Immigrant communities in Los Angeles remain highly vulnerable to the HIV virus that causes AIDS due to a lack of information on the prevalence of the condition and ways to prevent its transmission.
That assessment recently came from Odilia Romero Hernandez, who serves as a coordinator for the Women of the International Front of Indigenous Organizations (FIOB), a non-profit organization that has spent the past nine months working on a campaign to help residents of the Pico-Union district of Los Angeles detect and prevent AIDS.
The campaign includes HIV tests every three months for participants, and also offers other medical services such as mammograms and blood-pressure screenings. The program aims to reach many of the working-class immigrants who live in Pico-Union, one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in the entire U.S., and a blue-collar neighbor to the new upscale LA Live! complex of theaters, restaurants, retail shops and hotels, a project that is currently taking shape.
The periodic health fairs organized by FIOB representatives seek to draw participants from a specific and often overlooked segment of the Pico-Union population: Immigrants from the Mexican state of Oaxaca, a group that includes many indigenous individuals who speak native tongues in addition to Spanish or English.
The program has conducted 60 HIV examinations so far, and all have been negative, according to representatives of FIOB. Individuals who have participated in the testing have also gotten information from doctors and other medical professionals on the risks presented by HIV, as well as ways to prevent its transmission.
It can be a dramatic visit as participants wait the 20 minutes or so it takes to get results back on HIV testing.
"It's 20 minutes of terror for some people because they do not know what the results will be," says Hernandez.
There are also some cultural barriers to overcome before some participants will even agree to be tested.
"Many of them say to us that an HIV test is only for gays," says Hernandez. "This is alarming for us because when we hear that we know that people are not informed--and therefore they are vulnerable."
Part of the vulnerability owes to illiteracy.
"There is a cultural difference," says Hernandez. "Often the indigenous Oaxacans do not know to read or write, and that's one reason they do not understand. And here in the U.S., the media [that serves the local community] does not speak much on this subject as it is still a taboo. That's why we've launched this campaign, and because the number of HIV cases is growing."
Hernandez says that tracking HIV in the Oaxacan community in the U.S. can be difficult because most data on infection rates cover all Latinos in one category. She says that anecdotal evidence suggests that Oaxacan immigrants might contracting the HIV virus as rates higher than the general population. Once reason could be prostitution, which traps many Oaxcacan immigrants once they arrive in Los Angeles. Hernandez said that the area around MacArthur Park in the Westlake district, just north of Pic-Union, has become a center of prostitution. FIOB representatives say they would like to see the prostitutes use condoms for protection against HIV, and they are quick to explain the practical nature of the idea.
"We are not promoting the sexual relations, but in any case these women will be safer using condoms that might prevent HIV or sexually transmitted diseases," Hernandez says.
Recent data from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health offers an indication of the scope of HIV and AIDS cases in the area, numbers that certainly indicate a problem that extends well beyond the Oaxacan community and into the general public. The health department found 64,0785 cases of AIDS in Los Angeles County.
The same holds for data from the California Department of Public Health, which recently reported 179,954 cases statewide. The state health department data shows 3,842 cases of AIDS among Latinos in California, a total well below the ethnic group's share of the population. But the problem is not confined to California--other data show that Mexico has one of the highest rates of AIDS infections in Latin America. And Oaxaca ranks third among all 31 states of Mexico and its federal district, according to Hernandez.
Among the organizations helping FIOB in efforts to combat the trend in Pico-Union is the United Methodist Church, which has contributed money and other resources to help sponsor health fairs and provide the exams.
"The examinations cost money in a clinic, and we provide for free, with specialized personnel" on hand to answer questions and give additional information to participants, says Hernandez, who has yet to see either of the presidential candidates speak to health issues in a way that offers her much hope of significant changes when it comes to efforts to prevent and treat HIV and AIDS.
"They promise healthcare, but they do not tell us what actions they are going away to take so that people have access to it," she say. "We do not know how the poor communities will have access to healthcare when we have Latinos and indigenous immigrants who face language barriers and cannot even ask for help.
For now, Hernandez will focus on her part in the challenge, encouraging members of the Oaxacan community to prevent HIV and AIDS by attending health fairs and other events, getting tested.
Links:
BINATIONAL FRONT OF INDIGENOUS ORGANIZATIONS (FIOB)
Mireya Olivera is editor of Impulso.
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