This oral history interview was conducted by Gabe Sanders with America Bracho, a lifelong community organizer and has founded several health programs for Latinos across the country. Below is a summary of the oral history, as well as the transcript itself.
A passionate grassroots Latina activist, whose shrewd metaphors are enhanced by her quick wit and life experience, Bracho has pioneered techniques for community organizing at an international level. She wields the model of ‘promotores de salud’—community health workers—which she uses to amplify the voices of Latinos facing inequity. In addition to serving as the Chief Executive Officer of Latino Health Access, she continues to support her home country of Venezuela as the Founder of Fundacion Linternita.
As much as her work reflects her expressed admiration for history’s great social activists, like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, and Nelson Mandela, Bracho draws inspiration from the wisdom of everyday people, whom she insists belong at the proverbial table. “When [everyday people] are at the table, they count. Counting and being part of something is a social right,” she says. “Participation is what makes the difference—la participación hace la diferencia.”
I have my own story of how promotoras originated; it all started with the cavewoman who invented fire. After discovering, in her cave, this tremendous power, the cavewoman decided to share her fire. I like to say that when the first woman started sharing her fire, community workers came to be.
I was raised in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, by two professors who were committed to social justice. For them, their students’ problems—hunger, poverty, illness—were their problems. My father’s job wasn’t just to teach chemistry because no one can learn chemistry when they are hungry. He and my mother instilled in their own children this same sense of moral obligation, teaching me from a young age that “who you are as a professional must be consistent with your personal values.” Talking about justice and caring about others might as well have been ingredients in the breast milk I consumed.
I grew up thinking that I am one of many, and without those many, we are nothing. When medical school told me the opposite, that doctors were better than everyone, I began questioning the norms of higher education. My professors would warn me against taking things personally, reminding me to “leave the personal out.” This advice, to say the least, is pretty stupid. If you take your personal out, where do you put it? In a little container? Una maletita? I remember my 19-year-old self saying to my professor, “If I take it out, just assure me that when I leave your class, it’s going to be there.” Though in the moment I had offended my teacher, I graduated having reaffirmed that my personal was my treasure; my personal was my beacon.
As a physician in rural Venezuela, at the age of 25, I quickly realized that mine was a rich poor country, or a poor rich country—I have not decided which order is more fitting. It was a mess. The vast majority of people lacked access to clean water, medications, and the resources needed to live comfortably, despite politicians’ promises to eliminate poverty. To this day, those leaders who vowed to vanquish poverty have only helped the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Still, I saw the power of Venezuelans who used creativity and proactivity to combat the corruption in the system. I learned the most from everyday individuals, who would use the little they had to take care of others, living without electricity but still offering me the coffee they had salvaged or chicken they had killed.
It was as a physician that I came across community workers, known in Venezuela as promotoras. Also called conectoras and compañeras, promotoras worked in healthcare; but, I noticed their method of providing it was unconventional. Healthcare, in most cases, becomes a transaction like buying cheese or going to the bank. Not for community workers. Promotoras were able to connect with everyday people in a unique way because they were everyday people. They lived in the same towns and faced the same challenges as those to whom they offered their services. This is what allowed them to build relationships, and what comes with a relationship is confianza, trust. Despite these local efforts to overcome systemic problems, my ultimate realization was that you cannot insure a healthier community without changing the system itself.
To learn how, I decided to pursue a Master’s Degree in Public Health, which Venezuelan universities didn’t offer. My husband and I were accepted into the University of Michigan, where I received my MPH, but after graduation, we experienced another symptom of Venezuela’s broken system. Because I wasn’t part of the dominant political party, I was disqualified from many jobs and therefore unable to return home. We instead settled in Detroit, where the HIV pandemic was raging. In these grim circumstances, I saw an opportunity to create the first HIV program for Latinos in the Midwest, which we called the Midwest Hispanic AIDS Coalition. The fact that ours was the first infuriated me. It was the end of 1987. The pandemic had started in ’81. How could I be proud after seven years of my own community’s neglect?
I immediately decided to apply the promotoras model to this massive problem. We activated existing organizations throughout the Midwest to work on HIV, hiring former substance abusers and sex workers, as well as HIV positive Latinos, to work in Detroit. This endeavor was not simple, but I believed it to be far more practical than the traditional approach. Hiring members of the population directly impacted was an incomprehensible idea to many, who believed that if you didn’t have a college degree; if you didn’t speak English; if you weren’t white, you didn’t deserve a seat at the table. This mindset stems from the belief, held by far too many leaders, that there are thinking people and non-thinking people—and that problem solving is the job of those who think. But we can all think, and we can all take action. An expression I endorse goes “nadie sobre nosotros sin nosotros,” nothing about us without us. To have true equity, the people impacted by the inequity must be at the table.
As our project matured, all that the Center for Disease Control wanted was for us to continue pushing condoms on Latinos suffering from HIV and teach them how to use contraceptives, a simple fix for a complex problem. This was not enough. We instead began exploring ways to shape respectful messaging about risk reduction, for a disease that was disproportionately affecting female victims of domestic abuse and members of the LGBTQ+ community who couldn’t read or speak English. As we made connections throughout the country, I became familiar with people and programs on the west coast
In 1991, I was contacted for an interview to host “health programming” on what would become the first 24-hour Spanish radio station in the United States, based in Orange County, California. After a moment of hesitation, I interviewed for the job and was hired. My husband, sons, and I moved to OC, where I hosted “La Familia y Su Salud,” which later changed to “America Hoy.” In this segment, we discussed serious widespread problems affecting Latinos, most of whom lived in cities like Santa Ana. To my dismay, there was not a single Spanish-speaking resource to which I could direct them. Not to mention, there was zero data representing this population. One million human beings were invisible to the system. I decided to organize radio guests and friends to demand data representation, and just as we were building momentum, the radio station sold our program for lack of profit.
When unemployment forced me to choose between creating my own nonprofit and following the profitable path of diabetes education, my personal served me very well. In Venezuela, we have a saying: It is better to be the head of a mouse than the tail of a lion. I chose to be the head of a mouse—a tiny, tiny, little mouse. With the small coalition that had helped me appeal for representative data, I set out to establish, in 1993, the first ever diabetes program for Latinos in CA.
During this process, I received citizenship, a reality that highlights my privilege. In the US, immigration services monitor earnings and properties of those who cross the border to ensure that they won’t be a financial burden. Most immigrants, however, leave their countries in search of a future without hunger, for which they need American resources. This country was created by immigrants looking for a future, and once they were in, they shut the door behind them. My husband and I were fortunate to have been educated with student visas when we arrived, so we could find work and afford property. Few are so fortunate.
Recognizing this privilege, I again implemented the promotoras model into the program we began to build, Latino Health Access, which we deemed ‘An Institute of Community Participation.’ We created a strategic plan with the agenda of hiring diabetic Latinos who sought our assistance. We identified those who seemed most inclined to lead and employed them with teaching positions. What we learned from their classes was of the utmost importance. Members of these communities were living without access to a kitchen, as we were talking about “how to cook healthy.” This revealed weaknesses in the ‘Needs Assessments’ conducted by universities and national health organizations. While needs help determine existing problems in our communities, the needs alone do nothing. Las fortalezas y los talentos y la sabiduría del pueblo es lo que cambia la comunidad—the strengths, talents, and wisdom of the people are what change the community. In our work, we live by this. The professionals who would create these assessments were assuming, yet again, that Latinos with diabetes only had needs, and they as professionals had answers.
