KPBS Midday Edition

Port Of Entry Podcast: How One Border Family Is Using Their COVID-19 Tragedy To Reach Others

By Kinsee Morlan / Podcast Producer & Project Coordinator

Published April 14, 2021 at 5:40 AM PDT

This story was published more than 3 years ago.

Santiago, Juan Jose and Monica Covarrubias are pictured in this undated photo collage.

Our local Latinx community has been hit hard by the pandemic; disproportionately hard. In today’s special episode, we share one border family’s battle with COVID-19. They explain how they’re using their story to help other Mexican-American families like theirs. It's a story about trust, and how living at the border can mean living in a place where trust sometimes requires translation.

The local Latinx community has been hit hard by the pandemic.

For the Covarrubiases, a family centered in Chula Vista and Tijuana, the trouble started in November, right as COVID-19 cases were beginning to skyrocket on both sides of the border.

Ultimately, the family lost three members to the virus.

Become a KPBS sponsor

“One tragedy is enough,” said Jose Covarrubias. “We’ve been hit so many times at once, we haven't recovered.”

In a new episode of “Port of Entry,” a podcast from KPBS and PRX, the Covarrubiases share their family’s battle with COVID-19 in hopes that their story might help other families like theirs rebuild trust in their families AND in the public health system that’s trying to reach them.

“Because you got to have something out of this tragedy, right?” Jose Covarrubias says. “And I think it's just the platform to be able to share our story and let people like us who have families like us know that this is a real serious thing and it's out there…. We have to get the truth out there instead of letting our people — our community, our Raza — suffer and not get the right information. That’s been our platform more than anything else.”

Port of Entry