23 minute read
Cita del Mes/ Quote of the Month
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 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. “ “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. 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.
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“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.” 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.
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.
The Economic and Healthcare Fallout of the COVID-19 for People of Color
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Portada / Front Page
Coronavirus Compounds Inequality and Endangers Communities of Color
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Growing Data Underscore that Communities of Color are Being Harder Hit by COVID-19
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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
6 Mass Graves for Coronavirus Victims shouldn’t
come as a Shock –it’s how the Poor have been Buried for Centuries
7 EforAll Holyoke Launches Spanish
Program, EparaTodos Holyoke Accelerator
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Opinión / Opinion
New England Pubilc Media: Un Recurso Valioso para la Comunidad
9 Increasing Need for Food Assistance
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Libros/ Books Patria: formación de la comunidad puertorriqueña en Nueva York Sunbelt Diaspora: Race, Class, and Latino Politics in Puerto Rican Orlando
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Educación / Education
STCC Virtual Tea Series to Leadership Roles Highlight Women in
HCC Student First from a Community College to Win Prestigious Poetry Contest
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Ciencias / Science Unidos el RUM y la Universidad de Vermont por la Resiliencia Alimentaria
Founded in 2004 n Volume 16, No. 6 n May 2020
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This article was created by the Center for American Progress (www. americanprogress.org) | March 27, 2020. 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. 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. 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 elsewhere have been caught in the middle of a major health emergency as a result of long-standing segregation and economic oppression.
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. 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.
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. Coronavirus Compounds Inequality and Endangers Communities of Color by CONNOR MAXWELL
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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 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. Program Manager Gabriella Candelario Publish your bilingual ad in El Sol Latino! Call us today at (413) 320-3826.
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
por EFRAÍN BARRADAS • Este artículo fue publicado originalmente en 80grados.net | 3 de abril de 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. 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.
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.
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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.
