The Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention Center in San Mateo County, which is operated by StarVista, began receiving calls to the number 988 this week, as part of the national network for responding to this type of event.
Local callers to 988 will receive free, confidential support 24/7 through the StarVista Crisis Center hotline program.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) called 988 a first step toward a transformed crisis care system in the United States.
If you are a San Mateo County resident without a 650 area code and would like to access the StarVista Crisis Center, you can call Lifeline at 650-579-0350, which remains available after the launch of 988 on July 16, 2022.
“StarVista’s Crisis Center is honored to be one of only 13 call centers in the state of California to literally answer the call for this new initiative,” said Taylor Coutts, Program Manager for StarVista’s Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention Hotline.
“Our hotline team stands ready to support this initiative in this capacity and we look forward to the ways this will positively shape crisis services in our communities in the years to come,” she added.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is comprised of more than 200 state-funded and local Crisis Centers across the country. The StarVista Crisis Center is a participating call center that operates the 24/7 crisis hotline at 650-579-0350.
Most Lifeline calls with a 650 area code are forwarded to the StarVista Crisis Center.
With the addition of 988, the program hopes to see an increase in calls to its center.
StarVista is a nonprofit agency that provides high-impact services through counseling, case management, skills development, and crisis prevention to children, youth, adults, and families.
StarVista Suicide Prevention and Crisis Intervention Center provides suicide intervention services and programs for San Mateo County residents, including a 24-hour crisis hotline, a mobile youth crisis response team, online and text-based crisis support for teens, and educational presentations for the community and schools.
Un estudio realizado por investigadores de varios países a lo largo de 30 años, reveló que el consumo moderado de alcohol en mayores de 40 años es benéfico para la salud, sin embargo, en general, este recalca que, pese a los descubrimientos, su ingesta se desaconseja por completo.
De acuerdo con el análisis, publicado por la revista científica The Lancet, un grupo de investigadores se dio a la tarea de analizar los efectos del alcohol entre personas de 15 y 95 años a partir del estudio de la Carga Global de Enfermedades.
Este estudio sobre los efectos del alcohol no se ha hecho a la ligera pues se han tomado datos de personas de 204 países desde 1990 a 2020.
Dentro de los análisis realizados se tomaron 22 indicadores de salud que van desde las enfermedades cardiovasculares, el cáncer y accidentes de tráfico.
Los resultados del estudio, si bien no son del todo positivos, si son alentadores en lo que respecta al consumo moderado de una a dos copas de vino para algunos miembros de la población de los 40 años en adelante, los cuales podrían obtener algunos beneficios sobre su salud.
Lo anterior, según el artículo, se debería a que el etanol ‒principal ingrediente de bebidas alcohólicas‒, incrementa la producción de colesterol bueno en el entodelio ‒tejido que tapiza el interior de venas y arterias‒, lo cual podría ser beneficioso ante enfermedades cardiovasculares o diabetes tipo 2.
Los grupos de personas que podrían verse beneficiados por este exhaustivo análisis son hombres de entre 40 y 64 años consumiendo un total de 1.69 copas de vino y en mujeres un 1.89.
Sin embargo, al aumentar la edad, en mayores de 65 años, aumenta el margen de consumo pudiendo llegar en hombres hasta un total de 3.19 copas de vino y en mujeres hasta un 3.51.
Pese a lo anterior, este resalta la importancia del consumo del alcohol relacionado con la pérdida de la salud por enfermedades como la cirrosis hepática, el cáncer de mama y la tuberculosis. Por lo cual se desaconseja por completo su ingesta.
Además, recalca el estudio, los riesgos por la carga del consumo de alcohol varían según la región y edad.
Cabe resaltar que, si bien el consumo del alcohol se remonta a unos 10 millones de años atrás, los percances de su consumo sobre la salud también lo son, pues tan sólo en 2020 la ingesta de estas bebidas fue responsable de 78 millones de muertes en el mundo y el principal factor de riesgo de mortalidad entre los varones de 15 a 49 años, menciona el estudio.
