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Speaker 1: Hey, dear listener, Latino USA wants to know what questions

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Speaker 1: you have about the COVID nineteen vaccine and the vaccination process.

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Speaker 1: We want to try and help you find answers. So

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Speaker 1: call us at six four six five seven one one

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Speaker 1: two two four. That's six four six five seven one

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Speaker 1: send a voice memo with your questions and a little

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Speaker 1: bit about yourself to audience at latinousa dot org. That's

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Speaker 1: audience at latinousa dot org. We'll be listening to all

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Speaker 1: of your voice memos and your question might be featured

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Speaker 1: on an upcoming episode. Yess yes, dospaharitos, you still.

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Speaker 2: Kept them though your little birds?

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Speaker 3: Hi?

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Speaker 1: Sorry, this is Marie Magagna. She's a Mexican woman who

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Speaker 1: lives in Chicago. She was at home when I spoke

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Speaker 1: to her a few weeks ago, and I could hear

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Speaker 1: her pet lovebirds chirping in the background. No, I mean,

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Speaker 1: how important have your little birds been for your time

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Speaker 1: in the pandemic?

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Speaker 4: Oh see see tengo dos peritos tambien iejos nosana jodadasa

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Speaker 4: live sta de parion. They stays trace quimuificil Esposo Tubo stan.

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Speaker 1: Fermeida Maries says her parharitos, her little birds, and her

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Speaker 1: two dogs have helped her and her family get through

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Speaker 1: the stress and sadness of this year. Her husband, she

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Speaker 1: tells me, was what are the millions of people in

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Speaker 1: the United States who caught COVID nineteen From futuro media.

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Speaker 1: It's Latino Usa. I'm Maria in Josa today, a year

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Speaker 1: after COVID nineteen first shut down the United States. We're

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Speaker 1: gonna look at how the pandemic has changed the lives

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Speaker 1: of Latinos and latting Us across the country. Who and

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Speaker 1: what we've lost, but also what is sustaining us at

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Speaker 1: the end of a year like no other.

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Speaker 2: Comte Maria Bnbna.

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Speaker 1: This is a recording of a phone call I had

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Speaker 1: with Maria Magagna one year ago. It was March seventeenth,

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty. It was just a few days after then

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Speaker 1: President Donald Trump had declared the coronavirus a national emergency

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Speaker 1: and cities across the country started shutting down schools and businesses.

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Speaker 2: Maria, what did you do today?

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Speaker 4: Well, just today I don't have to work because they

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Speaker 4: family canceled.

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Speaker 1: Maria is a domestic worker, and when we spoke, many

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Speaker 1: of her clients were canceling her gigs out of fear

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Speaker 1: of catching COVID nineteen.

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Speaker 4: I understand that they be scary about what was going

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Speaker 4: on because I'm maybe I touch it when I travel

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Speaker 4: and take the bus, train or whatever.

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Speaker 3: You know.

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Speaker 1: Maria is forty nine years old. She left Mexico City

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Speaker 1: about thirty years ago. Latino USA Producers first met her

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Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen when we were reporting on a clinic

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Speaker 1: in Chicago that serves people who don't have health insurance.

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Speaker 1: Maria is a patient at that clinic, and we met

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Speaker 1: her when she was having her diabetes checked. One of

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Speaker 1: the things that stood out to me about Maria was

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Speaker 1: that she didn't seem that stressed about the pandemic one

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Speaker 1: year ago, even though she was already losing work and

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Speaker 1: didn't have health insurance and had an underlying health condition.

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Speaker 1: Why are you so calm, Maria?

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Speaker 4: Well, I can do nothing. Just wait, you know, stay peaceful,

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Speaker 4: don't be worried. I worry, but you have to go

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Speaker 4: out and have to work. You can do nothing. You're

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Speaker 4: trying to be in safe.

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Speaker 3: That's it.

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Speaker 2: And we have a hope like.

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Speaker 4: This, situations don't take a long time of weeks months,

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Speaker 4: I hope not.

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Speaker 1: We all were hoping the same, But of course the

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Speaker 1: pandemic has taken even longer than that, and it's been

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Speaker 1: incredibly hard on people like Maria. Over the last year,

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Speaker 1: the virus ravaged Latino communities from New York City to

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Speaker 1: South Texas and southern California. It spread quickly throughout largely

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Speaker 1: immigrant workplaces like meatpacking plants and produce farms, and it

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Speaker 1: left a lot of other people like housekeepers and restaurant

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Speaker 1: workers unemployed. Today, we're going to take you to the

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Speaker 1: border to see firsthand how the battle against the coronavirus

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Speaker 1: in the US has impacted asylum seekers waiting in Mexico.

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Speaker 1: We're going to go to the South bron in New

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Speaker 1: York to hear about how one undocumented family turned their

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Speaker 1: restaurant into a mutual aid soup kitchen. And later we'll

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Speaker 1: hear from a priest who's helping a community heal from

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Speaker 1: so much loss and so much death. But first, let's

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Speaker 1: check back in with Maria mcgagna to see how the

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Speaker 1: rest of the year went for her.

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Speaker 2: We speak in.

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Speaker 1: Both English and in Spanish, and I started by playing

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Speaker 1: back some of last year's interview for her, and we

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Speaker 1: have a hope.

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Speaker 3: Right, this situation don't take a long time of weeks.

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Speaker 5: Months, I hope not.

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Speaker 1: Oh my god, you know, I'm thinking about the fact,

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Speaker 1: Maria Tokaya, that you said in that interview that you

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Speaker 1: were like, oh my god, if it lasts more than

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Speaker 1: a couple of weeks, you know, then what are we

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Speaker 1: going to do?

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Speaker 2: I was the same way. I was like, man, this

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Speaker 2: can't go on forever. But here we are. You know,

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Speaker 2: it's a year.

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Speaker 4: Yes, I'm behind on my reign until today because my

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Speaker 4: husband now work. My daughter not worked for two months,

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Speaker 4: my husband I worked for almost five months last year,

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Speaker 4: and I work, but maybe two days a week.

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Speaker 3: Maybe.

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Speaker 1: Mariez situation has been very common this year. A report

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Speaker 1: out of Harvard found that as of last September, almost

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Speaker 1: two thirds of Latinos and Latinas had lost income because

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Speaker 1: of the pandemic. One in five Latino renters were also

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Speaker 1: behind on their payments, and Latina women have been unemployed

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Speaker 1: at especially high rates. So you've been able to make

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Speaker 1: it because you saved money because you have two days

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Speaker 1: a week of work. Comonasas how are you doing that

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Speaker 1: because you're the only one that's working in the whole house.

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Speaker 4: Yes, but I have a people they pay me. I

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Speaker 4: not be working, but they keeping paying me.

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Speaker 2: So a lot of the people who you work for

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Speaker 2: were doing that.

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Speaker 3: Not really all the one, but few ones.

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Speaker 2: Wow. What do you think about that?

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Speaker 4: Tokaymos kintamana pepi prohimo?

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Speaker 1: She says it makes her believe in human kindness and

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Speaker 1: that there are good people in the world who care

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Speaker 1: about others.

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Speaker 3: You, okay, but.

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Speaker 1: For Cento, Maria says she feels blessed and that she

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Speaker 1: hopes that they'll eventually call her to come and work

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Speaker 1: for them again. There was some government support, right, stimulus checks,

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Speaker 1: unemployment benefits.

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Speaker 4: You na, No, I can receive it nothing, nothing, Because

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Speaker 4: I'm mixed marriage. My husband is in process for gett

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Speaker 4: papers and for this reason we are this qualifica about that.

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Speaker 1: So you you have legal status in the United States, Yes,

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Speaker 1: but because you're married to somebody who doesn't immediately have

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Speaker 1: legal status, you cannot get any benefits at all.

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Speaker 3: Yes, yes, oh, mister Trump, say that.

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Speaker 2: Here's what happened.

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Speaker 1: People in mixed immigration status families did not receive the

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Speaker 1: first stimulus payment approved by Congress last year. Technically, they

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Speaker 1: were eligible to receive the second checks that were distributed

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Speaker 1: earlier this year, and Madia might still be able to

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Speaker 1: get those six hundred dollars, though it's not a sure thing.

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Speaker 1: Madia and her husband weren't able to get unemployment because

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Speaker 1: they both are self employed. Her daughter could have gotten unemployment,

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Speaker 1: but she decided not to apply because she's sponsoring her

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Speaker 1: dad for a green card, and the family's lawyer worried

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Speaker 1: that it could count against him if she got any

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Speaker 1: help from the government. That's because of a Trump administration

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Speaker 1: policy called the Public Charge Rule, which makes it harder

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Speaker 1: for immigrants to get legal status if the government thinks

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Speaker 1: they might end up using public benefits.

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Speaker 2: So what about mister Biden Ill.

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Speaker 3: We hope, we have a lot of hopes for he

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Speaker 3: can fix it.

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Speaker 1: And on March ninth, just a few weeks after my

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Speaker 1: conversation with Maria, the Biden administration announced that the public

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Speaker 1: Charge Rule would no longer.

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Speaker 2: Be in effect.

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Speaker 1: So what did you change in your life so that

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Speaker 1: you could survive financially with just a teeny little bit

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Speaker 1: of amount of income.

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Speaker 3: Well, we cut a lot you know, we have to

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Speaker 3: cut a cable.

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Speaker 4: We're trying to use less light. You know, gus is

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Speaker 4: impossible because Chicago is called right now and we have

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Speaker 4: to use gas. But you know, the things that you

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Speaker 4: don't need to buy, we don't buy this.

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Speaker 1: I'm just wondering. You know what has been the hardest

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Speaker 1: part of all of this for you?

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Speaker 3: Emotion.

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Speaker 1: Maria says the hardest moment of the past year was

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Speaker 1: when her husband caught COVID in the fall As de Baston.

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Speaker 1: She says it devastated her to see him so sick

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Speaker 1: and to think that he might die.

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Speaker 4: Business coma porte don don.

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Speaker 1: She says they were shot. They didn't know where they

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Speaker 1: could have got the virus. She tested positive too, even

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Speaker 1: though she didn't have any symptoms. Then her husband started

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Speaker 1: having heart palpitations. She took her husband to the hospital

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Speaker 1: and she started to panic.

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Speaker 4: Y X rays tells Limpiussos Usbian.

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Speaker 1: But the hospital did a chest X ray on her

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Speaker 1: husband and they told him he was fine. So she

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Speaker 1: took him home and he was sick for a couple

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Speaker 1: of more weeks, but by the third week he was

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Speaker 1: well again.

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Speaker 4: We said Lady Gracias Ala Madre.

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Speaker 1: And Maria says she thanked God and Mother Earth and

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Speaker 1: the universe and anything else she could think of that

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Speaker 1: her husband was going.

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Speaker 2: To be okay.