We wanted to establish both the needs and aspirations of these communities. So, in 1996, we conducted the first ever health survey for Latinos in Orange County—the first ever. Millions of surveys had been conducted to assess the health of the white population, and not one for Latino residents, an absurdity that explains the ineffectiveness of the blanket solutions offered by existing institutions. The ‘condom’ they gave us for diabetes was, “teach them how to read food labels.” Knowing the uselessness of these solutions, we used our survey to evaluate the challenges faced by the 65,000 people in Santa Ana’s 92701 zip code, which had no parks or community centers. In response to our survey, the community had a simple request: open spaces where their kids could play. This survey also helped us develop what I like to call co-training, through which the members and leaders of these communities work with us as equal partners to solve problems. We created three sectors: technical experts with medical or social training, an administrative team, and at the very center, las promotoras.
This is the same system we have today, with several enhancements. At the outset, we focused on diabetes, heart disease, and mental health. We have since expanded to include voter engagement, census, and housing programs. We have also activated creative advocacy actions for affordable housing and other seldom-recognized elements of public health. It is crucial to understand that health is not the lack of disease. But we don’t tell the community how voting influences healthcare and immigration reform, we ask. Overwhelmingly, Latinos see an obvious connection. If we vote to elect accurate representation of our communities, we can build the system. If we have built the system, we can change it. And we have.
Though it took eleven years, our organization built a half-acre park—no less magnificent than Central Park—in the 92701 zip code. We also obtained approval for $600,000 in cash assistance for undocumented immigrants, funds which we dispersed in a manner agreed upon by every sector of our team. The reliability of this team is an accomplishment I cherish. I believe it important, in this line of work, to revel in the small successes. Countless small successes combined to publish our book, Recruiting the Heart and Training the Brain, a process through which promotoras were by my side and in my ear.
In wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, we have continued to do just that: recruit the heart and train the brain. A program that only a year ago employed 40 promotoras today has 90. I frequently reflect on the fact that my public health career started with one pandemic, HIV, and as I approach retirement, we face another. Though my community remains invisible to this system in many ways, I try to focus on the knowledge I have gained along the way. I know a little bit more now than I did in Detroit, so if I don’t do more today than I did then, I have failed.
To create deep systemic change, I believe that community organizing is fundamental. Latino Health Access fosters sustainability in a world in which those with power intend for people like me to get tired. The promotoras never lose energy, so I can never lose energy. My energy alone does very little, but our energy together can generate the heat we need to build and share our fire.
Full transcript:
[00:00:01] Gabriel Sanders
Okay, so I’m recording on both devices. My name is Gabriel Sanders, and I’m here on Tuesday, October 6th, 2020, with Dr. America Bracho. We are on a Zoom call rather than in person, but I’m calling from my home in Long Beach, California. And would you like to state your first and last name, spell it for the record, and then tell me where you are in California right now?
[00:00:27] Dr. Bracho
Sure. My name is America Bracho. A-m-e-r-i-c-a B-r-a-c-h-o. And I am in Anaheim, California. Recording from my home.
[00:00:42] Gabriel Sanders
Right, I assume that’s your new office right now?
[00:00:46] Dr. Bracho
Yeah, well I have been in this office. I always work in my home a few days a week, even prior to Covid. Just now it’s every day.
[00:00:55] Gabriel Sanders
Yeah. I mean, everything’s changed now, right? But I hope you’re doing well. I’m excited to speak with you today about who you are, your history, your life, your passions and your experience with social activism and community organizing. So first to provide me with some context and background about you and who you are, could you take me through the process that you went through immigrating to the United States from Venezuela, the time you took in–the time you spent in Detroit, Michigan, and the way in which you ultimately arrived here in Anaheim, California?
[00:01:32] Dr. Bracho
Sure. So, Gabe, I was born in Venezuela, in Sucre State, which is the state of Venezuela that look at Trinidad and Tobago. And I grew up in Caracas. I was born there, but grew up in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela.
I’m the daughter of two professors. My dad was a professor of chemistry and biology, and my mom was a professor of English. And they both were educators, very committed to social justice. They always thought that education was more than teaching a class in a classroom and that as we
become professionals and the personal is there as well. And I probably will repeat that later. But this idea that that who you are as a professional needs to be consistent with your personal values, otherwise you just go crazy. I mean you are a professional from 9 to 5, and then after five, then you can come back to life. Right?
So the idea that if you are committed to your kids, and the kids of the neighborhood, and the kids from your classrooms, and they don’t have anything to eat, that is your problem. Your problem cannot be just to teach chemistry, because chemistry you cannot learn when you are hungry. There is a difficulty assimilating when you are worried about, you know, what’s going on in your home, your mom is sick and all of that. So, just as context, so you know that I grew up in that type of family– where our I will say our conversations at dinner were more than pass me another pancake, you know? So, when we talk about what we care about and our dreams and what is fair and what is not fair. So we grow up I connect with you a lot with that. We grew up in families where talking about justice and caring about others was part of our breast milk.
[00:03:45] BREAK
— Audio interrupted —
[00:03:53] Gabriel Sanders
I’m so sorry. Continue where you were.
[00:04:16] Dr. Bracho
Right. So this idea that we grew up with all of these conversations in our upbringing. So this was part of our meals, I will say. I was fed that. But not only in theory, not only at the table, but also going with my mom and my dad to do things with them. Like to go and visit families and all of that. So I went to medical school in Venezuela, which is a very interesting type of school because in medical school they teach you to that you know everything, that you are going to be a doctor, which means almost like God, right? So, imagine coming from this type of family, going to school that says you are better than everybody, when that is against exactly how I was raised.
I was raised thinking that I am one of many and that without those many, we are nothing. And that is also important, you know. I realized–and I’m so grateful to you because you are taking me for a little while for an hour to a space of reflection about why we do what we do. So anyway, medical school was problematic in that sense. But at the same time, Gabriel, when you are confronted–when people tell you to do something if they say, “Gabe, but who cares, you know, maybe you can get a good job with Trump and vote for him. I mean, what is the big deal then?” Just because I say that it helps you either reaffirm your position, doubt or whatever, but it will make you stronger, you know? So, as people put you in those positions, you have to go like, “No, don’t think so.” Or “maybe” or–anyway, you go into that thing in medical school.
I remember when they told me, you know, not to take things personal. You know how they say to “leave the personal out”? And that is–to say the least–pretty stupid, because where do you put it? Right? So, you take your personal out, like where? In a little container? Una maletita? Or where do you put it? So, I remember asking my professor, you know, “If I pull it out, just assure me that when I get out from your class, it’s going to be there.” Because what am I going to do without my personal, right? So, they took it as disrespect. And it was intended as disrespect because, you know, I was whatever, 19, 20, and that’s how you are. Then you grow up and you are a little bit better, more strategic in the way you say things. But then, you know, I was reaffirmed that I didn’t want to lose my personal, that my personal was my treasure. Because that’s where my beacon is. My beacon is in my personal. So I went on to be physician in rural Venezuela.
[00:07:24] Dr. Bracho
And Venezuela is a very–it’s a rich, poor country, or it’s a poor, rich country, however you want to say it. It’s a mess, it’s a mess. And that’s also what what makes me more mature and more understanding of social dynamics is that a group of thieves that say that they are from the left, or whatever, doesn’t mean that they are, you know. So in the name of I am from this side or this side, people go crazy and do things. So again, my beacon is in my personal.