Discrimination against older adults is on the rise around the world. From anti-aging creams to criticism of those who hold public office due to their age, the need to reflect on the impact that these prejudices have on the daily lives of this population is becoming increasingly evident.
93 percent of older adults between the ages of 50 and 80 have experienced discrimination due to their age, as this not only occurs in the form of being forced to retire or withdraw from certain activities but also in their daily lives.
“Birthday cards with jokes about aging, anti-aging products, comments like ‘you look so good for your age’ or people assuming that all older adults have memory problems or hearing loss,” said Jullie Allen, an assistant professor of health promotion at the University of Oklahoma, are all forms of what she calls “everyday ageism.”
In a panel organized by Etnic Media Services, the expert highlighted that in addition to the obvious impact on the mental health of this sector, age discrimination also affects physical health, as there is an acceleration of aging due to the stress suffered by older adults, increasing the risk of suffering from chronic diseases such as diabetes or heart problems and even premature death.
Loneliness, depression and chronic illnesses are part of the stereotypes of aging that cause older adults not to receive or seek specialized medical care, since these conditions are seen as something "normal" in relation to their age.
"Older adults receive lower quality health care than younger people," Allen said, because individual health providers' decisions about what types of situations are worthwhile for treatment are based on an individual's age, denying this segment of the population procedures such as organ transplants.
However, older adults are not only excluded from basic activities or work, but their mental and physical capacity to hold public office is also questioned, using stereotypes of this sector as an indicator to decide whether or not they should be part of politics.
Paul Kleyman, national coordinator of the Network of Journalists in Generations, pointed out that Joseph Biden, President of the United States, or Dianne Feinstein, US senator, should be judged based on their merits and not their age, since "age discrimination in the country affects vital sectors of our society."
Likewise, Patricia D'Antonio, vice president of policy and professional affairs for the Gerontological Society of America, pointed out that "we have to recognize that there are challenges for us as we age, but there is also accumulated wisdom that comes with age" so older people should be included in addressing those challenges.
D'Antonio stressed the importance of older adults being recognized and knowing that they continue to contribute to society and that society recognizes and supports them with wheelchairs, transportation systems, companies without age prejudices and health services.
"The number of birthday candles on your cake is simply a recognition to celebrate our years and our wisdom," said D'Antonio, who took the opportunity to highlight that intergenerational experiences make a culture much richer.
Women are the most affected by discrimination against older adults
“Women are aging in greater numbers than men,” said Louise Aronson, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. In 2016, there were 79 men for every 100 women aged 65 or older, and although the numbers have changed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are a greater number of women within the older adult population.
Aronson also said that women are not only discriminated against because of their age, but also because of their sex, which increases the complications they experience as a result.
"Women earn less money than men," she said, so they not only face the aforementioned physical and mental health problems, but also financial ones.
She also pointed out that women are more likely to age while men are more likely to die, so they are the ones who suffer from chronic diseases, disabilities and a lower quality of life.
Born and raised in the town of Guaimaral, municipality of Córdoba Tetón, Montes de María subregion in the department of Bolívar, Colombia, Bernarda Verena Anaya Cohen, 57 years old, is a rural teacher and writer, who with her stories seeks to make the voices of rural women visible to help them carry out their processes of resilience in the face of the multiple difficulties they face.
"Professor" Verena Anaya Cohen began writing her own stories as a healing process after being subjected to different situations of domestic violence.
He has been a teacher for more than 26 years, but a couple of years ago he began his journey in literature.
My first steps
It all started when she was 16 years old, after finishing her high school studies in the city of Cartagena, where she reflected on the economic situation her family was going through, a situation that gave her a lot of strength to return to her community and take up a job as a teacher in the village of Bellavista, in the district of Guaimaral.
Teacher Verena and her students from 1st, 4th and 5th grade.
This work allowed him to realize the challenges that the territory has and that life itself presents.
