COVID-19 and the Latinx Community: "Promotoras Represent a Community in Pain"

COVID-19 has disproportionately affected the Latinx community, leading to heightened economic instability and increased mortality/morbidity. Frontline community health workers (promotoras) have played an integral role in serving low-income Latinx immigrant communities, disseminating health information to this vulnerable community while also facing heightened risks to their own health and well-being. This study explores the impact of the pandemic on Latinx communities and the promotoras that serve them, examining how the stresses and inequities the pandemic wrought might be mitigated. Promotoras (N = 15, all female) were recruited from a local health agency in Santa Ana, California, and completed a semistructured interview about their experiences during COVID-19. Qualitative analyses demonstrated that the pandemic substantially affected the daily lives both of community members, via economic challenges, limited access to reliable pandemic-related information, and psychological and social stress, and of promotoras, via changes to the nature of their work and psychological and social stress. Promotoras perceived that these harms might be mitigated by providing for economic and material needs in the community and that promotoras can be fortified to continue serving the community through self-care and psychosocial healing practices. According to promotoras, the Latinx community needs economic and material resources to overcome COVID-19-related stressors. Additionally, promotoras may benefit from programming to preserve mental and physical health in the wake of new stressors. Lending greater support to promotoras within the agencies in which they are nested may enable them to be more successful in fulfilling their mission and sustaining their own health. La COVID-19 ha afectado de forma desproporcionada a la comunidad latinx, lo que ha provocado una mayor inestabilidad económica y el aumento de la mortalidad y la morbilidad. Las trabajadoras de la salud comunitarias de primera línea (promotoras) han desempeñado un papel integral atendiendo a las comunidades de inmigrantes latinx de bajos ingresos, difundiendo información sobre salud a esta comunidad vulnerable, cuyos miembros enfrentan a la vez mayores riesgos para su propia salud y bienestar. En este estudio se explora el impacto de la pandemia en las comunidades latinx y en las promotoras que las atienden, examinando las formas en que podrían mitigarse las tensiones y desigualdades provocadas por la pandemia.