S1: Welcome in San Diego. I'm Andrew Bowen , filling in for Jade Hindman. On today's show , we close out our series marking Hispanic Heritage Month , chatting with a local nonprofit leader working to support children battling life threatening illnesses. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. As Hispanic Heritage Month comes to a close , we're continuing to sit down with trailblazers who are leading important work and giving back to the community. Elsa morales Roth is the executive director at the Emilio Natas Foundation , which helps children battling cancer and their families with access to treatment. Elsa joins me now to talk about the work she leads and her own journey into advocacy. Well , welcome to midday , Elsa.
S2: Thank you for having me. Very happy to have you here.
S1: So let's start talking to me about who Emilio Nahas was , the namesake for this foundation and how his legacy lives on through this work.
S2: So about 25 years ago , Emilio Norris was diagnosed with leukemia. And right before he turned three. And I'm Frenchy , right before he turned six , he passed away. He was a very aggressive type of leukemia. And while his parents returned , Diane were going through this grieving process , they did realize that one of the biggest barriers for children to have access to health care , to just basic chemotherapy was transportation. So Richard and Diane wanted to honor their son and founded the Emilio Norris Foundation. So you would see Richard and Diane driving their minivan and taking families from home to the hospital and back in a very safe way. 23 years later , here we are providing several services.
S1: So you mentioned transportation. What are the other barriers and challenges that families face when trying to access medical care.
S2: Just even having access to insurance , right. A lot of the community members in throughout the nation don't know how to navigate the public health care system. They lack access or the understanding on how to apply for it or if they're even eligible. So part of what we do is we have a family resource center inside of Radius Children's Hospital in Children's Hospital Orange County , and we sit down with families and ask , how can we help ? Do you need time to go through your Social Security benefits to understand how you can apply for Medi-Cal or Medicaid for your child to have access to chemotherapy ? And we do this in a very comprehensive way. It's meeting them where they are. Sometimes we support a lot of asylum seekers , immigrants. So English is not their first language. And imagine having to fill out a 40 page application to have access to health care while your child was just diagnosed with a life threatening disease. It's complex. There's a lot of emotion there. So what we do is sit down with and ask , how can we help ? And beyond that , the application is also helping them access shelter , food , legal aid , education. A lot of families lose their jobs because one of the parents , if there is a two parent household , one of them has to stay home and take the child to chemotherapy. Sometimes they lose their jobs and , you know , unemployment.
S1: Yeah , well , the Covid 19 pandemic really illuminated a lot of disparities in health care and access to health care , particularly for communities of color.
S2: We have families in rural communities , or for example , San Ysidro , Fallbrook East County. And unfortunately , our public transportation is not the best. It takes you 2 to 3 hours to get anywhere. So what Covid taught us is when your child is immunocompromised , you cannot take public transportation. You can be susceptible to viruses , disease. So you have to find a way to get to the hospital in a safe and sanitized way. So one of them is transportation , but also , again , navigating the system. When you get a complex diagnosis and you're trying to understand what al is , or a leukemia right , at lymphoblastic leukemia in your own language , and what does that mean culturally for you to be able to get access to certain treatments ? Right ? A lot of the things that we've seen is specifically in regards to clinical trials. A lot of people of color don't know or don't have access to them because unfortunately , they're not informed of that. They don't know what questions to ask. So one of the barriers is the the education component. And also that , you know , hospitals are overwhelmed. So they don't have the time to sit down with the family and ask , this is what this diagnosis means , and this is how the treatment that you can provide.
S1: And I think the current political moment has also made it difficult for some children to get the care that they need. Earlier this year , there was a case of Ice sending three children who were U.S. citizens to Honduras , where their mothers had recently been deported , and one of those children was suffering from a rare form of kidney cancer and was getting treatment in the United States.
S2: My mom was from Honduras , and just thinking about a mother , you know , not being able to provide that access , basic access to health care , make sure that their child lives and survives. It's it's complex. Right now we have several families that we serve that unfortunately do not want to go out from their home Because they know that Ice is outside the hospitals , which is I cannot even believe that that that should be a safe space , just having access to health care. So what happens is families stop going to treatment. So that's when we come in and we provide that transportation. But not only that , the guidance to know like no , you you are still eligible for Medicaid or Medi-Cal. Let's make sure that your child is able to get the treatment that they need to. So again , they can survive. So right now with I's , there's a huge , huge fear in the community. And if before we had this disparity of not having access to health care , this is increasing in a really , really big way , unfortunately.
S1: You've been the executive director at the Emilio Nars Foundation for a couple of years now. I understand you have a personal experience with being a caregiver in your own family. Can you tell us about that ? Yes.
S2: So I think unfortunately , we all have been , you know , impacted directly with somebody in her family or loved ones that has gone through cancer treatment or life threatening disease. I care for my mother. Um , well , she doesn't have cancer. She has several debilitating diseases. I need to translate. You know , she only speaks Spanish. She understands where you will English. But when a medical diagnosis is given to you , you don't know what questions to ask. And more so , culturally and at least in our Latino culture. Doctors are seen almost as God , right ? You ? Whatever they say goes you do not question anything that they give you. So if , for example , there's a lot of situations where surgery was was the only option that was given to my mother , and when I was privileged enough to look at researching her illness , I found that there was 5 or 6 different treatments that would be less invasive , but being able to again , me being privileged to be able to do that research and go back and ask and advocate on behalf of my mother , that's because , again , of my own privilege.