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Speaker 1: You know when we spoke to you a year ago,

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Speaker 1: you sounded really calm. I remember I was like, oh

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Speaker 1: my god, is that Mexicana. She was like, no, everything's

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Speaker 1: gonna be okay. I've almost do you feel the same way.

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Speaker 4: I feel like we survived this, we can survive whatever.

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Speaker 4: We have to keep him positive and say, okay, we

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Speaker 4: are Mexicans, we can do. We survive a lot, and

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Speaker 4: we're going to survive. They said, part is the people

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Speaker 4: lost some member of the family, but the people if

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Speaker 4: stay here, we're going to keeping up.

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Speaker 1: Then I said there's no other option, right e facto exact,

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Speaker 1: And Maria said exactly. And then she brings up an

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Speaker 1: impact of the pandemic that I hadn't thought of. Maria's

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Speaker 1: husband's application for legal residency has been delayed. That's because

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Speaker 1: US immigration offices were shut down for a few months

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Speaker 1: because of the pandemic.

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Speaker 3: Nomos Ya.

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Speaker 4: Or satras or the yes amos and alas.

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Speaker 1: The delays have been really frustrating, but they don't want

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Speaker 1: to abandon his case, because it's been a long process

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Speaker 1: and they're finally almost.

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Speaker 3: At the end.

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Speaker 1: Plus, she says, they've spent money, they.

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Speaker 3: Don't even have soperadi.

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Speaker 1: Se Maria says, what can we do? Just wait and

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Speaker 1: keep living and literally just survive Felicia and find happiness someplace.

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Speaker 3: Creo in contra la felici.

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Speaker 1: That is thin noso, she says, We've got to find

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Speaker 1: happiness within ourselves.

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Speaker 3: Laeli.

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Speaker 4: That's on momentos is start going too, Familia plata.

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Speaker 3: Teqero.

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Speaker 1: She realized this year that for her, happiness comes from

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Speaker 1: small moments like spending time talking with her family and

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Speaker 1: telling them she loves them and giving them a hug

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Speaker 1: if they're around, and then just wishing for the best.

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Speaker 2: Coming up on.

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Speaker 1: Latino US say we're gonna take you to the border

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Speaker 1: to see firsthand how the battle against the coronavirus in

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Speaker 1: the US has impacted asylum seekers waiting in Mexico. Stay

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Speaker 1: with us, Hey we're back. A year ago, soon after

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Speaker 1: the virus made its way out of China and into Europe,

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Speaker 1: countries around the globe but not only shut down businesses

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Speaker 1: in schools, but some would also close their borders to

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Speaker 1: try to control the spread of the virus, the US

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Speaker 1: would first close its doors to travelers from China and

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Speaker 1: then from Italy, France, and other European countries, all one

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Speaker 1: time global epicenters of the pandemic. Eventually, however, the US

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Speaker 1: would also partially shut down its borders with Mexico, even

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Speaker 1: though back then and now our neighbor to the south

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Speaker 1: has had far fewer cases of COVID nineteen than the

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Speaker 1: US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Order would also

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Speaker 1: give the Trump administration an excuse to essentially block certain

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Speaker 1: people from entering the country, whether they were infected or not.

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Speaker 1: Our producer Rinaldo Leannos Junior is going to pick up

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Speaker 1: the story from here.

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Speaker 5: It's a cloudy Saturday morning in February, and I'm standing

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Speaker 5: in a plaza right by the McCallan Iralgo International Bridge.

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Speaker 5: There is a lot of cars and people making their

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Speaker 5: way from one side of the border to the other.

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Speaker 5: Everyone around me is wearing a face mask and going

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Speaker 5: about their day. During the pandemic, people have continued to

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Speaker 5: travel back and forth between Mexico and the US. But

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Speaker 5: right now the rule is that quote non essential travel

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Speaker 5: end quote is not allowed. The government basically describes non

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Speaker 5: essential travel as that that is recreational or tourism in nature,

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Speaker 5: and allows only travel for business and trade into the US.

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Speaker 6: We're also working with Mexico to implement new rules at

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Speaker 6: our ports of entry to suspend non essential travel.

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Speaker 5: Former President Trump made this announcement at a press conference

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Speaker 5: last year on March twentieth, and his policy is still

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Speaker 5: an effect across the entire border. Just across the river

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Speaker 5: from here is the Mexican city of Renosa. That's where

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Speaker 5: last spring, I met a woman from Honduras that will

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Speaker 5: call Baola. She asked us not to use her real

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Speaker 5: name in order to not jeopardize her asylum prospects. Baula

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Speaker 5: told me she and her family had crossed the Rio

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Speaker 5: grand to seek protection and ask for asylum in the US,

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Speaker 5: but they weren't allowed to.

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Speaker 7: No di.

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Speaker 8: Li.

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Speaker 5: Instead, they were returned to Mexico with no place to go.

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Speaker 9: CDC order directs the department to suspend the introduction of

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Speaker 9: all individuals seeking to enter the US without proper travel documentation.

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Speaker 5: That's Chadwolf, former Acting Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security.

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Speaker 5: He too spoke at the press conference where Trump made

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Speaker 5: the announcement last March to talk about an order from

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Speaker 5: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that was about

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Speaker 5: to go into effect.

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Speaker 6: The CDC director.

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Speaker 9: Has determined that the introduction and spread of the coronavirus

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Speaker 9: and the department's border patrol stations and detention facilities presents

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Speaker 9: a serious danger to migrants, our frontline agents and officers,

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Speaker 9: and the American people. Tonight again at midnight, we will

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Speaker 9: execute the CDC order by immediately returning individuals arriving without documentation.

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Speaker 5: The CDC order that Wolf is talking about cites Title

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Speaker 5: forty two of the US Code that deals with public health.

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Speaker 5: The government says this gives them the right to suspend

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Speaker 5: the introduction of certain persons from countries where a quarantinable

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Speaker 5: communicable disease exists. In this case, the quarantinable communicable disease

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Speaker 5: meant COVID nineteen. That's the reason and her family were

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Speaker 5: sent back to Mexico without any due process. However, Paula's

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Speaker 5: story is a little more complicated. Last year, I visited

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Speaker 5: Paula in a small apartment where she, her husband and

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Speaker 5: two kids were living after they were expelled from the US.

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Speaker 10: And dramos the formilis I and tram mccarlin el primiriom

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Speaker 10: Braza yak missus is yelera in Serra Dolores.

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Speaker 5: Bala says she her husband and then three year old

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Speaker 5: son crossed the river into McAllen at the end of

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Speaker 5: March twenty twenty, about a week or two after Trump

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Speaker 5: declared COVID nineteen a national emergency. The fourth member of

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Speaker 5: the family traveled inside Boola. She was nine months pregnant.

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Speaker 5: When they made it to the other side of the river.

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Speaker 5: They were detained by border agents and taken to a

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Speaker 5: nearby facility that Paola and other migrants have called Laelera

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Speaker 5: or the ice Box. There, Paula says she and her

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Speaker 5: family received an aluminium like blanket, but slept with the

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Speaker 5: same clothes they wore when they crossed the river. Soon

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Speaker 5: she started to get contractions. Agents took her to a

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Speaker 5: nearby hospital, where she gave birth to a baby girl.

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Speaker 5: About two days later, she was taken back to the

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Speaker 5: border facility. Then less than a week later, Paula and

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Speaker 5: her family were taken to an international bridge and left Renosa, Mexicomeasandoina.

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Speaker 5: She tried to argue that her daughter's expulsion was illegal

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Speaker 5: and asked you, as border agents, to at least let

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Speaker 5: her and her baby stay, but the agents told her

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Speaker 5: that the whole family had to be returned to Mexico

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Speaker 5: because of the pandemic. It didn't matter that her newborn

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Speaker 5: was a US citizen.

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Speaker 7: Dioes is.

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Speaker 3: US.

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Speaker 5: The CDC order implemented by the Trump administration says it

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Speaker 5: applies to per since traveling from Mexico or Canada, such

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Speaker 5: as migrants without proper documentation, regardless of country of origin,

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Speaker 5: who would be introduced into a congregate setting like a

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Speaker 5: border patrol facility. The order says it does not apply

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Speaker 5: to US citizens, which would include Bala's baby or legal

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Speaker 5: permanent residents. Bala says she wasn't given her daughter's birth

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Speaker 5: certificate before the family was expelled to Mexico.

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Speaker 7: No notre amo roo.

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Speaker 3: Ya.

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Speaker 5: Paula and her family tried going to a local migrant shelter,

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Speaker 5: but they didn't let them stay because of the pandemic.

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Speaker 5: She says they ended up sleeping in a park scared

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Speaker 5: for their safety. Reinosa in the Mexican state of Da Molipas.

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Speaker 5: It's classified as the highest security threat level by the

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Speaker 5: US State Department. It's also the state where recently nineteen bodies,

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Speaker 5: most of them Guatemalan migrants, were found shot and burned

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Speaker 5: in a pickup truck. There's also hundreds of reports of

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Speaker 5: migrants being kidnapped and extorted, including with help from the

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Speaker 5: local police. Balas case is not unique. Other pregnant women

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Speaker 5: who gave birth in the US have been returned to

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Speaker 5: Mexico with their newborns under the excuse of the CDCUS order,

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Speaker 5: and while the Biden administration has requested a review of

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Speaker 5: this policy, migrants continue to be expelled. Eventually, Baula and

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Speaker 5: her family were able to get in touch with the

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Speaker 5: local nun in Mexico, who helped them get an apartment

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Speaker 5: to stay at, which is where I first met them.

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Speaker 5: Flash forward almost a year later, and Baola is still

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Speaker 5: a renosa. She's virtually showing me around the new place

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Speaker 5: where her family and her are living. She shows me

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Speaker 5: their living room where her sun is playing, and the

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Speaker 5: room where her daughter is sleeping in. I haven't seen

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Speaker 5: her and the family in months because of COVID nineteen,

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Speaker 5: and they're now further away from the border. I've kept

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Speaker 5: in touch with her on and off through Whatsappaya.

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Speaker 11: Arica the Wallamnino.

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Speaker 5: She says her partner is working four days a week

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Speaker 5: while she stays at home and watches over their kids.

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Speaker 5: Since last March, there have been more than four hundred

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Speaker 5: and forty thousand expulsions at the southern border, including children

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Speaker 5: who have been sent back to their home countries or Mexico.

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Speaker 12: All expulsions nan because you know, every single expulsion that

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Speaker 12: happens is denying a human being their legal right to

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Speaker 12: access an immigration system that that our law has has created.

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Speaker 12: And so this is something that they can end if

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Speaker 12: they choose to.

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Speaker 5: That's Carla Vadagaz. She's a senior staff attorney with a

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Speaker 5: Texas Civil Rights Project TCRP was part of a lawsuit

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Speaker 5: filed last year against the federal government to try and

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Speaker 5: stop the expulsion of unaccompanied children. Carlos is the fastest

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Speaker 5: way to end these express turnarounds, it's for the Biden

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Speaker 5: administration to issue an executive order. The White House Press

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Speaker 5: Secretary Jensaki was asked about migrants being turned away at

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Speaker 5: the border at a press conference in early February.

