“I am the voice for the voiceless. Believe me, I’m yelling.”
Meet Maria Remington, Promotora de Salud (Community Health Worker) in the Walla Walla Valley. While all of our farmers in this program are called ambassadors, Maria is, quite literally, a farmer ambassador. Her role as Promotora de Salud is to be a liaison for the Hispanic community, with a particular focus on vineyard workers. Funded by Vital Wines, whose mission is to improve access to healthcare for vineyard workers and cellar workers in the Walla Walla Valley and surrounding communities, and Providence St. Mary Medical Center, this position is much needed, and long overdue.
“The disparities in healthcare are big here,” Maria said. “We don’t have access. The language and cultural barriers are amazing.” Maria comes from a family of teachers, and spent a large part of her career in education, much of which she brings to the table in this role, as she organizes and facilitates monthly workshops based on the needs of the community. While her everyday is about responding to the needs of right now, Maria’s goal is more long-term. “The need is everywhere,” she said. “The relationships that I have with people are not from yesterday. It’s a long process, and it’s going to take time. But I’m everywhere.”
To be an immigrant, to not speak English, sometimes we have this misconception that we are less. And then we don’t feel like we are part of the community.—Maria Remington, promotora de salud
Translated by David Rodriguez
Washington Wine: Maria, tell us about what this position of Promotora de Salud has been like for you.
Maria Remington: Well, I want to tell you something first. When I saw this position, my heart was jumping. This position serves the community, the Hispanic community here. I didn’t know much about health. I’m not a nurse, I’m a teacher. My heart couldn’t stop just jumping. I told myself, I’m going to apply for that position because I know my Hispanic population here in this Walla Walla Valley.
I know the disparities in healthcare are big here. We don’t have access. The language and cultural barriers are amazing. I love the job, that’s my passion. I’m following my passion. When I choose this, I’m following my passion, believe me. I can have a plan. Like today, I have a day planned, but then I can have emergency situations with somebody. They need my expertise in translating or looking for resources, so I need to be available. One day, I have planning meetings, advocating for my community, looking for the resources, creating workshops. I noticed my Hispanic community: they don’t know how to navigate this complicated health system. We don’t know where we can start. I was one of them. I didn’t know how to speak English early in my life. I didn’t know how to start. For me, it was easy because my husband has been here. So it was an easier path, but I noticed some people don’t know how to have access to a doctor, for example, or a mammogram.
Every day, I do different things, like appointments for COVID vaccines, a meeting with the Walla Walla City, or looking for more resources or partnerships that can appeal to my Hispanic population. The other day, I had a suicidal patient. I’m not an expert in that, so I called the lifeline that we have for that case. Nobody over there was able to help me because they don’t have a Spanish speaker. Those disparities are present every day. Why doesn’t our Hispanic community trust the system? How we can build the relationship? Resources from the hospital (Providence St. Mary Medical Center) and trust, in particular, is a big problem in Walla Walla Valley.
When I first saw this position, my heart was jumping. This position serves the community, the Hispanic community here.
WW: With so much need, who do you help and how?
Maria: It’s not just the people that work in the fields. Of course, they are the primary clients that I have right now, but the need is everywhere. They need us. The people cleaning hotels, cleaning houses, they need us. They are just arriving for the temporary work here, or they have needs as parents and they don’t know how to help their kids, or those with addictions have needs. Mental health, my gosh, it’s another big thing. We don’t have providers who speak Spanish and they are bicultural. I’m working more than 40 hours, but I love every one of them.
I’m connected, and I’m excited. I have monthly workshops with providers who speak Spanish here. The topics are related to the needs of the Hispanic community. It’s from the people. I go to where they are, and I ask them: what do you want? What topic do you want? They are very interested in the topic of breast cancer, so I’m working on it.
WW: It sounds like this is where you education background comes in perfectly. What did you teach and what age did you teach? Who is Maria the teacher?
