East Boston community conversation explored COVID’s lasting impact and the new challenges being faced today
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For some, the COVD-19 pandemic is a distant memory. While for many others, its lasting effects linger in their hearts, minds and communities.
In a three-part series of articles, Hola Cultura interns Melody Marichalar and Marvin Juarez delved deep into the pandemic’s enduring impact on East Boston, a neighborhood with one of Boston’s largest immigrant populations, according to U.S. Census data mapped by the Boston Globe. On July 8, they presented their findings to members of the East Boston and Hola Cultura communities in a remote event livestreamed on YouTube.
Marichalar and Juarez opened the charla, which means discussion or conversation in Spanish, with a presentation on their experience reporting and the stories they uncovered.
After talking to leaders from seven different nonprofits in the East Boston area, Marichalar found that emergency childcare and meal support were the greatest needs in the community during the pandemic. Through interviews with the nonprofit leaders, Marichalar learned that though they were often scared themselves, they still stepped up to meet urgent needs and create a sense of stability during times of unprecedented uncertainty.
Juarez began his presentation by sharing statistics that showed the impact of COVID-19 on Boston and the world just within the first few months. He then introduced his work interviewing three Latine community members. Juarez described the interviews and how those personal stories shed light on the reality of immigrant living conditions and why the pandemic disproportionately affected East Boston residents. In addition to this information, he also presented a silver lining amid all the hardship: community solidarity.
“We also found that the East Boston community is one based on helping others. Among those I interviewed, community members tended to support others even when they themselves were in positions of struggle,” said Juarez.
Marichalar then discussed the third and final article in the series, “East Boston survived one pandemic, now residents describe living through another.” In her story she compared the COVID-19 pandemic with the increase in U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement presence in East Boston and the raids that are plaguing communities across the country.
“Once again, these organizations are facing another crisis, and they’re trying to help their communities … I referred to this as the second pandemic,” said Marichalar. “These nonprofits have had to once again transform their mission, create creative ways on how to host events, and provide security for their families.”
At the end of the presentation, the audience members joined in a discussion. Among them was Noemy Rodriguez, a community organizer at GreenRoots, a Chelsea-based nonprofit. Juarez interviewed her for his article, “Covid’s lasting toll on East Boston’s Latine community,” where she discussed what the aftermath of the pandemic looked like for her as a community organizer, a neighbor and a parent.
Speaking in Spanish at this bilingual event, Rodriguez said these stories are “something beautiful to highlight because here we can see the resilience of a community, the strength of a community and also the collective power that exists within our community.”
Other community leaders expressed their concerns with the current administration and how nonprofits, specifically food distribution centers, are struggling to meet the needs of people affected by federal funding cuts to food programs. Justin Pasquariello, CEO of the East Boston Social Centers, added a hopeful note for the future as he has recently noticed a rise in community members eagerness to get involved, vote and create change.
As the articles and conversation made clear, the East Boston community continues to face struggles caused by the first and now “second pandemic,” but remains consistently strong, resilient and reliant on one another.
– Story by Eva Leon
– Copy edited by Valerie Izquierdo
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