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Speaker 13: Due to the pandemic and the fact that we have

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Speaker 13: not had the time as an administration to put in

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Speaker 13: place a humane, comprehensive process for processing individuals for coming

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Speaker 13: to the border. Now is not the time to come,

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Speaker 13: and the vast majority of people will be turned away.

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Speaker 13: Asylum processes that the border will not occur immediately will

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Speaker 13: take time to implement.

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Speaker 5: Last March, several human rights and immigrant rights organizations like

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Speaker 5: Amnesty International and Human Rights First wrote a letter to

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Speaker 5: Congress with recommendations on how to respond to the COVID

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Speaker 5: nineteen pandemic while also protecting asylum seekers. Physicians for Human

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Speaker 5: Rights SA these removals and the CDC order were not

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Speaker 5: based on science and public health.

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Speaker 14: It really kind of categorically targets one particular group who

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Speaker 14: is not any more at likelihood to essentially spread COVID

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Speaker 14: nineteen and other groups that we are continuing to allow

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Speaker 14: into the United States.

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Speaker 5: That's doctor Catherine Peeler sheets with Physicians for Human Rights

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Speaker 5: who told the CDC that asylum seekers are no more

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Speaker 5: likely to spread COVID nineteen than students, temporary workers, and

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Speaker 5: truck drivers who cross the border and are currently exempt

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Speaker 5: from these types of restrictions. We reached out to the

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Speaker 5: Department of Homeland Security and US Customs and Border Protection

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Speaker 5: CBP said in a statement that any individual in their

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Speaker 5: custody who is experiencing a medical emergency or a medical

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Speaker 5: situation be transported to an appropriate medical facility for evaluation.

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Speaker 5: We specifically ask these agencies if they could provide a

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Speaker 5: statement or more information about the expulsion of women and

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Speaker 5: their newborn US citizen children, and if the Biden administration

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Speaker 5: would suspend Title forty two, very much like it did

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Speaker 5: with the Migrant Protection Protocols in January. But they didn't

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Speaker 5: respond to those questions. While the administration figures out how

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Speaker 5: they'll proceed with this policy, Balas said she and her

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Speaker 5: family will remain reinosabier Des. She thinks God that her

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Speaker 5: kids are healthy and doing well. Bala and her family

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Speaker 5: remain hopeful despite being stuck in Mexico for the last year.

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Speaker 5: She says she was recently able to obtain her daughter's

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Speaker 5: birth certificate through the help of some lawyers. Bala says

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Speaker 5: it's her kids that keep her and her husband going

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Speaker 5: and the idea that one day they'll be able to

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Speaker 5: come into the US for a better life.

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Speaker 1: Now, let's go to New York City and more specifically,

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Speaker 1: La Morada, which is a restaurant in the South Bronx

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Speaker 1: run by the Savedra family. They're indigenous, undocumented, and originally

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Speaker 1: from Wahaca, Mexico. La Morada was always more than a restaurant.

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Speaker 1: Over the last decade, it's also been a safe haven

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Speaker 1: for the local undocumented and immigrant community. But when the

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Speaker 1: pandemic hit New York City a year ago, forcing all

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Speaker 1: restaurants to close temporarily, the Savedra family took it as

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Speaker 1: an opportunity to reimagine the role that they and their

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Speaker 1: business could play in their community. Producer Julia Rocha brings

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Speaker 1: us their story.

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Speaker 15: It's around nine am on a recent Tuesday, and Marcos

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Speaker 15: Savedra is opening.

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Speaker 16: Lamada means purple and Spanish, but like Lamorada also has

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Speaker 16: that meaning of being in a boda, like a shelter

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Speaker 16: of welcoming space, and so being on Afrinian immigrants and

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Speaker 16: feeling so hostile in our homes for so long, we

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Speaker 16: want it to be as welcoming a place as possible.

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Speaker 4: Blainas Sarday is that.

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Speaker 15: In addition to serving their famous mo and other indigenous

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Speaker 15: traditional dishes from Mexico, the restaurant also functions as a

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Speaker 15: kind of community center in the South Bronx neighborhood of

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Speaker 15: Mount Haven, a historically African American and Puerto Rican neighborhood

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Speaker 15: with fast growing Mexican, African and Gadifuna immigrant communities.

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Speaker 16: We had book sharing, we had poetry readings, documentary showings

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Speaker 16: and music nights, fundraisers like all of that has kind

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Speaker 16: of been on pause because of the COVID nineteen pandemic.

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Speaker 15: The South Bronx has been one of the hardest hit

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Speaker 15: areas in the country by the pandemic. Many of its

445
00:30:25,800 --> 00:30:29,800
Speaker 15: residents are either essential workers or are unable to work

446
00:30:29,840 --> 00:30:30,280
Speaker 15: from home.

447
00:30:31,040 --> 00:30:33,520
Speaker 6: People living in parts of Queens in the Bronx have

448
00:30:33,640 --> 00:30:36,840
Speaker 6: found themselves in the epicenter of the virus, and many.

449
00:30:36,800 --> 00:30:39,160
Speaker 1: Living in these communities say more needs to be.

450
00:30:39,240 --> 00:30:40,760
Speaker 2: Done to prevent it from sporadic.

451
00:30:41,600 --> 00:30:44,720
Speaker 16: Just seeing like the food lines that go around for blogs,

452
00:30:44,960 --> 00:30:49,240
Speaker 16: the incessant sirens, knowing that there's not enough relief for

453
00:30:49,360 --> 00:30:52,000
Speaker 16: this community that is working class, that depends so much

454
00:30:52,040 --> 00:30:54,560
Speaker 16: on the service industry, that is so our head and

455
00:30:54,720 --> 00:30:57,920
Speaker 16: you don't benefit from unemployment if you're undocumented, if you're

456
00:30:57,920 --> 00:30:59,360
Speaker 16: working under the tables.

457
00:30:59,520 --> 00:31:02,800
Speaker 15: Today, all of the tables where customers used to sit,

458
00:31:03,160 --> 00:31:05,800
Speaker 15: and where people would come to gather at community events

459
00:31:06,280 --> 00:31:09,800
Speaker 15: are now turned to the wall. Like other restaurants across

460
00:31:09,920 --> 00:31:12,720
Speaker 15: the city, La Morella had to close its doors due

461
00:31:12,720 --> 00:31:16,880
Speaker 15: to the pandemic, but even once restrictions were lifted, it

462
00:31:17,040 --> 00:31:19,840
Speaker 15: was clear that going back to normal was not an option.

463
00:31:20,680 --> 00:31:22,920
Speaker 15: Marco and his family wanted to find a way to

464
00:31:23,040 --> 00:31:26,640
Speaker 15: keep La Morella running and feed their neighborhood, leading them

465
00:31:26,720 --> 00:31:29,959
Speaker 15: to turn their restaurant into a mutual aid soup kitchen.

466
00:31:31,640 --> 00:31:34,600
Speaker 15: But the story of Marco's family and their struggle for

467
00:31:34,680 --> 00:31:38,600
Speaker 15: their community's right to food begins long before the COVID

468
00:31:38,680 --> 00:31:39,600
Speaker 15: nineteen pandemic.

469
00:31:39,960 --> 00:31:42,480
Speaker 16: I mean, I think my family's story used. There's no

470
00:31:42,520 --> 00:31:44,760
Speaker 16: way to tell it without relating it in some way

471
00:31:44,800 --> 00:31:45,200
Speaker 16: to food.

472
00:31:45,680 --> 00:31:49,120
Speaker 15: Marco's parents are from the Mistakavaja region in the northwest

473
00:31:49,200 --> 00:31:54,120
Speaker 15: corner of Wahaka. Their families, like generations before them, practiced

474
00:31:54,200 --> 00:31:59,320
Speaker 15: subsistence farming, growing their own corn, beans, squash. But with

475
00:31:59,400 --> 00:32:02,880
Speaker 15: the rise of subsidized exports caused by the North American

476
00:32:02,960 --> 00:32:07,480
Speaker 15: Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA, the local agricultural economy in

477
00:32:07,600 --> 00:32:12,920
Speaker 15: Mexico was devastated. Modco's parents, like thousands of other Indigenous

478
00:32:12,960 --> 00:32:16,520
Speaker 15: people were forced to migrate to Mexico City to find work.

479
00:32:17,200 --> 00:32:20,120
Speaker 16: My whole parents generation just like up and left because

480
00:32:20,440 --> 00:32:23,760
Speaker 16: the poverty and hunger was way too much. You know,

481
00:32:23,880 --> 00:32:26,160
Speaker 16: they were children too, when they basically had to become

482
00:32:26,160 --> 00:32:27,440
Speaker 16: breadwinners for their families.

483
00:32:27,800 --> 00:32:30,960
Speaker 15: Marco and his sister were born in Wahaca, but soon

484
00:32:31,280 --> 00:32:34,720
Speaker 15: their parents started to look for work somewhere else. Modco's

485
00:32:34,760 --> 00:32:38,160
Speaker 15: parents went on to become migrant farm workers, first in

486
00:32:38,320 --> 00:32:42,760
Speaker 15: northern Mexico and later across the border in California. They

487
00:32:42,800 --> 00:32:45,400
Speaker 15: eventually decided to move to New York to be as

488
00:32:45,480 --> 00:32:50,200
Speaker 15: far away from the border as possible. Undocumented, Modco's parents

489
00:32:50,280 --> 00:32:53,040
Speaker 15: initially couldn't see themselves building a life in the US.

490
00:32:53,560 --> 00:32:56,560
Speaker 15: They wanted to work, save up and raise their children

491
00:32:56,640 --> 00:32:59,880
Speaker 15: in Mexico City, But after just one year in New York,

492
00:33:00,240 --> 00:33:03,280
Speaker 15: Mocco says his parents felt they would have better opportunities

493
00:33:03,360 --> 00:33:06,640
Speaker 15: if they stayed, even though they were still working long

494
00:33:06,760 --> 00:33:08,000
Speaker 15: hours for little pay.

495
00:33:08,240 --> 00:33:10,040
Speaker 16: For the longest time, my dad worked at a gas station.

496
00:33:10,200 --> 00:33:12,440
Speaker 16: My mom was a custodian. But then like on the weekends,

497
00:33:12,480 --> 00:33:14,760
Speaker 16: we would sell tackles in the park. My parents were

498
00:33:14,760 --> 00:33:17,320
Speaker 16: always cooking for like the church family gets together is

499
00:33:17,360 --> 00:33:18,360
Speaker 16: like it was all about food.