So I never supported this government, in spite of the fact that they said that they were going to eliminate poverty. Poverty is worse than ever. When was a physician, people couldn’t have access to clean water or medications. And we had diseases that we shouldn’t have, and we had resources in the hands of a little group. And the vast majority of the country was poor. And today the only thing that has changed is that the people that actually now have the money said that they were fighting against that. But now they are the ones that have the money, and that people that were poor are even more poor. So it’s just horrendous. We have diseases for those reasons. As a physician, there were before that As a physician there I was- -how old are you, Gabriel now?
[00:09:00] Gabriel Sanders
I’m 18.
[00:09:01] Dr. Bracho
You are 18. So I was 25–24-25–when I graduated. And I learned again the good and the bad, Gabriel, in everything, you have an opportunity. Even now as a country. I mean, the fact that we need to discuss where we are going? That’s good. That’s good. That we have all of this, what is happening is good, as long as you stay connected and active and do something about it and redefine and do things. As long as you don’t just stay saying, “Oh, we have a horrible government, what am I going to do? Just pass another beer?” You know? So that is bad. But as long as that fuels your energy to do something different.
In Venezuela, people are very creative, like they are in Ecuador. I mean, people don’t wait until some God comes and rescue me so I can feed my kid. So I learned so much as a physician from people that were taking care of others. From people that didn’t have electricity, but they had coffee to offer me, or to kill a chicken to prepare a meal and learn about community workers. These community workers are called promotoras. This is a concept from the world that actually started–I have my own story about how it started.
So, it started with a woman that was in a cave, and she invented the fire, you know. So once she invented the fire in that cave, she started sharing her fire. And I say that when the first woman started sharing her fire, community workers started. You know, because that’s what it is. It’s just people that are ready to share their fire with other people. And are you doing fine with the phones and everything?
[00:10:56] Gabriel Sanders
Yes, everything’s great. Thank you so much. Can I ask you a quick question about that–promotoras?
[00:11:02] Dr. Bracho
Yes.
[00:11:02] Gabriel Sanders
Would you say there’s a difference between promotoras and community health workers, or is that what you’ve kind of implemented in your program?
[00:11:14] Dr. Bracho
People have tried to make a difference for, probably for hiring purposes. And the world call them community health workers. Initially promotoras was the name in Latin America. Today they are also called connectors. Connectors because they connect compañeras also as a word of solidarity. But these community workers are people that take chances, that actually insist, that will not let you do something stupid, that will be there when you need it. So I was a physician in Venezuela, and we had promotoras.
And these community workers work with the Ministry of Health. They actually were formerly employed, but they live in their towns. They were promotoras from their towns. So everybody knew them. And you had to see the relationship people had with them like, okay. And Maria, Maria will go. Remember, Maria will go and say, Mija, eh, how how is your dad? Well, Dad is doing better. Maria And what about you and your pregnancy? I’m going to come this afternoon to check on you. Okay? I will wait for you. And how is your son? Bring it here. Let’s vaccinate him. Oh, he’s sleeping. Don’t care. Wake him up. You know, need to vaccine, you know. And you might imagine, here, that someone says, “Bring me your kid. No, wake him up.” You can’t. You can’t.
Because health care becomes a transaction that is like buying cheese or going to a bank. It’s not this whole thing about, “hey Gabe, come on, Gabe. You come and help us and whatever.” It’s not that connection. That connection is what really makes the difference because it’s part of the relationship. It’s part of the relationship. And what comes with that is confianza–trust. So if you trust someone, you will open your mind a little bit more to what that person says. Not that you will do what that person says, but you open your mind, right? So anyway, I learned about promotoras and I learned the many ways in which people try to overcome disease without a system. But in the end, one of my conclusions was all of this is powerful, but you cannot have a healthier place without changing these systems. You cannot. So need to learn how to do this.
So I decided to do a master’s in public health, which we didn’t have in Venezuela, and I applied to Michigan and they accepted me. They accepted my husband as well. And I had two kids, my little Gabe, because your mother just copied that name from me. My little Gabe. And then Daniel. Daniel, my other son. And Daniel was eight months when we came to the United States. So we went to Michigan, did my master’s in public health, and then tried to go back because that was the intention. And I couldn’t because I was not part of the political party in power at that time. And in Venezuela, as in many countries in the world, sometimes if you are not part of the political party, they don’t give you jobs. It’s not based on merit. It’s based on political affiliations. So we couldn’t find a job at that time. We were in the middle of the HIV pandemic. So right now, you cannot imagine how many times a day I reflect about the fact that my public health career started with HIV, and I’m almost at the tail end or end of my public health career and it is now coronavirus. So it’s almost from pandemia to pandemia.
I reflect a lot about that because I also say, you know, I know a little bit more now than I did then, so if don’t do more then I’m stupid. I have to. I have to. You know, back then it was the beginning and it’s still you know, we were questioning, why are you doing this this way or another? Right now I am a little bit more clear thanks to the experience. So I became the director of the first HIV program for Latinos in the Midwest. And you can ask me, “America does that make you proud?” So at the beginning, it made me very angry. Not proud, but angry.
It was 1987. End of ‘87. The pandemic started in ‘81. So how are you going to feel if you are the first one after seven years of neglect of having problems in your own community? So of course, we were proud in the sense of saying, okay, this is the end of this. We have to create programs all over the Midwest. So we went on and created the what was called–and it still exists–The Midwest Hispanic Aids Coalition that activated groups to work on HIV. We didn’t create the groups. We activated groups to get involved in HIV in Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the rest of the Midwest.
We created the program on HIV with that concept of promotoras, and we hired people that were former substance abuse, that used to be in drugs, people that were, you know, former sex workers. People that were infected with HIV and had, you know, history that was of use mean people–that were representing the population that was impacted. So people that were infected because sexual intercourse or anything that would connect them with the population we were serving. So we hire them. And this is not easy, but it’s not complicated when you bring on board the people that are impacted by the issue. Because it’s not the same if I say, “I’m going to design a program for people that are 18 years old.” Good luck. Right? But if I bring people that are 18 years old and we say, okay, let’s talk about this, how do you see it? It’s not simple, but it’s less complicated because you have the people on board that can think about that with you.
I don’t know why it’s so complicated for people to just bring the people impacted to the table so they can think. And that has to do with the premise. And the premise is, “I am a thinking person. They are not. There are thinking people and non-thinking people. The thinking people need to tell the non thinking people what to do.” I believe that we all think and we all take action. So that has helped me throughout my life since I was little. And to create everything. That if I have anything. Wow. I wonder if we could do that. Let me send an email to the promotoras. What do you think about that? No. Yes. Well, that makes sense. You know, so at the end, people might say, wow, that was so smart of you. What was smart about what I did was that I put together people that are smart, that can think and we think with them. And what happened is very interesting because if I think with you and then we all are like, okay, at the end when we say “bingo.” We just need to use this, then we both will use it. But if you, Gabriel, do the thinking and then say “just use that,” they’re going to say “why?”
So it’s not particularly smart, but I don’t know why people don’t do it that way. And it has to do with with exclusion, with models that exclude people and models of seeing life where if you don’t have a college degree, you don’t deserve to be at the table. Etcetera, etcetera. Or if you are not white or if you live in that neighborhood or if you don’t speak the language. So you have a bunch of people that do not speak Spanish representing Latinos because they speak English, but they are representing people that don’t, you know? And you live in another neighborhood, but you represent that neighborhood because that neighborhood is full of poor people that couldn’t represent themselves. So you have representatives that do not represent anything.
