L.A. Clinic Offers Care for Mayas
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The Maya women sit patiently in the lobby of Clinica Oscar Romero, playing with their children and speaking in their native dialects of Kanjobal and Quiche.
Idalia Xuncax knows all of the women. She is their guide, translator and advocate in a healthcare world so foreign from their villages in Guatemala, where many relied on herbal medicines and faith healers.
For eight years, Xuncax—who is also Maya—has reached out to other Mayas and gained the trust of a community that has generally been reluctant to seek Western medical treatment. Largely because of Xuncax’s work, the number of Maya patients at the Los Angeles clinic has grown from just a few eight years ago to about 700 today. Many have diabetes, high blood pressure or high cholesterol.
But despite the gains, Xuncax and the clinic on Alvarado Street face daunting obstacles, including a shortage of interpreters and cultural differences that deter Mayas from seeking care, which can affect their health. Xuncax struggles constantly to get patients to show up for appointments and to take their medicine. She has to convince them that prenatal care won’t harm the fetus and that unprotected sex can lead to HIV.
“It’s not that they don’t want to be helped or be healthy,” Xuncax said. “Mostly, it’s cultural, that we don’t see doctors where we are from. We don’t have the flexibility of having a hospital or a clinic nearby.”
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“You really need to understand the rest of the medical care world that these folks live in, of which standard Western medicine is only one facet,” [David Hayes-Bautista, director UCLA’s Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture,] said.
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Like many immigrants, some Mayas are reluctant to seek medical care for fear of being deported or because they do not have insurance and don’t know that they can receive free services at Clinica Romero. The clinic receives private donations, as well as Los Angeles County, state and federal funds.
{snip}
Clinic staff, including Alba Escobar, who heads the women and children program, met with Maya leaders to gain their support. And the clinic received a federal grant to do a healthcare study about Mayas living in Los Angeles.
{snip}
With another grant, the clinic started treating Maya patients. A Kanjobal speaker was put at the front desk, easily accessible to patients. But many patients still went directly to Xuncax’s office, often with concerns that had nothing to do with healthcare.
On a recent night, a woman asked if she could fill out her application for WIC, a federally funded program for women, infants and children.
{snip}
Email Anna Gorman at anna.gorman@latimes.com.
(Posted on April 2, 2008)
Comments
The Alien Invaders will bankrupt Kalifornia long before the masses wake up, I’m afraid.
Posted by at 5:31 PM on April 2
We invite in third world primitives in and then fall over backwards trying to find ways to serve them. In this case, they may figure out that a few Peace Corps workers may have done as much good. This is a great illustration of just how far off the rails we have gone as a nation of racial and third world panderers.
Posted by Whiteplight at 5:39 PM on April 2
Christ. These people are out there recruiting illegal immigrants now.
The reason of course, is the more volume their “clinic” processes, the more readily they can justify the non profit entity boosting their salaries.
Im beginning to think that the Federal Government needs to go bankrupt before we’re going to see a return to sanity in this country.
Posted by David Traywick at 6:54 PM on April 2
More of our hard earned tax money flushed down the toilets ….bringing in more blacks…more trash and it is costing ME AND all you white people …..send them back to the trash heaps they came from…..who needs more garbage????
Posted by lydia at 7:13 PM on April 2
Apparently money and welfare are two white institutions that aren’t “racist.” At least the taint of evil Whiteness doesn’t seem to rub off on them.
Posted by Cassiodorus at 8:49 PM on April 2
in a healthcare world so foreign from their villages in Guatemala, where many relied on herbal medicines and faith healers.
They forgot to mention the part where most of them died horribly and got no benefit whatsoever from the witch doctor. The bottom line is, “white man’s magic” is real and very, very powerful. Native medicine is worthless. Not confronting people from other cultures with this fact (something they are ALL capable of understanding) is doing the most incredible disservice to them. Literally, they are allowing people to die horribly due to ignorance, just so they can wallow in the fantasy of multiculturalism. Usually, the victim will be outraged when they find out the truth.
Posted by at 9:17 PM on April 2
This is what’s wrong with California. It feeds the cancer instead of removing it.
Posted by Lucas M at 9:17 PM on April 2
These invaders have stolen California from the USA!
Posted by Elrey Jones at 9:53 PM on April 2
why don’t they go back to their native countries and have the faith healers take care of them, and then stay there!
Posted by flyingtiger at 12:43 AM on April 3
I have no insurance and have to pay almost $800- for ONE shot and ONE pill. I had to buy my own medicine at the CVS. I had cat scratch fever without the fever.
I did not get an x-ray. The nurse saw me, gave me a pain shot in the ass, one antibiotic pill to get in my system and that was it.
Where oh where is my FREE medical care? My mistake was being born here and speaking English.
I have had it. I cannot and will not bring myself to be polite to any alien anywhere for any reason. I pay and they get it for free. Be nice? Not me.
Posted by at 3:31 PM on April 3
The rise and fall of California will serve as a warning to the other forty-nine states about the dire consequences of this dramatic influx of Hispanics. Once we have decontaminated the other forty-nine states we can reclaim California. This wake-up call for America is a good thing, rejoice…
Posted by at 1:42 PM on April 8