500
00:33:18,920 --> 00:33:21,880
Speaker 15: When the Great Recession struck in December of two thousand

501
00:33:21,880 --> 00:33:25,320
Speaker 15: and seven, the service industry took a hard hit, and

502
00:33:25,440 --> 00:33:29,480
Speaker 15: Modico's parents' work felt more precarious than ever. About a

503
00:33:29,560 --> 00:33:32,720
Speaker 15: year into the crisis, they decided to take matters into

504
00:33:32,760 --> 00:33:34,959
Speaker 15: their own hands and start their own business.

505
00:33:35,400 --> 00:33:37,240
Speaker 16: It was kind of like the worst time to open

506
00:33:37,280 --> 00:33:39,360
Speaker 16: a small business, and they poured in their life savings

507
00:33:39,400 --> 00:33:41,520
Speaker 16: into it, and so really it was like such a

508
00:33:41,600 --> 00:33:44,040
Speaker 16: huge yamboll, I think, a bigger campal than we even realized.

509
00:33:44,320 --> 00:33:46,800
Speaker 15: Well, his parents were taking a leap of faith opening

510
00:33:46,880 --> 00:33:51,000
Speaker 15: the restaurant. Marco was also going through a transformational moment

511
00:33:51,160 --> 00:33:53,720
Speaker 15: of his own. He had earned a full ride at

512
00:33:53,800 --> 00:33:57,320
Speaker 15: Kenyon College in Ohio, and he was beginning to examine

513
00:33:57,440 --> 00:34:00,840
Speaker 15: his status as an undocumented person in new ways.

514
00:34:01,400 --> 00:34:03,760
Speaker 16: Growing up with the constant fear of deportation that like

515
00:34:03,800 --> 00:34:06,680
Speaker 16: I would never tell people that I was undocumented, it

516
00:34:06,800 --> 00:34:07,280
Speaker 16: all changed.

517
00:34:07,360 --> 00:34:15,680
Speaker 15: In twenty ten, he took a semester at Georgetown University

518
00:34:15,800 --> 00:34:19,960
Speaker 15: in DC, right as Dream Act Organizing was gaining momentum,

519
00:34:22,760 --> 00:34:26,480
Speaker 15: hundreds of undocumented youth just like Marco were becoming more

520
00:34:26,600 --> 00:34:31,560
Speaker 15: and more outspoken about their undocumented status, protesting the limitations

521
00:34:31,680 --> 00:34:33,920
Speaker 15: and violence that it imposed on their lives.

522
00:34:34,040 --> 00:34:35,719
Speaker 16: I mean, the best part was just like meaning all

523
00:34:35,800 --> 00:34:38,759
Speaker 16: these dreamers like myself and connecting with them, and it

524
00:34:38,920 --> 00:34:40,800
Speaker 16: was just like the best way to break out of

525
00:34:40,920 --> 00:34:43,160
Speaker 16: my personal depression that was still paralyzing.

526
00:34:43,600 --> 00:34:48,280
Speaker 15: At first, Marco's parents weren't exactly happy about their children's activism.

527
00:34:48,840 --> 00:34:51,800
Speaker 16: They were so fearful when me and my sister started

528
00:34:51,800 --> 00:34:54,799
Speaker 16: to organize and say that we're undocumented publicly and doing

529
00:34:54,880 --> 00:34:59,160
Speaker 16: civil subediens, they were constantly like telling us to stop.

530
00:35:00,200 --> 00:35:03,359
Speaker 15: Understood where his parents were coming from. He says they

531
00:35:03,360 --> 00:35:06,520
Speaker 15: were treated as second class citizens on both sides of

532
00:35:06,560 --> 00:35:10,480
Speaker 15: the border, in Mexico for being indigenous and in the

533
00:35:10,640 --> 00:35:12,400
Speaker 15: US for being undocumented.

534
00:35:12,840 --> 00:35:15,840
Speaker 16: But slowly, I think they were so inundated with calls

535
00:35:15,840 --> 00:35:18,680
Speaker 16: and people supporting media showing up at the restaurant that

536
00:35:18,800 --> 00:35:20,600
Speaker 16: they couldn't hide it anymore. And I feel like the

537
00:35:20,680 --> 00:35:23,120
Speaker 16: more they saw us engaged in this worrying that we

538
00:35:23,239 --> 00:35:25,640
Speaker 16: really couldn't be dissuaded for a moment, but also that

539
00:35:25,760 --> 00:35:26,960
Speaker 16: they needed to step up.

540
00:35:27,520 --> 00:35:30,360
Speaker 15: Their family became more and more visible as Marco and

541
00:35:30,480 --> 00:35:34,200
Speaker 15: his sisters stepped up their activism. In addition to traveling

542
00:35:34,280 --> 00:35:38,440
Speaker 15: the country on various immigration organizing campaigns, Marco and a

543
00:35:38,480 --> 00:35:42,280
Speaker 15: group of Dreamers decided to get purposefully detained by border

544
00:35:42,360 --> 00:35:45,959
Speaker 15: patrol in order to infiltrate a for profit detention center

545
00:35:46,120 --> 00:35:49,640
Speaker 15: in twenty twelve. They met with detainees on the inside

546
00:35:49,719 --> 00:35:52,520
Speaker 15: to inform them of their rights and worked with activists

547
00:35:52,560 --> 00:35:54,480
Speaker 15: on the outside to help get them out.

548
00:35:54,960 --> 00:35:57,719
Speaker 16: Hello, my name is Marco savedra Hane. You're watching this.

549
00:35:58,080 --> 00:36:00,719
Speaker 16: It's because I was recently arrived sit in an act

550
00:36:00,760 --> 00:36:01,839
Speaker 16: of civil disobedience.

551
00:36:02,360 --> 00:36:06,520
Speaker 15: After years of organizing, Marco was burnt out, and in

552
00:36:06,600 --> 00:36:09,320
Speaker 15: twenty fourteen he decided to go back home to the

553
00:36:09,440 --> 00:36:13,560
Speaker 15: South Bronx. Marco and his family work together not only

554
00:36:13,640 --> 00:36:15,840
Speaker 15: to keep the restaurant running, but to make it a

555
00:36:15,880 --> 00:36:19,360
Speaker 15: safe space for the undocumented community and to address the

556
00:36:19,440 --> 00:36:22,880
Speaker 15: lack of access to nourishing food in their area. At

557
00:36:22,920 --> 00:36:27,040
Speaker 15: an event in twenty eighteen, Marco's sister Carolina gets choked

558
00:36:27,120 --> 00:36:29,960
Speaker 15: up as she talks about the importance of food justice

559
00:36:30,120 --> 00:36:31,000
Speaker 15: in the South Bronx.

560
00:36:31,600 --> 00:36:34,319
Speaker 17: We're very special because we're one of the few restaurants

561
00:36:34,360 --> 00:36:40,040
Speaker 17: here that you could actually afford to eat farmers market vestavals,

562
00:36:41,520 --> 00:36:44,520
Speaker 17: and it's because due to gentrification, all of the prices

563
00:36:44,600 --> 00:36:47,880
Speaker 17: around those are getting too ridiculous that the kids around

564
00:36:47,920 --> 00:36:49,879
Speaker 17: here can't afford to eat a healthy meal.

565
00:36:51,040 --> 00:36:54,440
Speaker 15: Many areas throughout the Bronx are known as food deserts,

566
00:36:54,920 --> 00:36:58,640
Speaker 15: meaning there's a very little access to fresh produce, leading

567
00:36:58,719 --> 00:37:01,480
Speaker 15: to higher rates of obese city and other health issues.

568
00:37:02,200 --> 00:37:04,879
Speaker 15: It was a pre existing crisis that was put into

569
00:37:04,960 --> 00:37:07,360
Speaker 15: stark relief when COVID nineteen struck.

570
00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:11,040
Speaker 16: I mean, I think obviously we're very fearful of what

571
00:37:11,280 --> 00:37:14,560
Speaker 16: was happening and what it would mean for us, obviously,

572
00:37:14,640 --> 00:37:17,359
Speaker 16: because this was like this is our livelihood and where

573
00:37:17,440 --> 00:37:20,239
Speaker 16: we are, like, you know, the South Bronx feeds the city.

574
00:37:20,840 --> 00:37:23,840
Speaker 15: The Bronx is home to Hunts Point Market, the largest

575
00:37:23,920 --> 00:37:28,160
Speaker 15: wholesale produce market in the US, which provides about sixty

576
00:37:28,239 --> 00:37:31,720
Speaker 15: percent of the food at restaurants and grocery stores across

577
00:37:31,800 --> 00:37:34,880
Speaker 15: New York City. But not only do Bronx residents not

578
00:37:35,040 --> 00:37:37,879
Speaker 15: have access to much of this food, they also bear

579
00:37:37,960 --> 00:37:42,040
Speaker 15: the brunt of the huge environmental costs. The massive truck

580
00:37:42,120 --> 00:37:44,800
Speaker 15: traffic from Hunt's Point is one of the main reasons.

581
00:37:44,880 --> 00:37:47,480
Speaker 15: The South Bronx has some of the highest rates of

582
00:37:47,520 --> 00:37:50,719
Speaker 15: air pollution in the country, with an asthma rate eight

583
00:37:50,920 --> 00:37:55,080
Speaker 15: times the national average, another pre existing crisis that the

584
00:37:55,160 --> 00:38:00,800
Speaker 15: pandemic made even worse. As the virus spread quickly across

585
00:38:00,840 --> 00:38:05,000
Speaker 15: the South Bronx in April, the whole Savedra family got

586
00:38:05,120 --> 00:38:05,560
Speaker 15: sick too.

587
00:38:06,040 --> 00:38:08,080
Speaker 16: I feel like I got hit with it the hardest

588
00:38:08,120 --> 00:38:09,840
Speaker 16: because like how was it in bed for like about

589
00:38:09,880 --> 00:38:11,920
Speaker 16: a week with shills and fevers.

590
00:38:12,440 --> 00:38:15,640
Speaker 15: While the restaurant remained closed under New York City's mandatory

591
00:38:15,719 --> 00:38:20,040
Speaker 15: shutdown and the family recovered from COVID nineteen, the Sabadras

592
00:38:20,080 --> 00:38:23,480
Speaker 15: wondered how they would keep their business alive. Because of

593
00:38:23,560 --> 00:38:27,040
Speaker 15: their undocumented status, they were unable to get a stimulus check,

594
00:38:27,400 --> 00:38:30,839
Speaker 15: file for unemployment, or apply for a small business loan

595
00:38:31,040 --> 00:38:33,080
Speaker 15: through the Federal Payment Protection Program.

596
00:38:33,600 --> 00:38:36,200
Speaker 16: Whenever you hear stuff like that, as an Undactanumorican, you're like,

597
00:38:36,440 --> 00:38:38,319
Speaker 16: what am I immediately disqualified from?

598
00:38:38,520 --> 00:38:39,000
Speaker 2: What line?

599
00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:39,800
Speaker 16: Am I going to now be?

600
00:38:39,840 --> 00:38:42,160
Speaker 2: At the very end of the first.