Knowing that they do not have the educational support, the necessary implements to carry out a day of classes and the lack of tertiary roads to these territories close to the large cities of the Caribbean, make the work of teachers in rural Colombia more difficult every day.
She is currently a teacher at the Centro Educativo school in the Rancho Largo area, where she and her students in grades 1, 4, and 5 of primary school teach their classes in the school cafeteria or under the shade of a tree, since she does not have an adequate space where she can carry out her work and where her students are comfortable receiving her classes.
This is due to the deterioration and abandonment of the school by the municipal and regional education departments and the national education ministry of Colombia towards rural schools throughout the country.
Current classroom of teacher Verena and her students.
Bernarda is not only dedicated to teaching but also to drawing, knitting and writing as an exercise in resilience in the face of the difficult times she has experienced due to abuse and domestic violence, to the point of hindering the upbringing of her children.
At the age of 27, her first son was born and two years later her second daughter was born. Their birth marked a milestone in her history as a woman and as a mother, who was being subjected to a scourge of abuse and psychological, verbal and physical mistreatment by her partner, which forced her to flee to her parents' home and assume the role of father and mother in raising her children.
Another of La Profe's passions is preparing delicious traditional delicacies that are part of the regional gastronomy of the Colombian Caribbean.
Since she was young, she has enjoyed preparing local sweets that she later sells to provide another source of income for her home, such as the ripe plantain bun, which is kneaded together with corn, ground, and wrapped in the husks of the corn cobs and then cooked. After 2 or 3 hours, these delicious plantain buns can be eaten.
«I am a person who likes to do many things, and among them are having small sales of sweets, food and other things that allow me to have a little extra income. This is what allowed me, in one way or another, to support my children alone.»
This is how Professor Verena Anaya begins her first book entitled«Life. Life. Strong and determined woman»which, in his own words, is written from the heart.
Every word in the story is wisdom given by God. Because many women will accept it and it will help them to get through their daily lives full of difficulties. This book is a tribute to life.
«I write for women. For those women to whom life has presented many obstacles and who, as those obstacles progress, have to overcome them.»
"Life, Life" is a book made up of 7 chapters in which the author narrates moments of her childhood, the arrival of some technological inventions of the time to the town, her adolescence, the arrival of her first children and all those moments of tribulations and sadness that marked her life.
This, his first book, is released to the international market this July 19, 2022 at 12 p.m. on the platform of amazon.com.
Professor Berena wants the whole world to read, share and know the stories of the deep Caribbean that she tells in her book while sharing her feelings.
What does it mean to be a rural woman?
«We rural women are those who work in the fields, those who do not have everything at hand. Those who know that water will not come to us through pipes, but that we have to go and get it from the well on a donkey. Those women will have everything difficult because of the inequalities, the violence of armed groups and the domestic violence that we experience in our communities.»
"As rural women, we have to be very hard-working and very strong to keep moving forward and cope with our own lives and with them those of our families. And these are the things that I try to highlight in my book."
Prof. Verena's home in Guarumo.
In many ways, Verena has been overcoming the obstacles that she herself faces and continues to face as a mother, and now with her experiences she seeks to support other women to heal their deepest wounds rooted in the violence that rural, peasant and ethnic women suffer daily.
Professor Verena accompanied by residents of the Guaimaral community.
The armed conflict
In the 2000s, violence marked the lives and work of many teachers in rural schools in Colombia. Teachers could not see, hear, or even talk about the violence they and their students were experiencing in schools. Hundreds of communities were left in the midst of terror and horror instilled by armed groups that moved through the area day and night without any control by state forces.
Horrible things happened in the community of Guaimaral, there was a lot of violence that still affects the daily life of its inhabitants to this day. In many homes in the community, people experienced first-hand the harassment and violence exerted by armed groups.
Seño Verena considers herself a phoenix, and she really wants to continue writing stories from the region to show them to the world using digital platforms, where she seeks to help people, and especially women, who have suffered domestic violence find a path to resilience in her texts.