And so in Detroit, we had a very good project, and I was confronted in public health with this idea that you have a condition, you have a disease, where women that were infected were also victims of domestic violence. And these women didn’t know how to read. And these women sometimes were using drugs because the partners that were supporting them were pushing the drugs on them and their kids. And the only thing that the Center of Disease Control wanted from us was to push condoms, just to teach them how to use condoms. And it was a again, I was young. It was the first time I was in public health. And I was like, okay, we need to do condoms. And we actually need to do at the end of this project, 400 Latinos will, you know, talk about condoms and, you know, you needed to do it because that’s what the contract said. And this is where I tell you about the quotas.
You know, right now we say, well, we need to tell people to just stay home and use a mask. You know, no. They live in an overcrowded environment. So we have to change the message and we need to talk about vaccines. Yeah. And also we need to talk about justice and housing and all of that. You know, I’m not going to make a condom and put a condom on coronavirus because it doesn’t work like that. So the whole thing about, you know, what is the message? It’s the message that they give you is the message that we need to create with the people and make sense. So anyway, so that was then. And then I got connected with the entire country. And pretty much the world with the whole HIV, how we do education, how we shape a message that is respectful toward people that are gay and lesbian and bisexual; how do we shape a respectful message of prevention when people are so homophobic? And how do we shape a message that is about risk reduction, telling people clean your needle instead of don’t use drugs? And why we need to push for that and not just tell people not to use it because people will continue using it, so they might as well clean the needle.
So anyway, we got together, and some of those groups were here in California. So I met a bunch of people from here, from the radio, from TV. And in a given moment in 1991. 1991. I received this phone call. And they say, America, we are creating a radio station. It will be the first 24 hour talk radio in Spanish in the US. It’s going to be based in Orange County, and we want to invite you to apply to actually to compete, to be interview, to see if you can do the health programming. And I have to confess, Gabriel, that I was like, okay, do I really want to go to Orange County? That sounds horrible. That’s like, okay, the least of my places. Where? You mean Orange County, Orange County? Newport, Huntington, that place? So, my friends said, “So America, here you are always talking about the strength and then and getting the facts and you don’t have idea who lives in Orange County and how many Latinos don’t even have services in Orange County precisely because it’s so wealthy that that the rest doesn’t exist.” So I said, well, let me check it out. And something was going on in Detroit with a new director of my organization that was very traditional. And she we were having conflicts because the way she thought the programs should look like. So I said, you know, whatever. Let’s go to California.
I interviewed. And they gave me the job. So we moved to California, to Orange County, and I started the radio in Spanish, La radio el programa se llamaba la familia es su salud the family–family and its health. And then it became Dr. Hoy, for the afternoon drive. Dr. Hoy means Dr. today. It’s playing with America, the country and America. So we started. And guess what happened? And again, here is where the personal is so important, because I always saw myself as a public health person with a microphone, not a celebrity over the radio. Right? And my heart was always, you know, so sad when we would do a health program and we didn’t have a single resource for the people, Gabriel. It was like, okay, diabetes and insulin and the pancreas and dadada… And if you have any problem, call–
[00:25:53] Gabriel Sanders
There was no one to call.
[00:25:55] Dr. Bracho
Nobody spoke Spanish. I had to tell people, call whatever in LA, call this connection in Texas. Orange County didn’t have resources. A million people. A million Latinos. Cities like Santa Ana, where the majority of people were Latinos and Spanish speakers didn’t have a single program in Spanish for–on health. And you know what? Right now, when we see what’s going on with coronavirus, when when we saw people dying and we saw the data from the county. Orange County have this average and this rate. And we saw people dying in Santa Ana and in the zip codes. And we went on and said, we need the data for the zip codes, and we need a strategy for those zip codes. This is not the data that represent us. This data is making us invisible. My brain was there. My heart was in it.
27 years ago, when we started Latino Health Access, we were invisible. And we are still invisible for these systems, and I said, no, no, this is not happening. I’m not going to wait 27 years to be visible. This is not happening. So we went on and said, well, let’s do something about it. And we put together a group of people in Orange County, a group of friends that were the ones that would come to the radio to do programs with me. And we said, we need data. We actually need to become visible here. And we started a group.
And then the radio–it was a private project–was not as profitable as the owners wanted. And you know how rich people are. So, they said, okay, we need to sell the radio. And we said, Well. It was also this crossroad in my life. In which my personal served me very well. And I was without a job. So people said, Well, America, why don’t you come to work here to do health education? You can do diabetes education. You can do whatever education. And I said, no, no, I’m going to be without a job, and I’m going to create an organization
In Venezuela, we say, Gabriel, “it is better to be the head of a mouse than the tail of a lion.” So I’m going–I’m going to be the head of this little mouse. And we are going to have our own organization and do it. And so the little group that created that survey where we interview people created Latino Health Access.
And in the meantime, I became a citizen. I came to the United States with a visa, a student visa. And my husband did as well. And then I got a work, a working visa, a working visa. And then, after the working visa, we became residents with the green card, and then we became citizens. So it’s also an immigration path that is for privileged people that have gone to school that are able to have these types of jobs. But then the vast majority of immigrants are not presented with those opportunities because the way the Immigration Service works in the United States is they look at your bank account. They look at your properties. Those are things they ask for. They look out for–they want to know that you are not going to be a burden. In, and people leave countries because they are hungry. Because they want a future, you know?
This is a country that was created with immigrants that were looking for a future. And it’s not fair that once they are in, they shut the door. A because the people have the right to immigrate. That’s actually a human right. You have the right to go from one country to another to just protect your life. And the only threat to your life is not the lack of food. It could be also, you know, the violence and–and many, many other things. So that’s my journey to Orange County.
[00:30:56] Gabriel Sanders
Oh, thank you so much. That was full of valuable information, to say the least. You started to talk a little bit about the Latino Health Access program that you created. You said 27 years ago you began it, or you started the journey of creating it, and you create it with this group of people who had the goal in mind of just getting data for your community. Right? And you had that goal in mind. But my question to you is, was there any part of you that was doing it–because I know that obviously you’re doing this on behalf of your community, you’re doing this on behalf of Latinos throughout the the state, throughout the country–was there any part of you that was personally afflicted with the lack of health care resources? And was that a factor at all in your creation of the program?
[00:31:45] Dr. Bracho
Actually, it was a main factor because the data was before creating Latino Health Access. This group put together the data. But then when I was without a job and we already had the results in hand, we said, okay, what are the results? Well, the results are that there is a lot of diabetes, a lot of these problems, no organizations that can do anything about it. There wasn’t a single organization with an agenda of health, health and healthier places. So that was my crossroad. So do I go and get a job in that hospital to become a diabetes educator, or do I create the organization that needs to be created? So we created the organization with that group and immediately did a strategic plan. And we call our organization back then an Institute of Community Participation.
We said Latino Health Access is an institute of community participation, and we are going to start a program based on the things that people said. But the other agenda is that as soon as we have people into our programs, we are going to start hiring them. So we actually started the diabetes program. And then we saw leaders with diabetes coming to those classes. People that care, people that were, you know, so smart and ready to do something about it. So we hired them to teach classes on diabetes. And then we went on with healthy weight, and we hire people from the community to do those classes. And then we saw people from those classes that were going hungry. And people that–it was so, so interesting. People that didn’t have money, that were eating things from churches, that didn’t have a place to live, that couldn’t go–didn’t have access to a kitchen, to a kitchen. I mean, they would live in a room with no access to a kitchen with diabetes. And we were talking about how to cook healthy. You know, this happens again and again.