601
00:38:42,000 --> 00:38:46,040
Speaker 15: Month into the pandemic was tough. Marco remembers throwing out

602
00:38:46,120 --> 00:38:49,319
Speaker 15: spoiling meat and dairy while he watched the lines at

603
00:38:49,400 --> 00:38:53,520
Speaker 15: local food pantries get longer and longer. Black and Latino

604
00:38:53,600 --> 00:38:57,520
Speaker 15: small businesses bared the brunt of the government's insufficient response,

605
00:38:58,040 --> 00:39:01,520
Speaker 15: with one study showing that eight eighteen percent of Black

606
00:39:01,600 --> 00:39:05,800
Speaker 15: and LATINX owned businesses planned to close permanently by April

607
00:39:05,880 --> 00:39:09,680
Speaker 15: of twenty twenty one. But after years of building connections

608
00:39:09,719 --> 00:39:13,479
Speaker 15: in their neighborhood, their friends began to strategize to find

609
00:39:13,480 --> 00:39:16,560
Speaker 15: a way to keep the restaurant running. A family friend

610
00:39:16,719 --> 00:39:18,280
Speaker 15: started a crowdfunding campaign.

611
00:39:18,800 --> 00:39:21,560
Speaker 16: We were at home in quarantine, sick or coming out

612
00:39:21,600 --> 00:39:23,680
Speaker 16: of getting sick. I feel like as an immigrant, you

613
00:39:23,760 --> 00:39:26,840
Speaker 16: are like conductrinated, So like if you're not working sixty

614
00:39:26,880 --> 00:39:28,920
Speaker 16: hours a week, you don't deserve anybody.

615
00:39:29,440 --> 00:39:32,719
Speaker 15: Marco says that in the first two weeks the crowdfunding

616
00:39:32,800 --> 00:39:36,560
Speaker 15: campaign raised forty five thousand dollars, enough to keep the

617
00:39:36,640 --> 00:39:38,920
Speaker 15: restaurant open for the next three months.

618
00:39:39,400 --> 00:39:41,680
Speaker 16: Just to see that money coming through, like every time

619
00:39:41,719 --> 00:39:45,080
Speaker 16: we hit Refreshed, it's just so humbling and overwhelming, and

620
00:39:45,200 --> 00:39:46,520
Speaker 16: we were just like so overjoyed.

621
00:39:47,040 --> 00:39:50,240
Speaker 15: But even though the family was overjoyed, the South Bronx

622
00:39:50,440 --> 00:39:54,360
Speaker 15: was grieving massive loss, becoming the second epicenter of the

623
00:39:54,440 --> 00:39:58,920
Speaker 15: virus in New York after Corona, Queens, another large immigrant community.

624
00:39:59,239 --> 00:40:00,840
Speaker 16: We knew we had to, like me a part of

625
00:40:00,880 --> 00:40:03,840
Speaker 16: the response to this epidemic. We definitely didn't know what

626
00:40:03,960 --> 00:40:05,560
Speaker 16: we were doing or how we were going to do it.

627
00:40:06,120 --> 00:40:08,880
Speaker 15: The family took another leap of faith, and when La

628
00:40:08,960 --> 00:40:12,480
Speaker 15: Moreva reopened in April of twenty twenty, they began to

629
00:40:12,640 --> 00:40:14,760
Speaker 15: operate as a soup kitchen for the community.

630
00:40:15,880 --> 00:40:19,040
Speaker 16: That first day that we reopened, my mom made this huge,

631
00:40:19,360 --> 00:40:22,200
Speaker 16: huge pot of chicken soup. It went out within the

632
00:40:22,280 --> 00:40:24,960
Speaker 16: first ninety minutes. I think we started almost like two

633
00:40:25,040 --> 00:40:26,040
Speaker 16: hundred servings of it.

634
00:40:26,960 --> 00:40:29,200
Speaker 15: On a recent day, the team at La Mooreva was

635
00:40:29,280 --> 00:40:32,319
Speaker 15: making pumpkin soup for one hundred families that they were

636
00:40:32,360 --> 00:40:43,840
Speaker 15: distributing at the local elementary school. Callam Marco's mom is

637
00:40:43,920 --> 00:40:47,040
Speaker 15: standing on a stool as she stirs the pumpkin because

638
00:40:47,080 --> 00:40:50,000
Speaker 15: the giant pot of soup is almost bigger than her.

639
00:40:50,640 --> 00:40:53,640
Speaker 15: She explains that they're not only giving out prepared soup,

640
00:40:54,040 --> 00:40:56,759
Speaker 15: but also distributing ingredients to make the soup.

641
00:40:56,920 --> 00:40:59,760
Speaker 4: With persona why an after Gianbo.

642
00:41:02,680 --> 00:41:05,480
Speaker 15: She hopes their efforts can go beyond just one bowl

643
00:41:05,520 --> 00:41:08,000
Speaker 15: of soup and that people can learn to make their

644
00:41:08,040 --> 00:41:14,000
Speaker 15: own meals as well. Marco says that at first they

645
00:41:14,040 --> 00:41:15,840
Speaker 15: were just trying to make the most out of the

646
00:41:15,920 --> 00:41:19,840
Speaker 15: resources they had. The crowdfunding campaign had given them a

647
00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:23,359
Speaker 15: little extra cushion, and through the ties they forged over

648
00:41:23,400 --> 00:41:27,000
Speaker 15: the years, friends started to connect them with other organizations

649
00:41:27,120 --> 00:41:28,120
Speaker 15: doing similar work.

650
00:41:28,680 --> 00:41:31,320
Speaker 16: A farmer cooperative in High Falls, New York just started

651
00:41:31,360 --> 00:41:34,120
Speaker 16: to donate. Every other week a truckload of food would

652
00:41:34,160 --> 00:41:37,120
Speaker 16: just come down of like the fresh most organic ingredients.

653
00:41:37,600 --> 00:41:40,640
Speaker 15: Soon the Sad family realized they needed to make their

654
00:41:40,680 --> 00:41:44,480
Speaker 15: efforts more accessible, with many people in the Bronx lacking

655
00:41:44,640 --> 00:41:48,680
Speaker 15: childcare or transportation to get around safely. They decided to

656
00:41:48,800 --> 00:41:52,840
Speaker 15: expand their operation and make deliveries to local shelters and

657
00:41:53,040 --> 00:41:55,799
Speaker 15: organizations that would help them to distribute the food.

658
00:41:56,480 --> 00:41:58,840
Speaker 16: So we would get people that would volunteer, and we

659
00:41:58,920 --> 00:42:01,920
Speaker 16: would have sometimes as many of twenty twenty five driving

660
00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:04,440
Speaker 16: routes with every person doing maybe like one or two

661
00:42:04,520 --> 00:42:06,040
Speaker 16: runs as many rounds as they could.

662
00:42:06,600 --> 00:42:09,520
Speaker 15: To Marco and his family, it was important that this

663
00:42:09,680 --> 00:42:12,400
Speaker 15: mutual aid work be understood for what it was.

664
00:42:13,000 --> 00:42:15,360
Speaker 16: For us, like mutual aid that has the same operating

665
00:42:15,440 --> 00:42:19,480
Speaker 16: tenants as organizing whenever you see like inefficiencies or the

666
00:42:19,680 --> 00:42:22,400
Speaker 16: inability of the federal government or the local government to

667
00:42:22,520 --> 00:42:25,520
Speaker 16: provide for its own residents and citizens. Mutual AIDA is

668
00:42:25,560 --> 00:42:28,480
Speaker 16: like the practice of the community response to that inactivity

669
00:42:28,560 --> 00:42:32,120
Speaker 16: right and irresponsibility, and provide a means where there is

670
00:42:32,239 --> 00:42:35,440
Speaker 16: no means, and create that collaborative network of support.

671
00:42:35,840 --> 00:42:39,000
Speaker 15: It was also important that people understand what it.

672
00:42:39,120 --> 00:42:42,080
Speaker 16: Was not definitely is not charity because people in that

673
00:42:42,239 --> 00:42:45,640
Speaker 16: meal line are like my neighbors, my friends, my aunts

674
00:42:45,680 --> 00:42:48,440
Speaker 16: and cousins, people that I've been living with for the

675
00:42:48,560 --> 00:42:52,640
Speaker 16: past decade and have benefited from by being in community

676
00:42:52,719 --> 00:42:56,440
Speaker 16: with them. It's definitely a much more of an empathizing practice, right.

677
00:42:56,520 --> 00:43:00,640
Speaker 16: It has more of those organizing tenants of liberation be mutual.

678
00:43:01,080 --> 00:43:04,080
Speaker 15: Marco gives the example of their partnership with the South

679
00:43:04,120 --> 00:43:09,440
Speaker 15: Bronx Tenants Association, a grassroots network fighting evictions. Since the

680
00:43:09,480 --> 00:43:13,320
Speaker 15: Tenants Association had connections with people in dozens of buildings,

681
00:43:13,719 --> 00:43:15,719
Speaker 15: they helped La Moreva distribute the food.

682
00:43:16,160 --> 00:43:18,480
Speaker 16: The beautiful thing about that is that while they were distributing,

683
00:43:18,520 --> 00:43:20,879
Speaker 16: they would tend out leaflets or check in with folks

684
00:43:20,920 --> 00:43:23,560
Speaker 16: that had like outstanding work orders, and so we were

685
00:43:23,640 --> 00:43:25,879
Speaker 16: doing mutually, but at the same time they were also

686
00:43:25,960 --> 00:43:28,960
Speaker 16: like organizing and building their movements, so it was definitely

687
00:43:29,239 --> 00:43:30,560
Speaker 16: a circular approach.

688
00:43:31,120 --> 00:43:34,240
Speaker 15: To Marco, it really feels like he's come full circle.

689
00:43:34,920 --> 00:43:38,000
Speaker 15: Lack of food sovereignty created the conditions for his parents

690
00:43:38,080 --> 00:43:40,520
Speaker 15: to have to migrate from Wahaka in the first place,

691
00:43:41,200 --> 00:43:45,080
Speaker 15: and now here they were one generation later, amidst a

692
00:43:45,160 --> 00:43:50,640
Speaker 15: global pandemic, together fighting for their community's basic right to food.

693
00:43:51,440 --> 00:43:55,120
Speaker 16: If you don't have access to like healthy, nutritious food

694
00:43:55,280 --> 00:43:57,719
Speaker 16: and some control over where your food is coming from,

695
00:43:58,239 --> 00:44:01,839
Speaker 16: then it's inevitable that panic will ensup and people will

696
00:44:01,880 --> 00:44:04,200
Speaker 16: start hoarding food and not sharing with others and not

697
00:44:04,320 --> 00:44:06,719
Speaker 16: looking out for their neighbors, and being in relation and

698
00:44:06,800 --> 00:44:09,400
Speaker 16: community with the land inevitably means that you're in community

699
00:44:09,440 --> 00:44:12,200
Speaker 16: with your neighbor. And yeah, these mutual aid values line

700
00:44:12,239 --> 00:44:15,640
Speaker 16: up with organizing, line up with sovereignty and indigenous fights

701
00:44:15,840 --> 00:44:17,359
Speaker 16: that are as old at time.