The Pacifica Police Department is asking for help following a hate incident in the community where a doll was branded with a swastika at a local school.
On July 13, Pacifica Police Department officers responded to a report of a robbery at Oceana High School.
According to a statement from authorities, officers met with a school administrator and learned that a pride flag was removed from the flag pole in front of the gymnasium.
On July 14, officers responded to the City of Pacifica's after-school care program located on the Sunset Ridge School campus to conduct a theft investigation.
Officers determined that the suspect(s), whose identity is currently unknown, entered two classrooms, one of which was completely ransacked.
Inside the ransacked classroom, officials said, officers found a doll of a child with a swastika inscribed on its forehead. Staff reported the theft of several electronic and computer items.
"These types of hate incidents will not be tolerated in our community and we are seeking the public's help in identifying the individuals responsible," said Pacifica Police Capt. Bill Glasgo.
Anyone with information about these incidents is encouraged to call the Pacifica Police Department at 650-738-7314 and speak to a detective, or call the Silent Witness Tip Line at 650-359-4444.
On Monday morning, a San Mateo Police officer arrested a man after he approached them and confessed to stealing a rideshare vehicle on the night of Sunday, July 17.
At 6:14 a.m. on Monday, a male subject identified as Randy Jay stopped a police officer to tell him that he “was a bad person and needed to go to jail.” During this contact, it was discovered that Jay was in possession of fentanyl and had returned to San Mateo in an unreported stolen vehicle out of Turlock, California.
According to the report, Jay admitted to detectives that he was responsible for Sunday's carjacking incident and that the knife used by the suspect to threaten the driver and steal his vehicle was recovered.
In addition to a summons for charges arising from this morning's incident, Jay was arrested for charges stemming from the carjacking and was transported and booked into the San Mateo County Jail.
This Sunday, July 16, at approximately 10:12 p.m., San Mateo Police officers responded to the area of Cypress Ave. and N. Humboldt St. for a report of a hit and run.
Upon arrival, officers encountered a female rideshare driver, who stated that she picked up a male rider in San Jose. When they arrived at their destination, the man ordered her to continue driving by threatening her with a knife to her stomach. He eventually instructed her to drive north on HWY 101 and exit in San Mateo.
When he felt he had a chance to escape, the driver jumped out of the braking vehicle. At that point, the suspect stole his car and fled the scene.
The driver was uninjured, but at least two vehicles in the area suffered minor damage.
During the trip to San Mateo, the suspect made a 9-1-1 call.
As part of the investigation, it was learned that the 9-1-1 call was intercepted by Mountain View police, who were able to provide a phone number used by the man. The caller said someone was trying to kill him, but he was laughing, so it seemed like he was joking.
A preliminary investigation determined the man was likely Randy Jay, who fit the description given by the victim and witnesses. Approximately two hours later, the victim's vehicle was located in Morgan Hill.
Security footage from the area where the vehicle was located showed a man who also matched Jay's description.
With information from Anna Lee Mraz from P360P and Bay City News
Trabajadores de atención médica y de apoyo se encuentran en huelga en el Sequoia Hospital de Redwood City desde la mañana de este lunes, pues exigen mejores condiciones laborales y un nuevo contrato.
Photo: Andrew Dudenbostel
La huelga estalló este lunes en punto de las 6:00 horas en el hospital ubicado en el 170 de Alameda de las Pulgas, luego de que fuera autorizada el pasado 7 de julio cuando el 95 por ciento de los miembros del sindicato votó a favor de tomar medidas.
Así, asistentes de enfermería, ayudantes, técnicos quirúrgicos, terapeutas respiratorios, cocineros y otros, participan en la manifestación, según la Federación Estadounidense de Empleados Estatales, del Condado y Municipales Local 829.
Photo: Anna Lee Mraz P360P
El Hospital Sequoia es propiedad de Dignity Health. Las negociaciones del contrato están en curso, mientras que los miembros del sindicato abogan por mejores condiciones de trabajo, salarios más altos, mejores beneficios y un mayor número de personal.
