‘I can finally hug her again’: Strong family bonds encourage Latino elders to get vaccinated

CHICAGO – When Jesse Flores finally got the COVID-19 vaccine, he looked forward to one thing once he was fully vaccinated: hugging his 92-year-old grandmother again.

He hoped that his abuela — the matriarch of the family, who used to laugh and make jokes while she cared for him and his cousins when he was growing up — would still remember him.

Due to her age and some health issues, sometimes she forgets things, Flores said.

The Sunday when he finally hit the two-week mark after getting his second shot against the novel coronavirus, he drove to his grandmother’s home in Back of the Yards, eager to see her again.

Though at first she was a bit confused, she eventually recognized Flores and embraced him.

“I can finally hug her again without fear,” Flores said.

Hundreds of Chicago youth are working together to help Latino elders register for the COVID-19 vaccine to reunite them with loved ones. The hope of seeing family has, for many, been the source of strength to deal with the toll of the pandemic, said Ana Lopez, one of the creators of the Facebook group Vaccinate Abuela.

Since February, volunteer members of the Chicago-based Facebook group have collectively helped to register thousands of seniors who do not speak English or who lack tech skills to find and book an appointment online. In some instances, volunteers have also worked together to drive some elders to their appointment, she said.

The group also expanded its efforts to help Black seniors and other immigrants who may face barriers to access the vaccine.

“One of my biggest motivators to do this was to help preserve our parents and our grandparents; to preserve their existence in our household, in our city,” said Lopez who aside from helping to manage the volunteer group, has a job and is a full-time student studying computer science at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Latinos in Chicago continue to be disproportionately affected by the pandemic, both in deaths and in mitigations such as testing. As of Thursday, 1,725 of the 5,162 people who had died from COVID-19 complications in Chicago were Latinos. So while they make up 29% of the city’s population, Latinos accounted for 33% of the COVID-19 deaths and only 15% of tests performed.

And though early vaccine distribution data showed significant disparities between white and Black and Hispanic residents, recent numbers showed that 52% of Latinos ages 65 and older in Chicago have received a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, compared with 58% of white Chicagoans and 49% of Black Chicagoans in the age group.

Lopez, who is 35 and lives in Pilsen, was afraid that if she didn’t help to protect her parents and other elders in her community, no one would. Those immigrants who were dying, she said, are the backbone “of who we are in this country.”

Using her technical skills, she first secured an appointment for her parents, both over 70 and suffering from underlying health conditions. She then began asking aunts, elderly family members and neighbors if they needed help to book an appointment.

That’s when her friend, Esteban Andres Cruz, who uses the pronouns “they” and “them,” stepped in to help.

Like Lopez, Cruz made sure that their parents had access to a vaccine. Once that was done, the two decided that they needed to share their knowledge and skills to book appointments online with members of their community who, like their elder family members, did not speak English or lacked access to a computer with internet.

“To preserve ourselves and to preserve our rich culture, traditions, and history, we need to preserve abuelos,” Cruz said.

Cruz, an actor, lives in Archer Heights with their partner.

Cruz said that the group’s approach has helped to ease the fear and hesitancy toward the COVID-19 vaccines in the Latino community because it helped people realize that the only way to safely reunite and embrace a loved one was to get fully vaccinated.

When Cruz hugged their mother for the first time, both cried for a few minutes.

“As Latinos, we are accustomed to embracing each other constantly, if you don’t hug and kiss someone hello, especially our elders, it’s a sign of disrespect,” Cruz said.

It wasn’t only the young people who missed their elders. Some abuelas yearned for the day when their grandchildren could also hug and kiss them again.

Maria Isabel Salgado, 63, of Logan Square has one shot to go and is grateful that volunteers from Vaccinate Abuela aided her daughter — who joined the group to ask for help — in booking an appointment.

Salgado is a mother of four and a grandmother to three.

The pandemic, she said, kept the family apart, and that has been depressing.

“I miss my grandchildren, I can’t wait to hug them and spend time with them,” Salgado said.

Lopez and Cruz frequently hear about other children of immigrants working together and sharing resources to make sure that their elders are vaccinated.

Beyond a duty to ensure they are healthy, it’s a duty to protect the family circle and the bonds that keep the Latino community strong, they say.

Jesse Flores, whose grandmother has 12 children, 35 grandchildren, and 44 great-grandchildren, is looking forward to spending Sunday with her again “before it’s too late.”

The pandemic and his grandmother’s deteriorating health over the past year have robbed him and his family of “valuable time,” together, he said. His abuela immigrated to Chicago from Zacatecas, Mexico, in the 1950s following her husband, Flores’ late grandfather. They established the family in Back of the Yards, where she still lives.

Now that he is fully vaccinated and as more of his family has access to COVID-19 vaccines, Flores hopes to recoup the time lost.

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