702
00:44:17,920 --> 00:44:22,040
Speaker 15: Just as Marco's parents learned from their children's activism, Marco

703
00:44:22,120 --> 00:44:25,279
Speaker 15: and his sisters also learned from their parents about what

704
00:44:25,480 --> 00:44:27,360
Speaker 15: mutual aid means and looks like.

705
00:44:27,680 --> 00:44:29,960
Speaker 16: If they didn't have this cultural of mutual aid, then,

706
00:44:30,080 --> 00:44:32,440
Speaker 16: like I think We could have easily just been like

707
00:44:32,480 --> 00:44:33,760
Speaker 16: another boarded up restaurant.

708
00:44:36,680 --> 00:44:40,759
Speaker 15: But today La Morella's doors remain open, and last month

709
00:44:41,120 --> 00:44:44,800
Speaker 15: Marco was granted political asylum. He delivered the news to

710
00:44:44,880 --> 00:44:48,440
Speaker 15: his community, standing against the purple walls of La Moreva,

711
00:44:49,000 --> 00:44:51,759
Speaker 15: side by side with his family as his friends threw

712
00:44:51,840 --> 00:45:00,520
Speaker 15: confetti at him from six feet away. Family hopes to

713
00:45:00,600 --> 00:45:03,000
Speaker 15: one day have their own space to live and work

714
00:45:03,080 --> 00:45:06,280
Speaker 15: in the South Bronx, a space where they can continue

715
00:45:06,320 --> 00:45:10,520
Speaker 15: to make their delicious molee uplift local artists and activists,

716
00:45:11,080 --> 00:45:12,160
Speaker 15: and feed their community.

717
00:45:21,400 --> 00:45:24,520
Speaker 1: Coming up on Latino USA, the story of Father Roy,

718
00:45:25,040 --> 00:45:28,920
Speaker 1: the cowboy priest on the US Mexico border who's helping

719
00:45:28,960 --> 00:46:14,400
Speaker 1: a community heal. Stay with us, Hey, we're back. Across

720
00:46:14,480 --> 00:46:17,240
Speaker 1: the country, many families continue to deal with the loss

721
00:46:17,560 --> 00:46:20,680
Speaker 1: of their loved ones. More than five hundred thousand people

722
00:46:20,880 --> 00:46:23,680
Speaker 1: in the US have died due to the virus, and

723
00:46:24,120 --> 00:46:28,600
Speaker 1: several states took turns as national COVID hotspots, including Texas,

724
00:46:29,040 --> 00:46:32,680
Speaker 1: but more specifically the Rio Grande Valley. The region in

725
00:46:32,840 --> 00:46:36,840
Speaker 1: Texas South became an epicenter for the virus, where thousands

726
00:46:36,920 --> 00:46:40,840
Speaker 1: have died. Most of the deaths have been Latinos and Latinas,

727
00:46:41,480 --> 00:46:44,720
Speaker 1: and it was there on the border, in a tiny

728
00:46:44,880 --> 00:46:48,879
Speaker 1: white church where I met Father Roy over a year ago.

729
00:46:49,680 --> 00:46:52,080
Speaker 1: He's been living on the border for many years now.

730
00:46:52,160 --> 00:46:56,240
Speaker 1: He's known as the Cowboy Priest. And Renaldo Legos Junior

731
00:46:56,480 --> 00:46:59,279
Speaker 1: joins us now with the story of how Father Roy

732
00:46:59,760 --> 00:47:02,880
Speaker 1: has help families heal through the loss of their loved ones.

733
00:47:05,320 --> 00:47:09,080
Speaker 5: It's around six point thirty on a Friday morning. The

734
00:47:09,200 --> 00:47:12,040
Speaker 5: sun has not yet come up, and it's windy and cold.

735
00:47:12,920 --> 00:47:15,520
Speaker 5: I'm making my way up a path towards a small

736
00:47:15,640 --> 00:47:17,879
Speaker 5: chapel on the top of a hill in the city

737
00:47:17,960 --> 00:47:25,480
Speaker 5: of Mission. When I enter the chapel, it's pretty dark inside.

738
00:47:25,960 --> 00:47:29,319
Speaker 5: There's no electricity or heat, and the only light it's

739
00:47:29,400 --> 00:47:31,879
Speaker 5: coming from candles at the very front of the church.

740
00:47:32,880 --> 00:47:35,759
Speaker 5: I quietly take a seat in a corner and wait

741
00:47:35,840 --> 00:47:39,719
Speaker 5: for the seven am mess to begin. I'm not the

742
00:47:39,800 --> 00:47:43,680
Speaker 5: only one early. There's already more than a dozen people inside,

743
00:47:43,760 --> 00:47:47,560
Speaker 5: and everyone has a mask on and social distance themselves

744
00:47:47,640 --> 00:47:51,879
Speaker 5: from one another as best they can. About twenty minutes later,

745
00:47:52,280 --> 00:47:59,920
Speaker 5: Father Roy Snipes arrives. Father Roy's three dogs, Bendito, Charlotte

746
00:48:00,080 --> 00:48:03,680
Speaker 5: and Wigglet are with him. And they run around inside

747
00:48:03,719 --> 00:48:07,040
Speaker 5: the church smelling people. One of them jumps on someone's

748
00:48:07,120 --> 00:48:10,080
Speaker 5: lap as a priest starts to get things ready for mass.

749
00:48:11,200 --> 00:48:13,279
Speaker 5: Father Rory then goes to the back of the church

750
00:48:13,440 --> 00:48:17,120
Speaker 5: to ring a bell signaling that mass is about to start.

751
00:48:21,719 --> 00:48:23,359
Speaker 5: On the way back to the front of the church,

752
00:48:23,719 --> 00:48:25,880
Speaker 5: he sprinkles holy water on people.

753
00:48:26,760 --> 00:48:29,399
Speaker 6: Holy water from the Rio Grande and holy water that's

754
00:48:29,480 --> 00:48:30,600
Speaker 6: falling from the skies.

755
00:48:31,800 --> 00:48:35,200
Speaker 18: The minders of our veptism in Christ. The spirit of

756
00:48:35,360 --> 00:48:36,600
Speaker 18: Love is at work in our.

757
00:48:36,600 --> 00:48:40,000
Speaker 6: Hearts and stories and families, in the story of our

758
00:48:40,080 --> 00:48:42,120
Speaker 6: old family of faith. Here on the band.

759
00:48:43,120 --> 00:48:45,960
Speaker 5: He then plays a song called Blue Shadows on an

760
00:48:46,000 --> 00:49:13,719
Speaker 5: old battery powered CD player. And Father Roy grew up

761
00:49:13,760 --> 00:49:15,680
Speaker 5: in San Antonio, but he has been in the Rio

762
00:49:15,760 --> 00:49:19,399
Speaker 5: Grande Valley for decades. He's pretty well known in town

763
00:49:19,560 --> 00:49:22,800
Speaker 5: for fighting the border wall to protect the Lalomita Chapel,

764
00:49:23,280 --> 00:49:27,640
Speaker 5: which was originally built back in eighteen sixty five. Most recently,

765
00:49:28,080 --> 00:49:31,640
Speaker 5: Father Roy has been a constant presence at funeral services

766
00:49:31,800 --> 00:49:34,960
Speaker 5: in the valley from people who have died of COVID nineteen.

767
00:49:35,760 --> 00:49:38,560
Speaker 5: The RGV had a surge of cases last summer.

768
00:49:39,000 --> 00:49:41,799
Speaker 19: I think it really ought to be bigger national news

769
00:49:42,320 --> 00:49:44,520
Speaker 19: right now, that the situation in the Rio Grande Valley

770
00:49:44,719 --> 00:49:47,400
Speaker 19: in Texas right now is well and truly dire. There

771
00:49:47,480 --> 00:49:49,719
Speaker 19: is now a two week waiting list to get a

772
00:49:49,800 --> 00:49:52,600
Speaker 19: body into a crematorium in Hidalgo County.

773
00:49:52,960 --> 00:49:57,320
Speaker 20: Doctors have talked about just the sheer volume of patients

774
00:49:57,320 --> 00:50:00,560
Speaker 20: they've been seeing. And I'm actually just outside old hospital

775
00:50:00,600 --> 00:50:03,040
Speaker 20: that's been set up here in McCallen, Texas, in the

776
00:50:03,080 --> 00:50:07,320
Speaker 20: Real Grand Valley, and it has tenths inside. This is

777
00:50:07,400 --> 00:50:09,960
Speaker 20: an overflow facility there.

778
00:50:09,840 --> 00:50:12,160
Speaker 5: Were the Real Grand Valley was hit hard by the

779
00:50:12,239 --> 00:50:17,000
Speaker 5: pandemic and has killed about four thousand people. That means

780
00:50:17,040 --> 00:50:19,239
Speaker 5: that one in about three hundred and forty people in

781
00:50:19,320 --> 00:50:23,520
Speaker 5: the region has passed away. In comparison, one in about

782
00:50:23,600 --> 00:50:28,520
Speaker 5: six hundred have diet nationwide. At today's mass, Father Roy

783
00:50:28,600 --> 00:50:31,000
Speaker 5: brings up COVID nineteen, and.

784
00:50:31,120 --> 00:50:33,200
Speaker 18: We pray for all those who are sick with the virus,

785
00:50:33,560 --> 00:50:38,799
Speaker 18: and especially those who are sick and scared to death,

786
00:50:38,840 --> 00:50:41,400
Speaker 18: which probably is pretty much all of us. Even if

787
00:50:41,440 --> 00:50:43,520
Speaker 18: we're not sick, we're scared to death with the virus.

788
00:50:43,880 --> 00:50:46,879
Speaker 5: Then he says he's about to paraphrase a prayer Pope

789
00:50:46,920 --> 00:50:48,640
Speaker 5: Francis gave a while back.

790
00:50:49,200 --> 00:50:52,600
Speaker 21: Almighty and ever living, ever loving God. We pray for

791
00:50:52,680 --> 00:50:56,520
Speaker 21: those who are ill. Shind your hearty healing spirit to them.

792
00:50:57,440 --> 00:51:01,239
Speaker 21: Comfort those who are more who are mourning. There's more

793
00:51:01,360 --> 00:51:04,080
Speaker 21: mourning than we realize. People are mourning who have lost

794
00:51:04,200 --> 00:51:07,800
Speaker 21: loved ones. People are mourning just for the good times

795
00:51:07,840 --> 00:51:10,080
Speaker 21: that are gone. And people are mourning who are looking

796
00:51:10,239 --> 00:51:14,280
Speaker 21: with fear at the danger or the threat of the virus.