De acuerdo con la trabajadora Abigail Knight, quién ha laborado por más de 33 años en el nosocomio y que actualmente es técnica anestesióloga en el área de cirugía, llamó a la comunidad a apoyar el paro, pues, dijo, el movimiento es para apoyar también la atención a los pacientes.
Abigail Knight, Sequoia Hospital worker. Photo: Anna Lee Mraz P360P
La empleada del Hospital Sequoia, detalló que dentro de las exigencias demandadas por parte del Local 829 sindicato 57 se encuentran tres peticiones principales: seguro médico gratuito por parte del hospital, contratación de más personal y aumento de más del 4 por ciento del salario anual.
Y es que, precisó a este medio, en la actualidad gran parte del personal trabaja incluso hasta 15 horas diarias lo cual repercute en el desempeño correcto de éste y el trato con los pacientes, pues abogan que trabajan incluso lastimados.
Photo: Andrew Dudenbostel
Por su parte, las autoridades del Hospital Sequoia han ofrecido hasta ahora un aumento salarial anual de cuatro por ciento, el cual, de acuerdo con los manifestantes, resulta insuficiente, pues el costo de vida se ha elevado, especialmente en términos de vivienda.
Abigail Knight subrayó, al igual que más profesionistas que se encuentran hoy protestando, que tampoco cuentan con plazas que aseguren su contratación de manera permente.
Además, mencionó que el personal de limpieza en ocasiones ha cubierto de tres a cuatro turnos y las autoridades amenazan para que acudan a trabajar.
Photo: Anna Lee Mraz P360P
«A nosotros nos encanta nuestro trabajo y atender a nuestros pacientes y no quisiéramos estar aquí pero no tenemos suficiente dinero para pagar nuestras rentas, necesitamos que contraten a más personal y queremos un buen aumento para poder servir a la comunidad», comentó a P360P.
«Queremos que la comunidad venga y esté con nosotros porque estamos peleando para cuidar a nuestros pacientes. Estamos aquí con nuestras familias. No queremos hacer esto, queremos trabajar. Nos gustaría que la comunidad viniera a apoyarnos a luchar», puntualizó.
La empresa de transporte eléctrico Bird inicia operaciones con scooters ecológicos en Redwood City, con la finalidad de apoyar a reemplazar los viajes en automóvil a gasolina, y con ello reducir las emisiones de carbono en la ciudad, haciendo a las comunidades más habitables.
«Le damos la bienvenida a Bird a Redwood City y esperamos ofrecer a los miembros de la comunidad una forma nueva, ecológica y divertida de moverse. Ya sea comprando y cenando en el centro o simplemente dando un paseo a la biblioteca o al parque, los residentes y visitantes ahora tendrán una nueva forma de llegar», dijo la administradora de la ciudad, Melissa Stevenson Diaz.
Los scooters de la compañía, desarrollados por un equipo de expertos en ingeniería y diseño de vehículos, también brindan una forma natural de distanciamiento social para moverse y ofrecen a los residentes sin automóviles otra opción de transporte.
«Aplaudimos a la ciudad de Redwood City por su compromiso de ofrecer opciones de transporte convenientes, respetuosas con el medio ambiente y confiables para los residentes y visitantes», señaló Austin Marshburn, director de asociaciones entre ciudades y universidades de Bird.
Among the benefits Bird offers Redwood City riders include community pricing, which means a 50 percent discount to low-income riders, Pell grant recipients, selected local nonprofits and community organizations, veterans and seniors.
Aquellos que califiquen pueden registrarse descargando la aplicación Bird, creando una cuenta y enviando un correo electrónico con prueba de elegibilidad a access@bird.co.
Además, ofrece viajes gratis para trabajadores de la salud y personal de emergencia. Sin embargo, es necesario calificar e inscribirse enviando por correo electrónico una copia de su tarjeta de identificación médica, nombre y número de teléfono a together@bird.co. Los pasajeros elegibles reciben dos viajes gratis de 30 minutos por día.
