Spanish-speaking residents struggle to get services from cities and schools in Hampton Roads

Mirna Yamileth Valladares Flores had received little to no communication from her 13-year-old daughter’s Norfolk middle school, and was frustrated.

Valladares, who was a teacher in her native Honduras, called the school and asked for an interpreter to translate between English and Spanish. She was told no one was available.

Valladares is one of the small but growing number of Hampton Roads residents who speak primarily Spanish. Residents and citizens who speak English “less than very well,” as designated by the U.S. Census’s American Community Survey, have the right to public services and to participate in civic life, but their access is often hindered by insufficient translation and interpretation services across the seven cities.

Disappointed by the lack of communication, Valladares went to the school on her day off to try to speak with the administration. She waited for three hours for someone to interpret for her — either in person, which Valladares prefers, or over the phone from an on-demand interpretation service contracted by Norfolk Public Schools. According to Valladares, no one on staff or in the district helped her that day.

Finally, Eliana Valladares was pulled out of class to interpret.

That added insult to injury for Mirna Yamileth Valladares, who didn’t want her daughter deprived of school time or to be made responsible for interpreting between her mother and the school.

“This is not fair,” Valladares said. “She’s not supposed to be translating for me. This is something so important, for her grades, and you just tell my daughter to translate for me? That is not fair.”

Social media, newsletters, texts, emails and robocalls from the district are available in Spanish, said Michelle Washington, a Norfolk Public Schools spokesperson. The district did not respond to a request for comment on the specific incident Valladares described.

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Here to stay

According to Jennifer Bickham Mendez, a sociologist at the College of William & Mary who studies the experiences of Latin American immigrants to the U.S. South, and Virginia in particular, this population is a significant segment of Hampton Roads.

Immigration from Mexico picked up speed in the late 1990s and early 2000s, partially due to international trade agreements, and Hampton Roads saw growth in the numbers of people from Mexico during this time. Immigrants from Mexico and Central America gained a foothold in northern Virginia in the 1980s and through the early 2000s, employed as domestic workers by well-off diplomats, Bickham Mendez said.

In 1998 and 2001, natural disasters in El Salvador and Honduras pushed more people to migrate to the U.S., where they gained Temporary Protected Status and enough stability to send for relatives. Familial connections and work opportunities drew more immigrants to Virginia, and they began to settle in Hampton Roads, where service and construction jobs were plentiful. Multiple generations now call Hampton Roads home.

According to an analysis of data from the American Community Survey, a yearly survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau that compiles detailed housing and population data, the number of Spanish speakers more than quadrupled across Hampton Roads between 2000 and 2010, with steady growth between 2010 and 2021, the most recent year for which data is available.

Virginia Beach is home to region’s largest population of Spanish speakers, with about 20,000 residents who speak the language, followed by Newport News and Norfolk with about 10,000 each. Within these communities is a segment of the population with limited English proficiency.

Spanish is by far the most prevalent non-English language spoken in Hampton Roads, with Tagalog, a language spoken in the Philippines, a distant second.

“This is a side of our community that is invisible, but present, and not going away,” Bickham Mendez said. “They’ve been here now for over 20 years. How long does it take to make these changes?”

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Resources stretched thin

The patchwork of translation and interpretation services available does not always meet the needs of people with limited English proficiency.

Valladares said she runs into many places that provide critical services to her and her family where only English is spoken, including schools, hospitals and Department of Motor Vehicle locations, to name a few. She thinks interpretation services, ideally in person, should always be available in these places.

“Sometimes they do not have anyone there to help me translate or interpret,” Valladares said. “Sometimes they put me in front of a camera or computer. Someone is translating over the camera, but I feel it’s not the same. I need somebody live to be there beside me.”

Bickham Mendez said experiences like Valladres’s are common for immigrants in the region.

“In Hampton Roads, resources are stretched thin, so you’re often dealing with a situation in which there’s only one or two Spanish speakers at social services, or the community organization that’s offering food assistance or an early childhood program,” she said. Schools have few bilingual staff, and, while courts are required to provide interpreters, defense attorneys may not always have access to them.

Verliz Vartolon settled in Chesapeake after immigrating from Guatemala. When she tried to apply for social services — she declined to specify which service — they did not have an interpreter who could help. Vartolon, speaking through an interpreter, said her caseworker, who only spoke English, promised to call back but never did.

Vartolon also cited issues of communicating with clinics to set up appointments for her children and filling out paperwork associated with doctor visits.

Confusing bureaucracy can add another layer of complication to accessing public services, Bickham Mendez said.

Emi Serrano, a mother of three who lives in Norfolk, ran into difficulty attempting to navigate DMV bureaucracy. It took her three visits to accomplish her business.

Speaking through an interpreter, she said the first time she went to obtain her driver’s license, she wanted to use Google Translate to ease the process but was told that wasn’t allowed. The second time, Serrano went for a state ID. Again, she said she wasn’t allowed to use Google Translate. The third time, she brought another person to interpret.

Paper exams at the DMV in Virginia are available in 26 languages, including Spanish, and the use of phones — and by extension Google Translate — is prohibited during a test. The Virginia Driver’s Manual is available only in English and Spanish.

Options for live interpretation, however, are limited. Hard of hearing DMV clients can make an appointment with a sign language interpreter, but those who need interpretation in other languages must provide their own.

By contrast, the DMV in Washington uses a phone service to provide free on-demand interpretations in 240 languages. North Carolina residents can request appointments with American Sign Language or language interpreters.