So we find ourselves saying, you know, whatever. This is not going to work. I mean, this community, we need to be realistic with our message. Again, this is the idea that problems are not solved just with one single solution. This whole magic bullet, the condom. No. Now, the thing was to teach them how to read a food label. You know, you’re right. You know, that’s it. So we’re going to do now food labels for this and condoms for that and masks for this. So we started doing it and hiring promoters and then we said, What’s going on in that neighborhood where people are coming from? What’s going on there? And we said, why don’t we find out?
So we got a little bit of money and we started collecting data about the 92701. Today, every time I read the zip codes, when we have a lot of people dead because Covid, I mean, the highest numbers of deaths have been in the 92701. The 92701 has been one of the zip codes with the highest number of cases in Orange County. And then it went to–it’s no longer, but it has been in these few months.
But 92701 was a zip code with 65,000 people and not a single park, not a single community center. We did the survey, and the survey asked for two areas of information: needs and aspirations. This is also critical in our work, as you complete your other questions. But it’s critical in our work: a principle of practice that says that needs do not change communities. Needs are important in the sense that we need to do something about it, but the needs themselves do nothing. What really creates healthier communities is the strength of people, the talents of people, the wisdom of people.
So people from the universities come with something called needs assessments. So they go to the community to inquire about their needs. So here is the assumption. So if I’m asking you about your needs, is that because I am the one with the solutions, and you only have needs? So again, you go back to this paradigm thing. So where am I in this? Why am I asking only about needs? We didn’t do it that way, remember? You know, for something. Experiences for something. Gabriel. So, no, we are going to ask what are your needs, and what are your aspirations? And then people said, we would love to have open spaces for our kids. There is a lot of alcohol in our neighborhoods and dadada.
And we did our survey. It was the first ever health survey for Latinos in Orange County. The first ever. It was 1996. You know, that is so absurd. There were like two zillion surveys about the rest of the population, but communities of color were like zero in terms of data. So with that information, we decided to do a bunch of things. That information started guiding a lot of our work. We started hiring more people from those neighborhoods to become community workers. We trained them, which now we don’t say we train them. We say we co-train because if we train them, it means that they have to be trained and we are the ones that train.
Again, words are extremely important for me because words have meaning and you have to honor the meaning that you want to give. If my meaning is we are in this together, then I cannot say just I train you. So but but we co-train them, with them, and we put together a team. As of today, Latino health access that has three areas, three sectors inside: the community experts, which are the promotoras; what we call the technical experts, like America, the people with public health master in social work, your mom; and then the administrative team, which are the accounting, human resources and all of that. These three sectors operate inside the organization and the three of them inform the strategy. But the ones that are in the center center are the promotoras. Because from the beginning, 27 years ago, we said the community needs to be at the center and needs to guide everything that we do.
Equity, the concept of equity, which you hear more and more now and in the school, you are going to hear equity until you are sick. But equity really means to have the opportunities to thrive–to have the opportunities to learn, to be happy, to be healthy. And if you have services but you don’t have opportunities to use them; if you have universities, but you cannot go to those universities; if you have a little place where you live in a garage, but that doesn’t allow you to actually study and have Internet; and if you live in a neighborhood where you cannot exercise. So by design, the place where you live, the place where you learn, the place where you play, has everything to do with your health and equity means that you will have opportunities to thrive. And we fight not only for equality, so people can have schools and all of that, but equity, which means that you will have the opportunity to use that. And in order for that to happen, the people impacted by the inequity need to be at the table.
They need to be at the table, because if they are not, what happened is that Gabriel is now worried about his paper for the University of Wisconsin, and Dr. is worried about the next meeting that I have. But our promotoras are worried about the gunshot that they had last night in their neighborhood. And they are worried about the fact that one of them is going to be evicted, so they don’t forget about what’s going on in the neighborhood. You and I have the luxury of forgetting from time to time because we are not the ones impacted by the inequity. So it also needs to be that your own leadership has to be aware. Aware of your own privilege. Your own privilege. So your own you don’t become–you don’t start thinking that you are the one that is the in worst conditions. We are impacted by some other racial inequities, of course, but don’t have to worry about what am I going to eat today? You know, and if I get sick, I don’t worry about it. I have health care. So we have to be very honest in all of that. So our promotoras are at the center.
Right now, prior to Covid, we had 40 promotoras community workers. And during the pandemic, we doubled that. So we right now have actually more than doubled. We have 90 community workers at this moment. In fact, with everything about Covid. We hire people from those zip codes. We actually went and brought people on board that live in those neighborhoods using the same recipe, the same thing. You know, we need to hire people from the neighborhoods that truly represent what’s going on there. And when they are brought to the table, they will not allow people to forget about their people. We need to bring people.
We call the promotoras our mission accounting department. Because you are accountable about the money; I say we need to be accountable for the mission, and you need to bring your own accountants, which is the community, and put it in front of you. So they say, “Hey, hey, hey, America, why are we going to close that program? That program is so important.” And I would say because we don’t have money, we lost that grant. And they will say, “well, was this only about money? Can we support this program on a volunteer basis?” So what am I going to do? I mean, they come into my office and say, “hey, wait a second, you know, okay, let’s talk now. Let’s talk about how we make it happen.” And we received money from several foundations in California to provide cash assistance to undocumented people. Super happy with that. We received $600,000. And the second they contacted me– America, we heard the Latinos, complete this and that. So did right Then we said it was approved. So got that approval. And I called all my team, the entire agency and say we got approved. And so how are we going to distribute this? And we had a long conversation until we came up with a method with the promotoras on how to distribute that. So that’s Latino Health Access.
[00:43:52] Gabriel Sanders
That’s beautiful. Thank you so much. And would you say there are elements of that promotoras program that has evolved over time, or is it mostly just the number of people, and you keep using the same recipe over and over?
[00:44:03] Dr. Bracho
No, it has it has evolved tremendously because if I see that you are an amazing leader–you are a young adult, and I say, Gabe, we have this opportunity and we want you to to become a promoter–at that moment, you really don’t know what is a promotora. At that moment, you only know that you got a job. And the people are giving you a job because they saw something in you. Right. So that’s the beginning.
The evolution of this is when you then realize that you actually–what does it mean to be a community worker? What does it mean to be able to transform your communities? And it has evolved in the programs we started with diabetes and heart disease and mental health, but later on we did voter engagement. We have worked on the census. We have housing promotoras that are devoted to justice in housing. And so it has evolved. Also, at Latinos Health Access, we gather every so often, and we talk for days before, of course, Covid in person. But we talk a lot. We do a lot of reflection and analysis about why our practice is successful or why it’s not. What aspects of what would work makes it more impactful? And we do this together. We read books together.
So we actually put together a book. That is called in English Recruiting the Heart and Training the Brain. The work of Latino health access in Español is called, From Compassion to Action. And the book, the entire book, was written in a process of interaction and reflection, not only with our promotoras and the rest of the staff, but with promotoras from India, from Australia, from Chile, from Mexico, you know, discussing these concepts, the paradigms, our beliefs. We came up with our 20 principles of practice. They are in the book. Why we do what we do, what principles. You probably think–you could read that and understand way more, this concept, this model of organizing. Because this is not a union model of organizing. It’s not the union. We go and we fight and we take over the house of the governor and then we go home and then we eat. No, this is not that. This is providing accompaniment to people so we all can participate, so we all can be part of the solution.