Maria: My whole family are teachers. I didn’t want to be a teacher. You know why? Because teachers are underpaid. They don’t make money, so I didn’t want to be a teacher. I came here to United States and the only opportunity that I had was working in a dual language program that we have here in Walla Walla, so kids can learn English and Spanish. I was working over there and then I fell in love with being a teacher. I used to teach from preschool to fifth grade, and then of course to the Hispanic population here through the community college. I teach writing, reading, science, chemical equations, algebra, how to navigate the computer system, and all of that. I do everything, but everything for the Hispanic population.
WW: Did you have a favorite age that you taught?
Maria: I love the preschoolers and adults. My favorite ones are over 40 because they have the life experience.
WW: I’m curious to hear more about your workshops.
Maria: Already, we have done four workshops. One was on the myths and truths of COVID. That was my real big work, because the Hispanic community here, they have so much misinformation. I don’t want to tell them what to do, but I want to educate them. That’s the educator piece. I believe in education. I believe that we can educate them. When they have the education and the facts, they can do better. They can choose better. I’m so proud of that. I help with appointments, transportation, whatever. I do everything.
I help with appointments, transportation, whatever. I do everything.
WW: I’m curious about this position of Promotora de Salud. Is this the first of its kind?
Maria: I am the first one here in Walla Walla, so it’s a big responsibility. Believe me: every day, sometimes I don’t sleep. I’m thinking about how I can fill this position because I know a lot of people are expecting a lot. Hopefully, I can fill their expectations. For me, especially because I see the need of the people. It’s a big responsibility.
I’m very new on this. Dr. Timothy Davidson from Providence Hospital helps me a lot. In the health industry, everything is new. I need mentors. He’s helping me so far a lot, like introducing me to the providers, the doctors, and everything because I didn’t know anybody there.
WW: I don’t know how to phrase this, but is this a weird advantage for you? The fact that you’re coming to the medical field fresh, that you don’t have all the insider knowledge. Can you see what the barriers are? Does that help you help others?
Maria: I think so yes, definitely, because I can see. For example, I had a lady the other day that, as an immigrant, she doesn’t speak English. I helped her with getting mammograms that we offer here at Providence for free. She didn’t have a provider. She didn’t know how to navigate the insurance system here. She didn’t know how to do it. She doesn’t drive, so I went with her through the whole process. That way, I can learn, too. And I have another lady who works. She cleans houses and hotels. She doesn’t have documentation. That is even harder. I have a lot of people, they work all their lives here and they get injured and they don’t have documentation, so they don’t have retirement. It’s very sad.
I don’t know how many times I’ve cried in the three months that I’ve been working. It’s a lot of crying because I don’t know how to help them. But hopefully, we can look for the resources and they can come out with ideas and resources, especially economic resources, so we can help them, the people that need the most. We have a lot of differences in what healthcare delivers, especially in terms of the language and cultural barriers.
From the first day I stepped foot in this town—and it’s going to be 20 years soon—I decided to get to know the Hispanic community here. All my life here in United States, I was working in workshops, social work, volunteering. The relationships that I have with people are not from yesterday. It’s a long process. I build trust with them first. I need to keep working in the trust to build relationships. Otherwise, here with our people in the valley, they don’t trust me or us. It’s not that easy to trust. If I didn’t have any knowledge or any relationship, that would be harder because I wouldn’t have been able to ask them, “What do you need?”
It takes time. But I’m everywhere. Believe me, I’m everywhere. Meetings for the communities. The churches. I go to wherever they are. I am the voice for the voiceless.
The relationships that I have with people are not from yesterday. It’s a long process. I build trust with them first.
WW: What is the focus right now? Is it meeting people, gathering information, and figuring out how to disseminate information?
Maria: Yes, all of that. One of my hopes is that the education system can be a prevention piece in my Hispanic community here. We are suffering. They wait until they are sick and it is an emergency. And sometimes, it’s too late. My hope with the workshops and building relationships is to lead to more education. For people to know, to have that knowledge: “You need to go to the doctor frequently, for prevention, not only when you are sick.”
WW: What is one of your goals for this year? Is it creating structures or something else?