S1: I'm curious how your upbringing there launched you into this career of community service.
S2: It's been very interesting. So I was born in a Mexican Honduran household , my mom Honduran , dad Mexican. And it was interesting because I would see my mom , um , you know , taking care of me being , uh , being a stay at home mom , but being very passionate about being a pole volunteer pole worker and the elections , making sure that the process was transparent and everybody had access to voting , but also that there was no fraud in Mexico , even though she was from Honduras. She felt this huge need of making sure that everything in regards to election was was transparent. Then on my dad's side , he was actually in media and unfortunately he would speak against the reigning party that was there for 70 years , right. And it was very corrupt. So my dad would speak out on that. And unfortunately , you know , freedom of speech back then in the 80s was not a thing. You would either get paid to talk and you know positively about the government or you be completely shut off , shut away from from radio. So he lost his job several times speaking against corruption. So I think part of that my upbringing , which I didn't know until a couple of years ago , was what really moulded me , motivated me to be involved in social justice inequity , making sure that access to healthcare , education , um , you know , housing , those are the basic needs that we need as human beings to thrive. Economic mobility is so key for us to be able to grow together. I always tell our even our founders at a millionaires foundation , those high income earners. If a child is not able to access health care , that actually impacts you because that's the future. Not only the workforce , but those are the future leaders. So you want to make sure that you're together as community. We come together and support each other because that's going to elevate all of us.
S1: You're active in a lot of groups and organizations in a variety of issues like border health , and you make it a point to serve in places where there aren't many Latinas represented.
S2: A lot of people say it's 15 , 20 minutes away. How , how ? How is it really that different ? It is. My first year here in San Diego was the toughest year ever. Um , I suffer from depression because I didn't know anyone here. I knew everybody in Tijuana. I had a life down there. Right. And a great job. But here was starting from zero. So understanding how a W-2 W-4 works , right ? How do you do your taxes ? My first car , um , I paid 25% interest rate because I didn't have credit. So that put me a little bit behind in regards to economic and economic mobility. So going through that , through those experiences , it really ignites my passion for making sure that nobody feels alone and that nobody feels that they don't have anyone to rely on or that they cannot ask any questions.
S1: What are some of the cultural or structural Barriers that Latinas continue to face today.
S2: There's there's the disparity is is incredible. Actually October 8th was Latina equity payday. And we still make 50 probably cents to a dollar compared to our colleagues. We have to fight twice as hard to get a , you know , a salary increase or get a comparable salary with our counterparts. So equity in regards and sometimes we work twice as hard because we have to prove ourselves a little bit more. Right. And then the other piece I think is right now , we were well before we were taught not to speak up. There was this phrase in Spanish called that says mas bonita. So if you're a little bit quieter , you look cuter and you look nicer. I was taught that that I should stay quiet and not say anything and just be grateful , which I am. But that doesn't mean that I shouldn't speak up and say , hey , there's a disparity here. Hey , we should be more inclusive in this space. I haven't heard from the person in the back. Let's bring them in into the conversation. So I think that's what , um , what drives me and specifically the challenge as Latinos , we have to have a unified voice. That's one. But then also stand up and raise our voices.
S1: Talk to me about mentorship.
S2: We were talking about personal branding and coming in with authentic leadership. And I mentioned , look , I'm Latina. I move my hands a lot. I'm very passionate. I'm very clear on what we should be headed towards as an organization and as myself. And a lot of Latina students came up to me and said , yes , everybody has told me to stay quiet , to just be grateful to to just just be quiet , basically. Right. And just hold your head down. So being able to talk to them and just be very honest about that and the social pressures that we have as Latinas to make sure that we honor our ancestors , our parents , because they had a tough journey. So some of them , some of us that now are here in the United States and May made this our home , have that pressure almost that atlas Atlus complex of trying to carry our family's legacy. So for me , it's very important to talk to them and say , I've gone through that. I felt that let's work together to make sure that you take care of yourself too.
S1: Well , in the past , in the last minute or so we have left.
S2: It's we're showing up in more spaces. This is why I'm very intentional of being spaces , too , because what I want to do is uplift others. It shouldn't be a couple of us up here. It should be all of us here. And hopefully we can get together and advocate on our behalf of the committee.
S1: I've been speaking with Elsa morales Roth. She's the executive director of the Emilio Norris Foundation. Elsa , thank you so much for joining us today.
S2: Thank you so much. Have a great day.
As Hispanic Heritage Month comes to a close, we are sit with Latinx leaders who are giving back to the community.
Tuesday on Midday Edition, we sit down with the executive director of the Emilio Nares Foundation to talk about health care access for underserved communities, and how her family's history of advocacy launched her into a life of community service.
Guest:
Elsa Morales-Roth, executive director, Emilio Nares Foundation
