by Serafina Smith<\/p>\n
The disproportionate effect the coronavirus pandemic has had on Oregon’s Latino community is taking its toll. And the strain is not confined to those infected. Community health workers, doctors, and others in the community have been bottlenecked into a front-line of Spanish-language and culturally-appropriate aid to those affected by the virus, who often do not know how to access help in the predominantly white, English-speaking state. \u201cIt\u2019s just really overwhelming,\u201d said Anakaren Gutierrez Sandoval, a community health worker with the non-profit group Oregon Latino Health Coalition. \u201cThat\u2019s the best way I can describe it. Everyone is just at max capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n
While they make up about 13% of the population of Oregon, Latino Oregonians account for over 39% of coronavirus infections in the state. Several factors contribute to this \u2013 such as crowded housing, an overrepresentation of Latinos as essential workers, and lack of access to healthcare \u2013 but a leading consideration is the lack of information available to the community. While information on social distancing and mask-wearing seems to abound for English-speakers, resources in Spanish can be scarce.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a 211 number where they could call to request assistance,\u201d said Sandoval, \u201cbut a lot of times that was in English or they had technical difficulties being able to get that information.\u201d Not only are Spanish-language resources hard to come by, misinformation on Spanish radio stations is plentiful. This lack of communication appears to have exacerbated or at least contributed to the disproportionate infection of the Latino community in Oregon.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re in the middle of a pandemic,\u201d said Mexican-American winemaker Cristina Gonzales, \u201cBut we\u2019re also in a pandemic of misinformation. And that goes down the pipeline, down to our most disadvantaged and underrepresented groups.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the below graph, the blue bar represents the number of COVID-19 cases among people who identified as Hispanic. While it is clear that these represent much more than 13% of the population, the data has been obscured in some ways by the differentiation between race and ethnicity.<\/p>\n