797
00:51:14,560 --> 00:51:17,600
Speaker 5: While people have their heads down in prayer, he asks

798
00:51:17,640 --> 00:51:20,239
Speaker 5: them to also please pray for those who are sick

799
00:51:20,280 --> 00:51:23,759
Speaker 5: with COVID in the ICUs, as well as doctors and

800
00:51:23,880 --> 00:51:26,520
Speaker 5: nurses and those who are administering the vaccine.

801
00:51:27,120 --> 00:51:31,160
Speaker 21: Help us to encourage each other in these trying times.

802
00:51:32,200 --> 00:51:34,480
Speaker 5: After mass I sit down for a talk with Father

803
00:51:34,640 --> 00:51:37,840
Speaker 5: Roy in his office several minutes away from La Lomita

804
00:51:38,080 --> 00:51:41,000
Speaker 5: but still in mission. He says he doesn't remember the

805
00:51:41,080 --> 00:51:44,040
Speaker 5: first COVID nineteen funeral he did here in the valley,

806
00:51:44,480 --> 00:51:46,800
Speaker 5: but he's sure that he's done more than one hundred.

807
00:51:47,640 --> 00:51:51,759
Speaker 5: He's actually getting ready for another, and this one hit

808
00:51:51,840 --> 00:51:52,480
Speaker 5: close to home.

809
00:51:52,880 --> 00:51:56,920
Speaker 6: One of our great youth leaders and lectures Ministers of

810
00:51:57,000 --> 00:52:01,120
Speaker 6: Communion always active in the Faiish. He and his wife

811
00:52:02,520 --> 00:52:05,440
Speaker 6: had the ministry of helping people with awake saying the

812
00:52:05,560 --> 00:52:08,880
Speaker 6: rosarie with him and he came down with the COVID

813
00:52:09,040 --> 00:52:12,719
Speaker 6: maybe three weeks ago, four weeks ago. He's sixty three

814
00:52:12,760 --> 00:52:15,839
Speaker 6: years old. We'd had other people that around that age.

815
00:52:16,200 --> 00:52:18,719
Speaker 6: They came down with the COVID and they bounced back well,

816
00:52:18,840 --> 00:52:21,000
Speaker 6: and within a week or two they were really already

817
00:52:21,239 --> 00:52:26,200
Speaker 6: recuperating well. And he died and we're all so shocked

818
00:52:26,280 --> 00:52:29,719
Speaker 6: by that. That's extremely personal because he was here helping

819
00:52:29,800 --> 00:52:33,040
Speaker 6: us all the time he was here and now he's gone.

820
00:52:34,160 --> 00:52:37,000
Speaker 5: Pre COVID. Father Roy used to do funerals, but he

821
00:52:37,080 --> 00:52:40,719
Speaker 5: says doing them during the pandemic has been especially difficult.

822
00:52:42,560 --> 00:52:45,880
Speaker 6: One thing about the COVID. It is very painful for me.

823
00:52:46,760 --> 00:52:49,680
Speaker 6: There's a protocol that we've come up with. The Bishop

824
00:52:49,760 --> 00:52:52,520
Speaker 6: came up with it, and it certainly makes sense way

825
00:52:52,600 --> 00:52:55,719
Speaker 6: back when it first started happening that we would do

826
00:52:55,840 --> 00:52:58,520
Speaker 6: gravesize services but not bring the families in the body

827
00:52:58,560 --> 00:53:01,600
Speaker 6: end of the church because that would be more of

828
00:53:01,640 --> 00:53:05,520
Speaker 6: a likelihood of contagion. But that's very painful. What we

829
00:53:05,640 --> 00:53:09,719
Speaker 6: did start doing that helped some. We wouldn't just do

830
00:53:09,840 --> 00:53:11,880
Speaker 6: a grave side. We'd ask them to bring the body

831
00:53:11,920 --> 00:53:15,600
Speaker 6: to the church. We wouldn't come in, but we'd with

832
00:53:15,719 --> 00:53:17,879
Speaker 6: the body out in front. We'd ring the funeral bill

833
00:53:18,120 --> 00:53:21,200
Speaker 6: and we have those outside bolcinas that you so we'd

834
00:53:22,960 --> 00:53:26,359
Speaker 6: play some good songs for you know, songs that would

835
00:53:27,480 --> 00:53:29,480
Speaker 6: kind of soothe the broken heart. They're no song that

836
00:53:29,560 --> 00:53:30,640
Speaker 6: fixes a broken heart.

837
00:53:31,400 --> 00:53:35,800
Speaker 5: Doing so many funerals during the pandemic has sometimes been draining,

838
00:53:36,360 --> 00:53:39,120
Speaker 5: but he always tries to remain present for the families

839
00:53:39,239 --> 00:53:42,440
Speaker 5: beyond the funerals, because their pain doesn't go away when

840
00:53:42,480 --> 00:53:44,360
Speaker 5: they say goodbye to their loved ones.

841
00:53:44,960 --> 00:53:47,640
Speaker 6: I don't want to become perfunctory that. I don't want

842
00:53:47,680 --> 00:53:53,000
Speaker 6: to become just where I'm just performing this ritual that

843
00:53:53,120 --> 00:53:54,920
Speaker 6: has to be performed, and I have to do it

844
00:53:55,000 --> 00:53:56,920
Speaker 6: and get it over with because I try to remember

845
00:53:56,960 --> 00:54:00,320
Speaker 6: every time, this could be this could be my daddy,

846
00:54:00,400 --> 00:54:03,080
Speaker 6: this would be my mama that we're burying, and I

847
00:54:03,320 --> 00:54:05,879
Speaker 6: know how much that crushed me when my mama died,

848
00:54:05,920 --> 00:54:08,080
Speaker 6: and that's how they're crushed now.

849
00:54:09,000 --> 00:54:14,000
Speaker 5: This became especially challenging during the spiking cases over the summer.

850
00:54:14,560 --> 00:54:17,400
Speaker 5: Sometimes by the end of the day he wouldn't remember

851
00:54:17,520 --> 00:54:20,680
Speaker 5: which funerals he had just done, and sometimes it was

852
00:54:20,840 --> 00:54:21,799
Speaker 5: four or five a day.

853
00:54:22,680 --> 00:54:25,560
Speaker 6: It was like a nightmare. It was unbelievable, just and

854
00:54:25,680 --> 00:54:28,200
Speaker 6: I just tried to be brave on the one hand,

855
00:54:28,920 --> 00:54:32,480
Speaker 6: not you know, not to be not to be griping,

856
00:54:32,640 --> 00:54:35,160
Speaker 6: because that's what I signed up for. My job is

857
00:54:35,239 --> 00:54:37,279
Speaker 6: to bury that. That's one of one of the main

858
00:54:37,440 --> 00:54:40,040
Speaker 6: things that a very priest does is to bury the dead,

859
00:54:40,239 --> 00:54:46,360
Speaker 6: you know, and console the grieving that. So I just

860
00:54:46,440 --> 00:54:50,880
Speaker 6: tried to, you know, be brave and brave and kadig

861
00:54:50,920 --> 00:54:57,640
Speaker 6: nyoshl you know, courageous, but kadig josho. And it was, Yeah,

862
00:54:57,719 --> 00:55:00,479
Speaker 6: it was terrible. I didn't. We haven't had anything like again.

863
00:55:00,520 --> 00:55:01,240
Speaker 6: I hope we won't.

864
00:55:01,719 --> 00:55:04,480
Speaker 5: One of the burial services that Father Roy spoke at

865
00:55:04,920 --> 00:55:07,960
Speaker 5: during the height of the pandemic was for Manuel Science

866
00:55:08,120 --> 00:55:11,920
Speaker 5: Junior's dad. He goes by Manny Many grew up in

867
00:55:12,000 --> 00:55:14,920
Speaker 5: a small town in the Rio Grande Valley of Sanni Sidro.

868
00:55:15,560 --> 00:55:18,160
Speaker 5: He teaches art at a local high school and at

869
00:55:18,239 --> 00:55:22,200
Speaker 5: the local college. Many says he remembers father Roy coming

870
00:55:22,280 --> 00:55:25,239
Speaker 5: over to his house when he was young. Before he

871
00:55:25,360 --> 00:55:28,960
Speaker 5: joined the priesthood. His dad and father Roy were pretty

872
00:55:29,040 --> 00:55:31,080
Speaker 5: close and it was special to have him at the

873
00:55:31,120 --> 00:55:32,319
Speaker 5: burial service.

874
00:55:32,600 --> 00:55:37,719
Speaker 8: Having him there not only just as a priest that

875
00:55:37,920 --> 00:55:41,720
Speaker 8: we know, but he's family to us. He was raised

876
00:55:41,719 --> 00:55:44,239
Speaker 8: of sunshine on a cloudy day on a very dark

877
00:55:44,320 --> 00:55:49,200
Speaker 8: day for us. And the words that he shared throughout

878
00:55:49,880 --> 00:55:54,359
Speaker 8: you know, the service and you know the burial were

879
00:55:54,400 --> 00:56:00,720
Speaker 8: all about how how my father lived a genuine good

880
00:56:01,560 --> 00:56:04,759
Speaker 8: life that was important just to hear it come out

881
00:56:04,800 --> 00:56:05,759
Speaker 8: of father Roy's mouth.

882
00:56:06,400 --> 00:56:08,759
Speaker 5: Mannie's dad was a math teacher and a coach in

883
00:56:08,840 --> 00:56:12,520
Speaker 5: sanny Seidro. His dad and mom lived out there for decades,

884
00:56:12,800 --> 00:56:16,520
Speaker 5: even into their older age. After Manny's mother passed away

885
00:56:16,640 --> 00:56:20,839
Speaker 5: unexpectantly after an accident in twenty nineteen. Around that time

886
00:56:21,080 --> 00:56:23,000
Speaker 5: is when his dad moved in with him for a while,

887
00:56:23,480 --> 00:56:26,840
Speaker 5: but eventually they moved his dad to an assisted living facility.

888
00:56:27,160 --> 00:56:31,239
Speaker 8: He discovered that he loved, of all things painting. He

889
00:56:31,400 --> 00:56:36,480
Speaker 8: became an artist. My dad was like like the athletic guy,

890
00:56:36,640 --> 00:56:38,279
Speaker 8: you know what I mean, Like the athletic coach guy.

891
00:56:38,360 --> 00:56:40,840
Speaker 8: He was not the fine arts, nothing like that.

892
00:56:41,680 --> 00:56:45,480
Speaker 5: Then, when COVID nineteen hit last March, the facility only

893
00:56:45,560 --> 00:56:49,719
Speaker 5: allowed window visits. The missed interactions took a toll on

894
00:56:49,880 --> 00:56:50,319
Speaker 5: his dad.

895
00:56:51,000 --> 00:56:53,480
Speaker 8: He fell down one night that in morning, he ended

896
00:56:53,560 --> 00:56:55,840
Speaker 8: up in the hospital and it turned out that he

897
00:56:56,040 --> 00:56:59,800
Speaker 8: had a dislocated hip and so he was going to

898
00:56:59,840 --> 00:57:00,440
Speaker 8: need surgery.

