Coronavirus: ‘Back to basics’ in reaching Fruitvale’s hard-hit Spanish and Mam speakers

Volunteers handed out masks and flyers to Spanish and Mam speakers in the Fruitvale district

OAKLAND — Gathering under a blistering summer sun in Oakland’s Fruitvale district, the roughly two dozen volunteers got their assignments on Saturday. Some would walk International Boulevard, where restaurant workers and fruit vendors chatted with customers, not all wearing masks.

Others went to High Street, which connects a popular Cardenas Market where at least a dozen workers have tested positive for COVID-19, with a homeless resident encampment where a similar outbreak was detected in May.

The volunteers were there to hand out masks, hand sanitizer and flyers with information in Spanish about coronavirus. They were targeting Fruitvale, in the 94601 ZIP, because it is the hardest-hit neighborhood in Alameda County, which in turn has more cases than any other Bay Area county. The neighborhood has 306.5 cases per 10,000 residents, a rate 3.5 times higher than Alameda County as a whole.

The outreach event was organized by the Alameda County Public Health Department and the nonprofit Street Level Health Project, which has provided Mam translators for the nearby La Clinica de la Raza’s popup testing center. Public Health Department Director Kimi Watkins-Tartt said that while their messages have been consistent — wear a mask, avoid gatherings, maintain social distance and regularly wash your hands — getting that information to Fruitvale’s Spanish and Mam speaking residents has been harder.

“What we’re finding is that the technology we all depend on is not enough and we have to hit the streets,” she said. “This is back to basics.”

About 36 percent of the 94601 ZIP code residents are of Mexican descent and about 7 percent are of Guatemalan descent, with many others of South and Central American ancestry, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Many of those residents need access to information in Spanish or Mam — a Mayan language common in Guatemala and parts of Mexico — according to experts and residents in the district.

Many of those residents are also essential workers, who live in crowded homes where contagion is almost inevitable. The fear of infection, as well as job losses in the retail, hospitality and food service industry where many Fruitvale residents work, has also caused anxiety and stress that has skyrocketed demand for behavioral health services at a nearby clinic.

“A lot of people in my community, they’ve arrived recently, they need to work, they need to go out to get food,” said Norma Calmo, a Mam speaker helping pass out masks and educate her neighbors about the danger of COVID-19. “I know people who’ve gotten infected, whole families … and they haven’t sought medical assistance because they don’t have MediCal.”

Calmo, who was born in Todos Santos, Guatemala and works as an interpreter for legal cases, said many people in her community don’t take the virus seriously or are faced with misinformation that makes them skeptical of health advice. Even if they’re worried about getting sick, many are too afraid seeking medical assistance could put them at risk of deportation, she said.

“Sometimes they get annoyed,” she said of her outreach efforts, “but I know I have to insist to raise awareness.”

For Gabriela Galicia, executive director of Street Level Health Project, on-the-ground work is a natural continuation of what her nonprofit did before the pandemic, including helping organize day laborers. She said even just having the volunteers walking around Fruitvale with their masks on, maintaining social distance, could be a powerful example.

“It takes a community to protect ourselves,” she said.

The outreach was welcome by Pedro Campos, a Fruitvale resident who was chatting with a handful of other men in a parking lot off International Boulevard about how jobs had vanished in the neighborhood during the pandemic. Most were wearing masks, and Campos gladly donned a disposable one a volunteer handed him. He also got a reusable cloth mask and a flyer listing common symptoms of COVID-19 and the proper way to wear a mask — covering both the nose and the mouth — in Spanish.

Although he already knew many of the health directives, he said he appreciated the maks and the reminder.

“We don’t want to die,” he said. “And we don’t want to infect our family.”