I’m not going to rescue you. I’m going to you with an invitation to join something. And on your terms, not just my terms, you know? So and while you are ready, I will walk with you, you know? So we are learning constantly and the model is evolving. The the role of promotoras inside is evolving. Many of our promotoras are now coordinators. So at the beginning, the coordinators were not promotoras. Now it’s a mix group. Now their kids are becoming promotoras as well. And many of our kids, the kids of the promotoras go to college and then become part of Latino Health Access in other in other ways. Promotoras are trainers. So when people ask us for training. Training happens with them.
So again, we are learning every day. From ourselves, from ourselves first, when people say who is the main trainer of Latino Health Access? Latino Health Access. Because in Latino Health Access, if you do something that is out of line with our principles, someone will say, “Woah, so we have to do this because you are a coordinator?” Yeah, this is an organization where that is allowed. And millennials in particular are very dangerous because they have to say whatever they have in their mind. And your generation as well. But it’s evolving. And again, we are all the time training with other countries and other groups. And we believe that we are in a larger community of–in a larger learning community.
[00:48:41] Gabriel Sanders
Thank you. And one thing you mentioned there was that it seems like you’ve incorporated more social and political elements into your promotoras program. What would you say–for example, voting–what would you say is the connection between voter registration and stuff like that and the health care work that you’re doing with Latino Health Access?
[00:49:02] Dr. Bracho
That’s a very important question because it’s not only the answer that I will give you Gabe, but is the way we do the work with community. We want the community to understand that connection. So it’s not just asking them to vote, but to understand the connection. And we try to talk about the issues that matter to people and how they are connected. So if you–if housing, affordable housing, is the issue, how do we make it happen? And we walk that path with people. Our promotoras as the community. Do you believe–I’m going to use that example. They say, do you believe? Un poquito de Español, Gabe? Do you speak a little bit of Spanish?
[00:49:54] Gabriel Sanders
Poquito. Sí.
[00:49:55] Dr. Bracho
Super, super little. But the question in Spanish, I’m going to try to say it in English, is they say that Latinos live the way they live because they want to. Tu sabes, pues se viven así es que quieren. Do they live like that because they want to live like that, right? So the question here is, do you live like that because you want, or because you don’t have another option?
So people in the community, mainly women, say, “Well, of course, I live like this because I don’t have another option. Because if you ask me what is the way I want to live, I would tell you that I want to live in a place where at least I have two bedrooms, access to a kitchen, where my kids could have this and that. So of course, I’m not living as I want. That’s not what I want.” So then the other question is, well, if you live like this because you don’t have the option, then how do we create options? So the conversation about social determinants and what makes people why we don’t have decent wages, why we don’t have housing, why don’t we have health care is a conversation that we take to the community.
Again, we have to practice exactly what I’m saying. It’s not like, okay, now Dr. and the promotoras have this great conversations because we are at the table, but now we are going to go to the community to tell them what to do. So the idea is that all of this permeates into the community. And we have all the time groups, youth groups, adult groups where we are having these conversations. Latino Health Access has started activating advocacy actions for affordable housing in the city of Santa Ana. And so they can create housing that is affordable and also that they don’t increase the rent and that eviction is stopped, which now is happening in the state. But it took a lot of advocacy for the communities to make it happen, that evictions are stopped. What is called the moratorium, the moratorium in eviction.
So we ask the people how voting is connected to getting to live how you want. People tell you about–you know, the city council making decisions or the government of California– how voting is connected to immigration reform. How voting is connected to health care for you and your family. How voting is connected to DACA. You know, so we don’t tell people voting is connected to DACA in the same way–Do you have a pen? Can you take notes? I’m going to start talking here. No. How is it? You know, so people are smart and they tell you it’s completely connected. I mean, if we have this on that, then they will vote against us, and we are not going to have the opportunity. So then we go to the next question: Do you vote? Are you registered to vote? The question could be I cannot vote. I don’t have documents. So if you cannot vote, in what way can you help to activate the vote? Well, my kids vote, my sister votes or nobody votes, but I can go and walk the street and ask people that vote to vote.
So we have created voting engagement strategies that are very grassroots, very creative, because also Latino health access is a lot about creativity and having fun or being super, super creative. And we did voting taco night. So sometimes on the day of the voting we have a takisha and after you vote, you can come with your little thing that says you vote to eat tacos with us, or we use–there is a comedian in the Latino TV that is called El Chapulín Colorado. El Chapulín.
[00:54:12] Gabriel Sanders
I’ve heard of that.
[00:54:15] Dr. Bracho
No contaban con mi astucia. I mean every time that something good happened, he says, oh yeah, you know this is because I’m so so sharp. So we use that guy the Chapulín Colorado and use that to put, no contaban con mi voto. You know, and I’m not translating the cultural piece of this, but we use a lot of culture and things that are fun to invite people to vote.
We also get the precincts very disciplined strategy of walking the precincts like if we were candidates, but just voting, just walking the precincts to us people to vote. So we are super strong. We we do phone banking all of that. All promotoras participate in that. Volunteers, youth. The entire organization is transformed in a phone banking the census the same mean we need to count. You cannot imagine, Gabriel, how many signs we had in the neighborhood saying do not vote, do not complete the census because the immigration is after you.
[00:55:27] Gabriel Sanders
Wow.
[00:55:28] Dr. Bracho
Yeah. Which is just the opposite. I mean, if we complete the census, then we get more resources to do things. So it is tough. And the promotores found this and we went on. So because we were in Covid, we got our van, we have a van, and we called the van the Info- mobile. And we put a speaker and we created a whole thing, and went with the van into the neighborhoods talking about the census and giving people information with the van and music–and music in the van. So we are creative with Covid, without Covid. The connection is clear. If you do not vote, you will not have the representation.
Health is not lack of disease. This is the thing. The concept of health is a state of well-being: physical, mental and social well-being. It’s not just the absence of disease. So if you want to have health, you need to have social well-being. And social well-being is connected to structures and systems that depend on a political system. And voting is an act of health. You know, voting makes you healthy. Because it makes you civically healthy, socially healthy because participation makes the difference. Because when people are at the table, they count and counting–being part of something is is a social right. It’s a right. And sometimes people say, well, nothing is going to change. And I saw one of your questions there, but things change. Okay? Things change, Gabe. Things change. Absolutely. And they change so much.
That first woman that was the first promotora, where the fire was invented? When she was born, they didn’t have Kaiser Permanente, and they didn’t have schools. I mean, they didn’t even have the writing, right? Writing came after that. And then the Greeks came with, you know, the Socrates y toda las pendejadas then medical school and engineering and, you know, and at that time, we didn’t have democracy and we didn’t have government and we didn’t have bureaucracy and we didn’t have cell phones and we didn’t have any of that. We create systems. We created them. So the main hope for us is that if we create systems, we can change them because then we created them, right? It wasn’t like an outer thing that created it. We created the health department. We can change that. We created the housing department. We can change that. We created government. We can change government. So is that hope that we did it together and we can change it together and that conviction, because people lose hope, they say, well, this is and then our main enemy is the lack of participation sometimes. And it’s not because people don’t want to is because where they are at, that is not a priority. Maybe there is fear, maybe there was a bad experience. But I think but we need to keep trying. Right?
[00:58:47] Gabriel Sanders
Right. Thank you so much for that answer. You’ve talked a little bit about social rights and what society is obligated to give to these members of indigent populations and Latinos throughout the state. How would you define–what would your personal definition be of a social movement? As you’ve clearly created several.
