Effort to educate Latinos about coronavirus brings masks, information to Empire

As the number of coronavirus cases continue to rise in Stanislaus County, the Latino community has been impacted the most.

Stanislaus County Health Services Agency statistics on Wednesday showed 670 cases of COVID-19 illness, with Latinos representing 61 percent of the cases even though they’re 47 percent of the population.

Spanish media outlets stay updated and remind their audiences to take safety precautions, but the statistics have Latino activist Miguel Donoso questioning if media is enough to spread the message..

Donoso and two Empire residents, Rafael Rodriguez and Fabian Tamayo, plan to be outside the Garcia’s Market in Empire for the second time on Friday at 9:30a.m., handing out face masks and Spanish COVID-19 flyers.

The three men took the initiative to stand outside the popular market and verbally spread coronavirus awareness to the customers.

The county made 100 flyers for them to hand out with information in Spanish on what the coronavirus is, the symptoms and how to prevent the virus from spreading.

Donoso is concerned about the Latinos who have limited access to media and are not getting enough information to help them understand the severity of the coronavirus.

Masks, information available at Garcia’s Market

Garcia’s Market owner Irma Ochoa said approximately 80 percent of the customers are Latino and a lot of them do not wear masks. She was more than willing to allow the activists to spread awareness outside the market. They first distributed masks and information on May 15.

A Garcia’s Market customer who was wearing her black polka-dotted hand-made mask said she was glad to see the three men distributing masks and flyers.

She said it’s uncomfortable to shop around people who are not wearing masks and it’s not fair to those who are doing everything they can to stay safe.

“We try so hard to follow (safety precautions),” said the woman, who asked to not have her name used.

While a lot of Latinos stay informed through the media, there are others who have little to no access or are illiterate.

With men like Donoso, Rodriguez and Tamayo, the Latino community has an opportunity to understand how they can keep themselves and their family safe from the virus and that there are ways to get medical help if needed.

“We can’t prevent the disaster but we can make a difference,” said Rodriguez, who has been an Empire resident for over 40 years.

This story was originally published May 28, 2020 at 6:33 AM.