Looking for Info on Coronavirus in Spanish?
As coronavirus continues to spread rapidly through New York, like their neighbors, Latinos in Brooklyn are reminding each other to stay home and stay safe via Facebook groups, and sharing opinions and information about the virus via social media.
Facebook groups like Friends of Sunset Park and Mexicanos en Queens, Bronx, Manhattan y Brooklyn have been full of posts sharing both news articles and encouraging thoughts in both Spanish and English.
Hunkering down , cooking, resting, meditating & playing mindless video games – i don’t want to do anything that forces me to think about anything right now- my brain & heart need a little break from reality – Un Abrazo!🌻
— Elizabeth Yeampierre (@yeampierre) March 21, 2020
While much of the concern is for their immediate neighborhoods, neighbors discuss how the virus is being dealt with in their countries of origin, and worry about their friends and families back home. There are currently over 400 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Mexico, another 400 in Peru and over 1,000 in Ecuador, according to Johns Hopkins’ coronavirus resource center.
For example, this post about President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, criticizing him for seeking out loans to blunt the economic impact of coronavirus on the country. El Salvador is currently under a 30-day-quarantine in order to try to slow the spread of the virus, although there are only a few cases there right now.
New York City has also stepped up its level of information about the virus in Spanish. After a story by The City pointed out that NYC didn’t have coronavirus information available in Spanish via its emergency text-messaging service, the city added Spanish language texts. Now, you can text COVIDESP to 692-692 to receive text updates about coronavirus in New York City.
Community organization Mixteca, which serves Latinos in the Sunset Park area and beyond, has been providing information and encouragement on its Facebook page as well, in addition to streaming live yoga sessions in Spanish, as well as sharing where to find information about coronavirus in indigenous languages from Latin America.
The post below points out audio messages about coronavirus in indigineous languages from Guatemala.
In replies to one of the live yoga videos in Spanish from this week, commenters wrote, “Thanks, from Brighton Beach” and “Thank you so much, it’s been years since I’ve done [yoga].”
Our neighbors are continuing to support each other even from afar, whether that’s to share coronavirus updates that are specific to DACA recipients or information about NYC’s eviction freeze.