[00:59:11] Dr. Bracho
Bueno. Haber. Actually I thought that was a very interesting question because it’s very academic. It’s a very academic question. You know, the whole social movement. Social movements are created all the time, but they don’t reach the sometimes the number to make it so visible for the world. And sometimes they do reach the numbers, but they evaporate. So I wouldn’t say this movement was more important than this movement or that movement. Maybe it was more visible, this movement than that movement. But all of the little small medium movements count.
In society I try to think that we are always boiling water, but we don’t know that we are boiling until we see it boiling. Right. So it almost is like every little thing contributes to the heat to create the boiling. So is your heat more important than my heat and their heat. I mean, it’s heat and it’s contributing to the boiling. So. So people go like, okay, it’s boiling. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know what? In order to boil, we have had to work. So we give too much emphasis to the boiling and say that we need to give emphasis to the many things in which we are increasing the heat.
And that is, you know, so little movements, big movements–the movement for the rights of women, the movement for the rights of indigenous people in Oaxaca, in a little town in the Sierra, is that a social movement? Well, yeah. So I say that anything where people get organized for a purpose and gets mobilized and is increasingly creating awareness of the importance of staying there, of keeping the fight, of keeping the struggle–that is the movement that we want to create. We want to create the mechanisms, don’t create movements. I think I participate in movements because I am you. I am you. And my goal is to increase heat with you, not to be creating movements. So I am part of that.
And listen, I am like this little piece of wood. I’m like this little piece of wood and you are like this piece of wood. And then Priscilla is this piece of wood. So, that’s my role. Because if I am not there, you only have two pieces of wood. So in that sense, I’m part of that movement because three pieces of wood would have more fire. I have participated in academic technical movements. I remember one that was important for me to change the definition of HIV from a male body definition to a human definition. So women were not part of the definition of HIV. So women will die without a diagnosis in the HIV epidemic, and we all women organize to get that change. So that’s a movement and the movement on Covid to make sure that recovery doesn’t look like what we had before.
I’m so, so excited and I am optimistic. And I’m hearing more and more people joining the fight and saying we are not going to go there. You know, we were vulnerable because we didn’t have housing. We didn’t have this. We didn’t have that. So don’t give me that just because we now will have a vaccine, everything is normal. It’s not going to be acceptable. So more and more people are saying that. More and more people are tired of racism. More and more people are tired and more people are joining. So that is a movement that you didn’t start and didn’t start. But we are a good state, right? So we just need to be there in the fire. And the movement of promotoras, I didn’t start that movement. We joined the movement and we created the first ever program of community workers in Orange County.
We actually did the first ever place based zip code strategy in Orange County and maybe in other places don’t count. We just did it. And when you do it, what happens is that people say, Are you crazy? What the hell is that thing about the zip code thing? And it plays very thin. And why are you using community workers? And how do you write promotoras? Are promotoras Are they like little physicians? And you have to deal with all the shit, you know, that day people tell you because they don’t know. And we have to explain that promotoras are not little physicians. No, they’re not little nurses. They are not little anything. They are big leaders from their communities.
And you just do it because you believe in that and because you are not afraid of having to do something for the first time, because you know that at the end of the day, it’s not the first time that someone did something like that. So you think, “Am I going to be the first?” You are not going to be the first, America. How many people have been doing interesting things? You might be the first saying that here, it’s your turn to the bat. It’s like a baseball game, right? It’s your turn to the bat. That’s what it means. And when it’s your turn to the bat, you better be prepared because you always are getting ready to have that bat–praying that the day that Gabriel Sanders has that bat for your community, you will bat right. You know, that’s the day. And even even if you don’t that day, you cannot produce a hit. But you are in the field. It’s your turn to play that game. You are part of that team of those players. And think like that. I think that I am part of a team; in this moment, in this planet, in this day. And in that team, I play a position. Let’s say this is a football team and I play a position and promotoras play positions and our coordinators play positions. Sometimes Dr. has the ball, and I play my position. What I cannot get confused is that I cannot be the goalie, the defense–no puedo hacer todo, correcto? So you are not a good leader when you think that you can play all positions and you don’t let your team play. You are a good leader when you understand that you are one in the team and you have to play your role. And that’s how I think this whole social movement operates.
[01:06:28] Gabriel Sanders
That’s a wonderful answer, thank you. I appreciate all the analogies in your answers because they really give me and the world a great picture of what you believe and how passionate you are about these issues. Could I ask–do you have time for a couple more questions or–?
[01:06:44] Dr. Bracho
Yeah, yeah. I have enough time for a couple of questions.
[01:06:53] Gabriel Sanders
Okay. I’ll ask you one from each of the next two sections.
[01:06:57] Dr. Bracho
Don’t be in a hurry.
[01:07:00] Gabriel Sanders
Okay. Well, so you talked a little bit about how you faced the struggles of trying to convince people and the naysayers who say, you know, how is this promotoras program going to work? How is this possibly going to get done? What are some of the greatest setbacks you’ve faced in your quest to create Latino Health Access?
[01:07:27] BREAK
— Audio Interrupted —
[01:12:04] Dr. Bracho
I mean, it took us, Gabriel, 11 years to build one park adjacent. That story. I could just tell you about that story and answer all those questions just with that story, because we–the community–wanted a little place. I mean, the zip code didn’t have a single park. You probably saw that in some of the videos about Latino Health Access. But when we had that first meeting in Garfield Elementary, and the community was there with the city of Santa Ana in a meeting asking for a park, this lady from the city says, well, then probably you need to write a grant and get money to buy something with that–whatever. To these women from the community–the ladies from the community were like, what? Is that the answer from the city? I mean, not on single park. Kids are being killed because they play in the streets.
And our answer was, “The park is happening.” This park is happening. So just wait and see. So we continue working, working, working–meetings, meetings, meetings, meetings. 11 years later. For a park that is half acre. This is not Central Park. This is this big, right? So we found the money. $4 million. We built the park. We built the community center. And you could say we had so many setbacks. Or I could say, when we went to that park, not only we knew how to make a park happen, but also we were so convinced that we could do this. We were so convinced that persistence pays.
We, at the beginning of that meeting 11 years before, we were ten months in. When that park was inaugurated, we were 3000. Because we were, for 11 years we were, you know, getting people and convincing people. So, you know what? Just take advantage of those setbacks so you can say, you know, I was fighting for what happened right now. So we want this country to be in the hands of people that respect democracy, that can make democracy stronger. So we lost. And now we have to deal with this. And this is a major setback or it’s a great opportunity for the Democrats to go back and really see if what they are doing is really transformative in this country.
It is a time to get activated. Maybe we needed this to get used to be activated. Maybe we needed this. So instead of saying this is a setback, we have to say, you know what? This is happening and we need to change this by participating more, by getting more organized. So once you do that, then you forget about the setback and only remember that people are participating and that you are inaugurating a beautiful park for the kids. Right? And maybe this is just the way I see life, but I think it helps me a lot because I’m super optimistic. I think that everything is possible. And just many times I don’t know how I’m going to solve something, but have a profound faith that if I continue thinking and think with my people, we will figure it out. So have faith on that. I don’t have the solution, but I have faith that we will find it. So that’s really helpful.
[01:15:49] Gabriel Sanders
I love your optimism, and that kind of leads perfectly into this next question, which is what do you believe and what have you seen to be the power of community organizing in efforts to make systemic change? And what would you deem some of your greatest accomplishments in doing so?
