Santa Barbara County is one of eight counties in California that has already carried out pilot programs to vaccinate their farmworker populations. The county launched its trilingual, tri-cultural pilot program on Feb. 28, providing vaccinations for nearly 500 farmworkers in Santa Maria.
Jackie Ruiz, Santa Barbara County Department of Public Health spokesperson, told the Sun the goal of the program is to inform the county how it can better manage clinics by using an equity lens.
The county partnered with Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE), Mixteco Indigena Community Organizing Project (MICOP), Herencia Indígena, the Agricultural Commission, and the Grower-Shipper Association of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties to work through the cultural and linguistic barriers for Spanish and Mixteco speakers.
One of the vaccination event’s challenges was individuals’ hesitancy to get the vaccine. Ruiz said there were a few apprehensive participants, but they were encouraged to show up to the clinic to receive in-person support in their preferred language.
“We have a medical consult booth at all of our clinics to help individuals who may be worried about a specific health concern or co-morbidity. We are committed to making sure anyone who has an appointment get their concerns addressed before vaccination,” she said.
The vaccination site at the Santa Maria Health Care Center was staffed by 30 staff members, which Dr. Van Do-Reynoso, Santa Barbara County Public Health director, described as a “bare-bones” crew. However, staffing the clinic with a bilingual, bicultural staff made the entire vaccination process effective, Do-Reynoso said.
Ruiz said the program is another example of why the county’s partnerships with “trusted community organizations are crucial.”
Vanessa Terán, MICOP’s policy and communications associate, said trust is the only way MICOP has been able to assist Santa Barbara and Ventura counties’ Mixteco-speaking community members during the pandemic.
“When there is a pilot program or a personal protective equipment distribution site and MICOP is there in collaboration, the community is no longer concerned because MICOP’s voice has a lot of validity and it has a lot of indigenous members,” Terán said.
The organization is unique because it specifically reaches the indigenous population in a way that’s culturally and linguistically appropriate, and its staff members understand the values and belief systems of the community. The indigenous community that MICOP works with comes primarily from Southern Mexico, including the states of Oaxaca, Guerrero, Michoacán, and Puebla.
MICOP found that digital literacy is the largest challenge that the indigenous population faces during the vaccine and COVID-19 testing registration processes because of a required email confirmation.
Terán said that in Ventura County, a Farmworker Resource Center can access COVID-19 test results for farmworkers, with the individual’s permission. The center has a specific phone line where individuals can call and ask for their results, which Terán said is more accessible than navigating a website or using an email account.
“Here we lay out these beautiful websites like MyTurn to sign up or register for vaccines, but with the population we work with who have never had access to this digital space, it’s caused a huge digital divide,” Terán said.
MICOP and other partnering organizations can help create email accounts, but Terán said individuals have more access to a phone than they do a computer or internet.
Interpretation is another barrier for the population MICOP works with. Terán said the Mixteco language has several linguistic variations.
Many of the words and concepts that deal with the coronavirus are new to the indigenous community, which speaks a language that’s more than 3,000 years old. There aren’t words for virus or computer because they’re not things the community had experienced before.
“A phrase that one of our leaders uses when a person has exited the hospital and needs to take a certain medicine, they say in ‘three moons’ or in ‘three suns,’ instead of days,” Terán said. “It’s a very floral language in that it’s very descriptive.”
It’s vital to have Mixteco language interpreters and medical interpreters during these clinics to walk individuals through the inoculation process or to correctly write a person’s name on the COVID-19 vaccine card, Terán said.
“It’s just asking for basic rights of human language. It’s just asking for the human dignity component that feels far-fetched because we haven’t navigated a world like this before with so much stress of the needs for accessibility,” Terán said. “It’s a big learning experience for us as a community, as a society, to see who we prioritize in these moments so that others don’t feel left out. It’s important to say your turn will come.”
As Santa Barbara County works through some of the issues it discovered during its pilot vaccination program, neighboring San Luis Obispo County is planning to launch its own vaccine clinic called Farm Worker Friday in mid-March to inoculate between 500 to 600 field workers. The date of the clinic has yet to be determined and is contingent on vaccine supply.
Brent Burchett, executive director of the SLO County Farm Bureau said, the SLO County’s vaccine task force approved a plan drafted by the Farm Bureau, and the plan will likely be modified after the first clinic is done.
For now, the task force has the names and contact information of farm labor contractors and large-scale farmers. Each employer will submit a list of interested employees’ names, date of birth, and another identifier (the task force and county are still working together to decide on a third category). The Farm Bureau doesn’t want a driver’s license or a Social Security number as identifiers because that requirement might dissuade individuals from getting the vaccine, depending on their legal status.
“That’s a barrier. We want to make this as easy as possible and for the farmworkers to feel comfortable coming in,” Burchett said.
SLO County Public Health spokesperson Michelle Shoresman said that the county is still working out the details of how to verify employment and residency with the Farm Bureau and employers “for this high-risk group, but we are committed to making the process as non-intimidating as possible.”
When a worker arrives for the appointment, he or she will need to fill out a health screening document, and multilingual staff will be available to help. In an effort to get their workers vaccinated, Burchett said he hopes employers will offer paid sick leave or half the day off to allow employees to participate in the program.
Erica Ruvalcaba-Heredia, director of the Promotores Collaborative of San Luis Obispo, got emotional over the phone when she talked to the Sun about the work the SLO County Vaccine Task Force and Public Health Department are doing to vaccinate the farmworker community.
As a daughter of immigrants herself, Ruvalcaba-Heredia said many farmworkers and Latinos feel that the greater community is finally valuing them and their work.
“It’s important to mention that they feel like, ‘OK my work as an essential worker matters, and the people at [the Department of Public Health] care about me,” Ruvalcaba-Heredia said.
Staff Writer Karen Garcia can be reached at kgarcia@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Mar 18-25, 2021.