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Trying to participate in civic life

In addition to challenges communicating with public institutions and services, a lack of language accessibility can hinder participation in civic life.

A group of parents spoke about the lack of language services to Norfolk City Council at a public hearing April 19. The group collectively spoke about the challenge of communicating with public institutions, and the meeting served to illustrate its point.

Elise Peterson McMath, a former English as a second language teacher and organizer for the nonprofit New Virginia Majority — a political group which advocates for racial, economic and environmental justice — asked that the city provide an interpreter. Her request was denied.

According to a city spokesperson, the city doesn’t always provide interpreters in part because of the low numbers of immigrants in the area. About 4,000 people who speak Spanish, or 2% of Norfolk’s population, who responded to the American Community Survey in 2021 speak English less than “very well,” meaning they checked boxes for speaking English well, not well, or not at all.

“We do not have any particular high concentrations of non-English speaking households in Norfolk. Spanish speakers comprise the largest segment, but they’re still a relatively small portion of the overall population,” Norfolk spokesperson Chris Jones wrote in an email. “Given that, we are generally not required to provide language translation services.”

Peterson McMath also requested extra time for the parents in the group to speak at the council meeting, given that they would have to use an interpreter. Community participants at council meetings are typically limited to three minutes. However, when their comments are delivered in two languages, Spanish speakers effectively have half the time.

That request also was denied, so Peterson McMath spoke rapidly in English and Spanish to interpret for the group of parents, the city council members and other meeting attendees. Requests for more time are typically granted by the mayor, Jones said.

Peterson McMath is not a professional interpreter but offers help where she can.

“If you speak Spanish, people will depend on you in ways that are professionally inappropriate, because it’s not the same thing as being a licensed interpreter,” Peterson McMath said. “Even if you’re 100% bilingual, there are certain aspects of being an interpreter that you have to follow to make sure you translate every single thing.”

When something a person says is interpreted, it’s possible their words will get summarized, conveyed inaccurately or left out altogether. An inaccurate interpretation essentially silences the person’s voice, Peterson McMath said. There’s also the risk of an untrustworthy interpreter deliberately misrepresenting a person’s words.

“If I was not a person of good moral character, I could have gone up (before council) and said, ‘She thinks your hairline is atrocious,’” Peterson McMath said. “There’s something to be said for having someone who has professional stakes in the matter.”

The City of Norfolk does provide options for language translation in other contexts, according to Jones. The Norfolk Cares hotline, a single point of contact to request city services or find out information about the city, handles 10 to 15 calls per day from Spanish speaking customers. A language line with roughly 200 languages is available for public safety calls. The city also is looking to hire and train more bilingual staff.

Other cities in Hampton Roads also do not provide language interpretation during city meetings without prior arrangement, according to clerks’ offices.

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A federal mandate

The different types and levels of interpretation services available result from Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which protects people from discrimination based on race, color or national origin. Under Title VI, state and local organizations that receive federal aid have a responsibility to ensure people with limited English proficiency can access their programs.

However, compliance with Title VI can take into account a number of variables, such as the number or proportion of people with limited English proficiency being served, the frequency with which non-English speaking people come into contact with the program, the importance of the program to people’s lives and the resources available to the organization.

In addition, enforcement of requirements for interpretation under Title VI is often “next to nil,” Bickham Mendez said. Some service providers might decide they don’t have to provide interpretation services based on the population size of non-English speakers in Hampton Roads.

“In my experience, schools and early childhood programs, and increasingly some social services, are more apt to understand and see that they’re not going to be able to do their jobs if they’re in denial about the proportion of Spanish speakers and non-English speakers in our area,” Bickham Mendez said.

Good translations can make all the difference.

Serrano gave birth to her youngest child in May. The hospital initially used a computer and a remote interpreter on a video call to communicate. That was somewhat helpful, Serrano said, but ultimately didn’t inspire a much confidence. The audio quality was poor and it was difficult to understand the interpreter.

On her second day at the hospital, an in-person interpreter was brought on. It was a vast improvement, and Serrano was able to ask questions about her health and the health of her newborn child.

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Language isn’t the only barrier

Language and cultural barriers are only one element that may limit a person’s ability to access public services, Bickham Mendez said.

Questions about eligibility come into play, such as what public services a person is entitled to, depending on their residency or citizenship status. Immigrant parents are often the legal representatives of their infants and children, “but it turns out babies are terrible at filling out paperwork,” Bickham Mendez said.

There is also a layer of fear or uncertainty immigrants may experience when interacting with public entities. The worry of deportation or of incurring a public charge — a demerit for those working toward citizenship who need to prove they will not be dependent on the government — may prevent someone from accessing services.

In addition to language and interpretation services that help non-English speakers navigate daily life in Hampton Roads, Bickham Mendez emphasized the importance of educational opportunities for the children of immigrants.

“These are citizens of the United States and our future, and the United States is becoming more and more diverse,” she said. “When we’re not providing equity in terms of educational opportunities for our students, particularly students who are bilingual or learning English, we’re not just hurting the future of this entire group, but of the country.”

Valladares is hopeful for more opportunities for her community.

She would like to see at least one interpreter at each school, and she’d also like to see English as a second language classes available in the afternoons and evenings for adults.

“We are hard workers,” Valladares said. “We just came here to work and to be good people, nice people. We just need help and for someone to listen to us. We need support.”

Thania Valle interpreted interviews for this report.

Cianna Morales, 757-957-1304, cianna.morales@virginiamedia.com