Cualquier persona con una cuenta de Bird puede informar o proporcionar comentarios sobre problemas relacionados con vehículos, como aquellos mal estacionados o dañados en su área, tocando el signo de ceder el paso en la parte inferior izquierda del mapa de la aplicación para teléfonos inteligentes. Cuando se envía un informe, se asigna a alguien para corregir el problema.
Actualmente, Bird ofrece flotas de microvehículos eléctricos compartidos a pasajeros en más de 400 ciudades en todo el mundo y pone sus productos a la venta en www.bird.co y a través de los principales minoristas y socios de distribución.
Bird se asocia estrechamente con las ciudades en las que opera para brindar una opción de transporte confiable y asequible para las personas que viven y trabajan allí.
Redwood City remains in a Stage 2 water shortage emergency, meaning residential customers have an indoor allotment of 45 gallons per person per day and a 35 percent reduction in outdoor irrigation water.
On May 24, the city's Water Board adopted emergency regulations requiring all urban water suppliers to implement all demand reduction actions identified in the city's water shortage contingency plan by 10 to 20 percent.
Thus, to prevent unreasonable water use and promote water conservation, the Water Board prohibited the use of potable water for irrigation of non-functional turf on commercial, industrial and institutional sites, which also includes common areas for homeowners associations, but not family residential areas.
Non-functional turf means turf that is solely ornamental and is not regularly used for human recreational purposes or for civic or community events.
Redwood City has a Water Shortage Contingency Plan (WSCP) that includes 6 stages of actions designed to reduce water demand to meet available supply.
Redwood City Drought Restrictions
On January 10, 2022, Redwood City declared a Stage 2 water shortage emergency requiring all customers to reduce water usage based on their water allocation.
Additionally, the use of outdoor water to irrigate ornamental gardens or lawns that is not supplied through a dedicated irrigation meter is only permitted two days per week as follows:
Addresses ending in an odd number only water on Mondays and Thursdays
Walk-in customers only water on Mondays and Thursdays.
Addresses ending in an even number only water on Tuesdays and Fridays
Most residential customers can meet the outdoor reduction requirement by watering two days per week as mentioned above.
Commercial, industrial and institutional customers must reduce water usage by 7.0 percent compared to the same billing period prior to the start of the water shortage declaration.
Prohibited uses of water include the application of potable water to outdoor landscaping in a manner that causes runoff such that the water flows onto adjacent property, non-irrigated areas, public and private sidewalks, roads, parking lots, or structures.
Also, the use of a hose that supplies potable water to wash a motor vehicle, except when the hose is equipped with a shut-off nozzle or an attached device that causes it to immediately stop dispensing water when not in use.
In addition to the application of potable water to driveways and sidewalks; the use of potable water in a fountain or other decorative water feature, except where the water is part of a recirculating system; the application of potable water to outdoor landscaping during and within 48 hours of measurable rainfall; and the irrigation of ornamental turf in medians of public right-of-way with potable water.
Likewise, irrigation with potable water of landscapes outside of newly constructed homes and buildings in a manner inconsistent with regulations or other requirements established by the California Building Standards Commission and the Department of Housing and Community Development, and the use of potable water through broken or defective plumbing and irrigation systems are prohibited.
And California is entering a third year of intensifying drought and the governor $123.9 billion education package issued four proclamations dated April 12, May 10, July 8, and October 19, 2021 regarding worsening drought conditions.
Redwood City’s sole source of drinking water is purchased from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), and approximately 85 percent of that supply comes from the Tuolumne River via the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.
On August 20, 2021, the California State Water Resources Control Board (Water Board) issued restraining orders to the SFPUC for its diversions in the Tuolumne River Basin.
The Water Board's reduction order allows continued diversions of 55 gallons per person per day as an exception for health and safety, but only if the water provider has declared a water shortage.
