico y etapa del embarazo.

¿Debo considerar un parto en casa para evitar el contagio con el COVID-19 en el hospital?

El hospital puede parecer un lugar aterrador en este momento, sin embargo, existen protocolos para garantizar la seguridad de la embarazada y la del bebé. Los partos en casa tienen serios riesgos tanto para la madre como para el bebé. Por favor, consulte sus inquietudes con su obstetra/ginecólogo(a).

¿Qué pasa si quiero quedar embarazada en los próximos meses?

▪ Consulte a su médico, especialmente si sospecha que usted está infectada o con alto riesgo de ser infectado. Espere hablar con su médico antes de planificar un embarazo.

▪ Si desea evitar el embarazo, consulte a su médico para asegurarse de tener suficientes opciones anticonceptivas a su disposición. Si sospecha que usted o su pareja están infectados, recuerde que el contacto físico puede aumentar el riesgo de transmisión.

Fecha de la última revisión: 4/4/20 www.covid19healthliteracyproject.com

www.health.harvard.edu

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Enfermedad del Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19)

10 Consejos para la cuarentena en casa y la autoevaluación Si le han indicado hacer cuarentena o autoevaluar sus síntomas en casa por posible contacto con COVID-19:

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Quédese en su casa, no vaya a trabajar, a la escuela, ni a lugares públicos.

Vigile sus síntomas y tome su temperatura dos veces al día.

Si desarrolla algún síntoma o tiene fiebre, llame a su proveedor de cuidados de la salud inmediatemente.

Si es posible, descanse, manténgase hidratado y haga ejercicio.

Si puede hacer ejercicio, hágalo en su casa o en el patio. Evite los lugares donde pueda tener contacto con otras personas.

Si tiene una cita médica, llame al proveedor de cuidados de la salud antes de ir y dígale que usted estuvo expuesto al COVID-19.

Para emergencias médicas, llame al 911 y avise al personal que atiende el llamado que usted estuvo expuesto al COVID-19.

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Tome precauciones todos los días para evitar la propagación de gérmenes. x Lave sus manos frecuentemente con agua y jabón por al menos 20 segundos, o use un desinfectante de manos a base de alcohol que contenga como mínimo 60% de alcohol. x Cúbrase la boca al toser o estornudar. x Evite tocarse los ojos, la nariz y la boca.

Si es posible, quédese solamente en una habitación de la casa y manténgase alejado de otras personas y mascotas. Use un baño separado, si tiene uno disponible.

Evite compartir objetos de uso personal como platos, cubiertos, toallas o ropa de cama con otras personas de su hogar.

Limpie todas las superficies que se tocan con frecuencia, como encimeras, mesas y manijas de puertas. Use aerosol o toallitas de limpieza según las instrucciones de las etiquetas.

Aproveche al máximo su tiempo en casa, trabaje desde el hogar, si puede. Lea un libro, haga ejercicio o disfrute de su pasatiempo favorito.

Para más información, visite mass.gov/COVID19 or llame al 2-1-1

Departamento de Salud Pública de Massachusetts