899
00:57:00,960 --> 00:57:03,480
Speaker 5: Manny says he was concerned about his dad having to

900
00:57:03,600 --> 00:57:07,040
Speaker 5: leave the facility and going to the hospital because COVID

901
00:57:07,120 --> 00:57:11,040
Speaker 5: cases were really ramping up in the area. The surgery

902
00:57:11,120 --> 00:57:14,680
Speaker 5: went well and he was transported to a rehabilitation center,

903
00:57:15,239 --> 00:57:18,360
Speaker 5: but then they discovered that the ball in socket had

904
00:57:18,440 --> 00:57:24,240
Speaker 5: come undone, so he needed surgery again. This would happen

905
00:57:24,360 --> 00:57:26,520
Speaker 5: once more after that, so he went back to the

906
00:57:26,600 --> 00:57:28,320
Speaker 5: hospital a third time.

907
00:57:28,680 --> 00:57:30,600
Speaker 8: And that's when we found out later that evening that

908
00:57:30,680 --> 00:57:32,080
Speaker 8: he tested positive for COVID.

909
00:57:32,560 --> 00:57:34,960
Speaker 5: Manny says that he had a bad feeling on how

910
00:57:35,000 --> 00:57:37,800
Speaker 5: this is going to turn out. His dad's surgery was

911
00:57:37,880 --> 00:57:41,840
Speaker 5: put on hold because he was COVID positive. Communicating with

912
00:57:41,960 --> 00:57:44,919
Speaker 5: his dad in the hospital was almost impossible.

913
00:57:45,280 --> 00:57:49,480
Speaker 8: The hospitals needed beds, they needed them for other patients,

914
00:57:50,560 --> 00:57:54,120
Speaker 8: and we were lucky enough that we did find a

915
00:57:54,520 --> 00:57:55,960
Speaker 8: nursing in rehab.

916
00:57:57,240 --> 00:57:57,880
Speaker 2: In farm.

917
00:57:59,200 --> 00:57:59,960
Speaker 3: That would accept him.

918
00:58:00,800 --> 00:58:02,880
Speaker 5: Then he got a phone call that.

919
00:58:02,960 --> 00:58:06,560
Speaker 8: Morning and my sister she says, hey, and she was

920
00:58:07,520 --> 00:58:09,439
Speaker 8: breaking up, and she was really choking up. She goes,

921
00:58:09,480 --> 00:58:16,680
Speaker 8: Dad's gone. He went into cardiac arrest midway between DHR

922
00:58:16,840 --> 00:58:19,160
Speaker 8: and the nursing and rehab.

923
00:58:20,080 --> 00:58:22,640
Speaker 5: Many and his family were devastated. They had to wait

924
00:58:22,680 --> 00:58:26,040
Speaker 5: almost two weeks to bury him because funeral homes couldn't

925
00:58:26,120 --> 00:58:29,400
Speaker 5: keep up with the high volume of deaths. His funeral

926
00:58:29,480 --> 00:58:32,919
Speaker 5: service was also limited because of the pandemic, but people

927
00:58:33,000 --> 00:58:36,160
Speaker 5: were able to tune in virtually. Many says he's very

928
00:58:36,280 --> 00:58:39,080
Speaker 5: thankful that Father Roy spoke at the burial service.

929
00:58:39,560 --> 00:58:46,840
Speaker 6: Father Roy just was like so comforting and having us know.

930
00:58:49,040 --> 00:58:55,240
Speaker 8: That though the last month, the last year and a

931
00:58:55,280 --> 00:58:58,760
Speaker 8: half when my mom went through her ordeal, but even

932
00:58:58,800 --> 00:59:01,080
Speaker 8: though they went through all that hill that they're in

933
00:59:01,200 --> 00:59:07,080
Speaker 8: heaven now and they're together and that is everything too

934
00:59:07,560 --> 00:59:11,200
Speaker 8: for us. You know, they are together and there's no

935
00:59:11,320 --> 00:59:15,200
Speaker 8: COVID in heaven, it's not there, and they're happy and

936
00:59:15,240 --> 00:59:16,160
Speaker 8: they're in paradise now.

937
00:59:17,520 --> 00:59:19,560
Speaker 5: Mannie says when he gets sad about the loss of

938
00:59:19,600 --> 00:59:23,040
Speaker 5: his parents, he allows himself to cry and let it out.

939
00:59:23,560 --> 00:59:26,120
Speaker 5: He says he also thinks back to the happy moments

940
00:59:26,160 --> 00:59:39,400
Speaker 5: he had with his parents back at Father Rory's office.

941
00:59:39,640 --> 00:59:42,840
Speaker 5: He says, He's thankful that people trust him. He thinks

942
00:59:42,920 --> 00:59:46,280
Speaker 5: one reason he's able to connect and console people is

943
00:59:46,360 --> 00:59:49,800
Speaker 5: because he speaks from his broken heart to their broken heart.

944
00:59:50,120 --> 00:59:52,520
Speaker 6: You know, Pope Francis gave that beautiful example. He said,

945
00:59:52,560 --> 00:59:55,320
Speaker 6: you really need to think of the church not as

946
00:59:55,360 --> 00:59:59,480
Speaker 6: an elite country club for the special people who can

947
00:59:59,560 --> 01:00:01,680
Speaker 6: get in, for the superior people who can get in.

948
01:00:02,680 --> 01:00:04,840
Speaker 6: You need to think of it as kind of like

949
01:00:04,920 --> 01:00:08,240
Speaker 6: a field hospital, and we're all wounded and we're helping

950
01:00:08,320 --> 01:00:11,760
Speaker 6: each other get you know, helping each other make it.

951
01:00:12,480 --> 01:00:15,360
Speaker 5: Father Roy says, even though the last year has been difficult,

952
01:00:15,760 --> 01:00:17,240
Speaker 5: he's hopeful about the future.

953
01:00:18,080 --> 01:00:24,840
Speaker 6: Love being stronger than death is something we experience, and

954
01:00:25,000 --> 01:00:29,760
Speaker 6: love that's something else. It's not just that love conquers death.

955
01:00:29,880 --> 01:00:31,920
Speaker 6: It does. You can experience it in that way. You

956
01:00:32,000 --> 01:00:35,080
Speaker 6: say that I lost the one I love, but I

957
01:00:35,160 --> 01:00:37,880
Speaker 6: love them more than ever. But actually the love is

958
01:00:38,000 --> 01:00:43,640
Speaker 6: actually even kind of like fertilized. He said. I find

959
01:00:43,720 --> 01:00:46,720
Speaker 6: myself growing in love because my heart is so broken,

960
01:00:46,960 --> 01:00:48,840
Speaker 6: and growing in love for the one who's been taken

961
01:00:48,920 --> 01:00:51,480
Speaker 6: from me, and just growing in love for life, more

962
01:00:52,680 --> 01:00:55,520
Speaker 6: more aware of the gift of life.

963
01:01:18,880 --> 01:01:22,240
Speaker 1: Over the past year, I've lost so many people that

964
01:01:22,360 --> 01:01:26,280
Speaker 1: I can't even count, including Mi Primot, my cousin Hirado

965
01:01:26,720 --> 01:01:31,400
Speaker 1: in Mexico, and so to you, dear listener. If you've

966
01:01:31,680 --> 01:01:34,600
Speaker 1: lost a loved one over the past year, I send you,

967
01:01:35,000 --> 01:01:37,480
Speaker 1: and all of us at Latino USA send you our

968
01:01:37,560 --> 01:01:42,480
Speaker 1: deepest condolences. Noust romas sentido besame to you and your

969
01:01:42,560 --> 01:01:45,400
Speaker 1: families from all of us at Latino USA.

970
01:01:46,200 --> 01:01:49,000
Speaker 2: This episode is for you more.

971
01:02:11,160 --> 01:02:15,080
Speaker 1: This episode was produced by Alisa Scarce Rinaldo, Leanz Junior

972
01:02:15,160 --> 01:02:18,640
Speaker 1: and Julia Rocha and edited by Andrea Lopez Russlo. The

973
01:02:18,760 --> 01:02:24,480
Speaker 1: Latino USA team includes Niel Massias, Marta Martinez, Julieta Martinelli, Ginimuntalbo,

974
01:02:24,640 --> 01:02:27,880
Speaker 1: Alejandra Salasad, and we had help from Raoul Bettz. Our

975
01:02:27,960 --> 01:02:31,560
Speaker 1: engineers are Stephanie Lebaud, Julia Caruso and Lia Shaw, with

976
01:02:31,760 --> 01:02:35,080
Speaker 1: help from elisabe Ittoo, gabrie La Bayez and Rosanna Cavano.

977
01:02:35,520 --> 01:02:38,640
Speaker 2: Our digital editor is Luis Luna. Our interns are Samantha

978
01:02:38,680 --> 01:02:39,920
Speaker 2: Friedman and Carl Rubin.

979
01:02:40,360 --> 01:02:44,760
Speaker 1: This week we say goodbye to our fabulous producer, Alisa Scarce. Alissa,

980
01:02:44,920 --> 01:02:46,840
Speaker 1: thank you so much for all of your hard work.

981
01:02:47,000 --> 01:02:49,840
Speaker 1: One year of it during a pandemic, and we wish

982
01:02:49,880 --> 01:02:52,040
Speaker 1: you the best of luck on your next big adventure.

983
01:02:53,080 --> 01:02:56,000
Speaker 1: Our theme music was composed by Zeniel Roubinos. If you

984
01:02:56,120 --> 01:02:58,440
Speaker 1: like the music you heard on this episode, stop by

985
01:02:58,480 --> 01:03:02,120
Speaker 1: Latinousa dot org and check out our weekly Spotify playlist.

986
01:03:02,600 --> 01:03:05,760
Speaker 1: I'm your host and executive producer Maria Jojosa. Join us

987
01:03:05,760 --> 01:03:08,240
Speaker 1: again on our next episode, and in the meanwhile, look

988
01:03:08,280 --> 01:03:11,560
Speaker 1: for us on social media. I'll see you there, Joe.

989
01:03:15,160 --> 01:03:19,320
Speaker 22: Latino USA is made possible in part by the Chan

990
01:03:19,440 --> 01:03:24,720
Speaker 22: Zuckerberg Initiative, the Ford Foundation working with visionaries on the

991
01:03:24,760 --> 01:03:30,760
Speaker 22: frontlines of social change worldwide, and funding for Latino USA is.

992
01:03:30,840 --> 01:03:33,800
Speaker 22: Coverage of a culture of health is made possible in

993
01:03:33,880 --> 01:03:36,600
Speaker 22: part by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

994
01:03:41,280 --> 01:03:45,320
Speaker 1: Knowsich two one. There was your fun right there, Mihan

995
01:03:45,840 --> 01:03:46,280
Speaker 1: Knowsich