In response to these actions, the SFPUC declared a water shortage emergency on November 23, 2021, and requested a 10 percent reduction in water use systemwide beginning in fiscal year 2019-20 as a baseline.
Redwood City’s SFRWS supply allocation is 6.364 percent or 7.237 billion gallons per day, representing a 17.43 percent reduction from the FY 2019-20 baseline.
Laura RubioListen to Constanza Mazzotti's voice note
Originally from Morelia, Michoacán, Laura Rubio, 48, is a Mexican activist for the most vulnerable in East Palo Alto. A couple of decades ago, she migrated north, like the Monarch butterfly, to seek better opportunities for herself and her children outside of her country, Mexico, to the United States.
Laura never imagined that she would find her calling as an activist for the rights of the most needy in East Palo Alto, a city located in San Mateo County, California, where she resides.
It all began, as she herself tells it, during her experience as a domestic worker, a job that fills her with pride, because thanks to it she has been able to raise her children.
This work allowed her to realize how many of these workers' rights are undermined by their employers. She experienced this situation firsthand, after seeing her days off restricted, or even being forced to work during the COVID-19 pandemic, because she said her clients wanted to see their houses clean.
Laura is not only dedicated to assisting immigrants but also Americans who seek advice on how to obtain support from government programs that have been largely left out due to the biases inherent in aid programs.
Thus, Rubio is dedicated to her activism by reviewing the official documentation of aid programs to translate not only the information into Spanish, but also to analyze the content and propose the necessary modifications to the state of California, just as she did in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic so that everyone who needed it could have access to public benefits.
“During the pandemic, I didn’t want to stay home because I would go out to see if my neighbors needed anything. And they did,” she said during an interview in the Bay Area Portraits section of Peninsula 360 Press.
Specifically, her help with food distribution, integrating the most vulnerable into housing assistance programs, and later organizing the application of vaccines in the county where she lives, has made a difference among the members of her community.
Language, he said, "is not a barrier for me. When I give talks at board meetings, I have a monitor for each thing, one for the transmission, another for the translation and another to know what I am going to say."
In this way, she has overcome the obstacles she herself faced as an immigrant, and now, her experience serves to support others.
He is a member of several organizations, including the Latino Caucus Board of Directors; the Rent Stabilization Board; and the Tenant Board of Directors, made up of three East Palo Alto organizations.
Another passion of Laura's is advocating for women domestic workers through the National Domestic Workers Alliance and the National Domestic Workers Alliance Pop Culture Board of Directors.
"I'm not alone. I join and go with young organizations where I get energized and call my colleagues to go out and do activism, we spend late into the night knocking on doors. The councilors also go out with us to support and distribute hot food, we help fill out applications or knock on neighborhood and government doors, because there are plenty of resources in our community," she stressed.
One of the barriers that I might have as a woman is perhaps not knowing the trade of a mechanic, she joked, because she affirms that a woman can achieve everything she sets her mind to.
«At the beginning I was very afraid. I remember that friends and neighbours around me would tell me, 'No, you don't have to go out and talk to people because they might throw you out of the country!'» To which Laura, instead of responding with fear, responded with actions.
Another of Laura's passions is feeling connected to Mexico through her roots during the celebrations of Mexican traditions such as the Day of the Dead, especially celebrated among young people from the Casa Círculo Cultural organization.
This tradition, he said, supports his belief that in order to bring about change among young people, they must be sensitized through culture.
For Laura there are no limits, and she is already considering designing a website, where she will try to help people find the information they need for fair advocacy. In the meantime, she keeps her digital networks open so that anyone who needs help can find her.
In recent years, Laura's role within her community is so important that she was awarded the "Community Hero" award by East Palo Alto organizations in 2019 for "her formidable work as an activist."
Don't miss "Bay Area Portraits" with Constanza Mazzotti, where each week she interviews a personality that makes a difference in the community, every Thursday at 5:30 PM Pacific Time.