Maria: I dream a lot. Believe me. I can see the community having universal healthcare. That would be my dream come true: that they can go to the doctor for prevention and have access to universal healthcare for everybody.
And then of course getting time off for my workers, which is impossible. They don’t take off because if they take off, (most) don’t get paid. Or family leave when they are sick; they don’t do that. We have a nice program here at the Providence Care Connection where, if somebody gets sick with COVID, they can pay rent, energy bills, and other assistance. We also help with buying them groceries. It’s a nice program to have right now. I would like Universal Healthcare pay for when workers are sick. Another thing that I was thinking is when you are pregnant, they need care for pregnant women, like immunizations and prenatal care. I would like to see more and more of that, too. That’s my dream in the future: create more resources here in Walla Walla.
Sometimes, we don’t think about our Hispanic community. We don’t think about cultural differences. We have some differences that people need to be aware about here in Walla Walla Valley. I’m advocating for that, too.
Sometimes, we don’t think about our Hispanic community. We don’t think about cultural differences.
WW: What’s something that you feel people don’t understand, or that people aren’t aware of that you all are up against?
Maria: That’s a good question. In short, I cannot have misconceptions. Like for example, here in this interview, I’m the only Hispanic person, right? You don’t know how it is to be an immigrant, right? Maybe you know, I don’t know. Maybe I have a misconception of you, but to be an immigrant, to not speak English, sometimes we have this misconception that we are less. And then we don’t feel like we are part of the community. Believe me, I’m yelling. We need to create spaces where we can feel part of this integration, right? To be a part of this group, too. I see it in the system, too: they have a lot of misconceptions. We need to create more spaces where we can feel safe here in this valley.
It’s very beautiful in Walla Walla. We have beautiful people. We have Vital Winery, and a lot of organizations that mean to do good, but they are not doing the right job because when they look at the Hispanic community, they might think, “Oh yeah, I want to have some diversity,” but they are not doing their research. How they can serve us in a better way? You can think, “We are diverse, we speak Spanish,” but it’s more than that. I think we can do better. That’s my dream. We can do better, but it takes time.
We can do better, but it takes time.
WW: What you said about misconceptions is so important. It seems like a common thread here is actual dialogue.
Maria: Exactly. And how we create the conversations, too. We need to feel safe so that we’re able to express our feelings and what we want. I don’t see that yet. That’s my hope with the workshops that we are creating. If it doesn’t happen from my workshops, I can come up with another idea for next year. We need more people that lead. Sometimes, I feel like I need 10 Marias to be everywhere.
WW: One final question. What makes Maria Maria. Tell us a little bit about you, your upbringing, and journey into this position of Promotora de Salud.
Maria: I’m from Ecuador. I moved here 2002 as an international student. I didn’t know any English and I wanted to learn English for my business in Ecuador. That was the main idea: to come to Pendleton, OR, which is 35 miles outside of Walla Walla. I went to the community college to learn English, and I met my husband over there. I’m now here with two beautiful twins.
When I moved to here to Walla Walla, I fell in love with the people because I had the opportunity to apply for the Community College position as an EGED instructor. We have a program every winter where we offer ESL classes, GED classes, citizenship stuff, and more. I was the lucky one to get a position from the beginning, around 2004, I think. Ever since, I have been involved with things in the community here. I’m volunteering for Immigration Rights Coalition, which is a great organization that we have here. I also volunteer for Mercy Corps Northwest. I don’t know if you know that, but it’s a small business. I teach classes, too. Everything is related to teaching. I was teaching some classes in Portland for people who have small businesses. And I did a lot of reading at the library with Washington Humanities, like Primetime Reading. I don’t know if you know that program.
I spent a lot of years at the library with the Hispanic community. I did that for a lot of years. I was also helping with Recovery, doing workshops for parents on things like how to raise our kids wisely. So yeah, I did a lot of things until I found this job. I really love this position. That’s all. It’s everything.
I did a lot of things until I found this job. I really love this position. It’s everything.—Maria Remington