[01:16:06] Dr. Bracho
Right. In order to create deep systemic change? Community organizing is fundamental, fundamental. But community organizing done in certain way, because if it’s done only to–I mean again and you can connect this with my previous answer–we have to do it in ways that people that can persist, that can last, that can be sustainable. The sustainability piece here is crucial because if we have all of these movements with Black Lives Matter and all of that, but if they disappear from the radar, that’s it. So if we are having all of these protests everywhere and we are not able to organize to sustain those efforts, the system plays so you get tired.
They want you to get tired. So I’m going to do something. I’m going to say something. I’m going to attack the people that are protesting because they are violent, because they burn a shoe store or whatever. Because they want us–they want us to get tired. So what is important is not just to organize, but to be able to do it in a way that people can have a sort of a break, celebrate the accomplishments, and keep going. What works for me is to celebrate successes that don’t look like big accomplishments. I had some noise with that question when I read it, because the big accomplishment piece. So I’m going to tell you a story about the big accomplishments.
When we were writing the book about Latino Health Access, one of my nightmares, Gabriel, was what happened because I took the lead in the writing. So we had all the conversations, but I was the one writing that book to then take it to another level and change it and write it again, etcetera. So I said to myself, what if, what if I’m not able to actually reflect what we do? What if I write and that is so boring? And people read that and say, well, was that it? Is that it? What? So I had acid reflux. I had–I don’t know how many Tums I took. I was like, oh, my God, this is horrible. So anyway, I thought and thought and thought.
And then I spoke with a friend. Actually, Dr. Bob Ross from the California Endowment. And I said, Bob, I’m having trouble focusing on the book because I don’t know. I mean, this is a book. We need to write a book. And he said, well, probably that’s your problem. The problem is that you are thinking in a book that is not you. You need to write a book that is Latino Health Access, with the stories of Latino Health Access and the successes of Latino Health Access, not the successes of that other book that some incredible writer wrote. And that’s really what is happening. He said that and I reflected about that. And I said, this is exactly what was happening. What was happening is that in life, big accomplishments are defined by the traditional paradigm. So if I say, Gabriel, what is the concept of success for mainstream America? What would you say?
[01:19:56] Gabriel Sanders
I guess the traditional answer would be wealth or power or fame.
[01:20:00] Dr. Bracho
And how does it show–you are successful?
[01:20:05] Gabriel Sanders
In a comfortable life with–
[01:20:10] Dr. Bracho
Which means.
[01:20:11] Gabriel Sanders
Money.
[01:20:15] Dr. Bracho
Money. The car.
[01:20:16] Gabriel Sanders
Car. Yes. House.
[01:20:18] Dr. Bracho
House. Travel. Big accomplishments is like what? I was able to fly after meditating in the Tibet, or what the hell is that? Right? So I went back and said, you know, I’m going to ask my team. What successes they have had that no matter what, when they are sad, they go into their heart and they remember that success and it gives them faith. So we had this gathering and this promotora said, “For me, I remember this lady that I was doing outreach, and I said, ‘Senora, it’s important for you to have the mammogram.’ And she said, ‘No, no, no, I don’t want I don’t want to have the mammogram.’ So I went on and on and on, and I convinced her and she had the mammogram, and she actually had cancer. And because she found out, she had two more years of life in which she enjoys so much her life and when she died, she said to me, ‘Thank you for that mammogram because I was able to focus all my energy and live the two best years of my life.’ That is my success, she said.” And then the other promoter said, a promoter said, “I was alcoholic, I was an alcoholic, and I was able to stop drinking. And I have been able to help several people to stop drinking because I have faith on them. So I think that my success is to have reached the point in which I believe in people.”
So when they started really finding the full thing and when that session ended, I said, I now can say that we are a successful agency, without a doubt. So when you ask me that question, I thought that probably my most important accomplishment is to have faith and optimism and belief in the power of people. And because that takes me to the next and the next and the next and the next. So probably to be able to enjoy life and to go through things and stand up and say, okay, keep going. I say that that’s the accomplishment because the rest you know, when an earthquake comes and your big Taj Mahal goes to hell, you know, I don’t care about those accomplishments. Probably, you know, the creation of Latino Health Access–I mean, such an amazing team–those types of accomplishments I would put in my list.
[01:23:19] Gabriel Sanders
That’s a beautiful answer. Thank you so much. And one final question. I mean, I know this is a kind of simple question, but are there people who you have looked up to before who have most influenced you? Who are they, and what was it about them that that impacted you in such a way that you followed their lead?
[01:23:49] Dr. Bracho
Well, That is an important question and also a traditional question. Even when you do Miss Universe and all of that, right? You know, I’m going to give you some of the traditional answers. I will start with the traditional answers. I think that top people in my life as role models are my parents because they were the ones that breastfed me my main values. Right? And I’d probably have to say that I have had many professors, many teachers. We exist and do things, Gabriel–how do they say in English–on the shoulders of a bunch of people?
[01:24:37] Gabriel Sanders
Yes.
[01:24:38] Dr. Bracho
So on the shoulders of my grandparents, on the shoulders of of a bunch of teachers, what I would say that from the people that are in the non-traditional answer–my teachers, my parents–there is a thinker, there is a an educator, whose name is Paulo Freire, Paulo– P-a-u-l-o–and Freire–F-r-e-i-r-e. Paulo Freire, Brazilian. He was the one that created the whole concept of critical thinking, the pedagogy of the oppressed. He was the one that said the oppressor never liberates the oppressed. It is the oppressed, that by liberating themselves, liberate the oppressor–in his book, The Pedagogy of the of the Oppressed. He also created one that is called The Pedagogy of Hope. How do you teach hope? He is the one that always said you need to in order to change things, you need to think and engage in action, and then think and engage in action. If you only think it’s just empty rhetoric, if you only act, then it’s empty pragmatism. You need to think, and act, and reflect, and take action, and then reflect and take action, and then reflect. And then it gets better. So I have read everything that he wrote. And he is so deep that when I read his books again, I think that there is something that changes the pages of those books and they become deeper and maybe, you know, my brain becomes smarter or I don’t know, or I become more familiar with the topic and understand better things. So Paulo Ferreira is one of them.
I will go into the traditional again because I do feel that our virtual support group and virtual ancestral role models includes all of those people that gave their life for us. Mandela, y Gandhi, y Luther King, y toda ese gente. They are ours. And I can think of many community workers. I will say that I have so many people that are an example for me in particular areas, like examples on how to do this. My abuela, my grandmother, used to say, you know, you would be at home just crying, and she will go and say, “Mija. Get out, get some sun. Walk. Do something. You’re going to die here crying.” And now science says, you know, that you should do this and get out and get some sun. You know, my abuela didn’t know how to read. And she would say, “Don’t eat from those cans. Those cans will give you cancer. Get some beans and rice, carajo!” So, you know, I’m a fan of the wisdom of the people of the world, just the wisdom. And I think that that wisdom has influenced me so much that I became a little bit rebellious with traditional academic wisdom. So I always make fun. I say, you know, you know how many millions they are paying to these researchers to research bendaharas that my grandma knew and she didn’t know how to write? Give me a break. So I am a fan of just popular wisdom. I think they all have influenced me.
My kids influenced me a lot. My son, my two kids, they are deep thinkers… I think that you are a generation that is also influencing us for the good.
[01:28:58] Gabriel Sanders
I appreciate that. I hope we are. And I hope we do a good job of living up to the standards that are set by people like you, who have obviously transformed this world to be a better place. And I hope we can continue that–your legacy.
[01:29:15] Dr. Bracho
You are. You are continuing, so stop talking like that. You don’t hope anything. You are doing.