Vaccinating with a language barrier: Nearly 400 immunized at daylong clinic for Latinos in La Salle

Esmeralda Cruz fretted a bit.

More than 400 people had signed up for COVID-19 shots, which meant long lines, and the initial forecast called for rain. With this event, there was a possibility of no-shows.

Cruz need not have worried about the Tuesday vaccination clinic. Spanish-speaking residents stood patiently in a line that stretched around the 900 block of Second Street in La Salle.

One of those who showed was the Rev. Fabian Alberto Cabarcas Rua; and seeing a priest get his shot spurred a few hesitant folks to get theirs, too.

By the time they locked the doors at La Salle’s Flamingo Banquet Center, 396 people had received the first of two Moderna shots (shot no. 2 will be administered May 6) and Cruz limped home exhausted but exhilarated.

“I was beat. My feet were killing me,” Cruz said. “But it was a good sensation.”

This was no one-woman show. Cruz had phoned the Diocese of Peoria’s Hispanic Ministry and asked about putting on a vaccine clinic in La Salle, home to many Mexican immigrants with little English. The Diocese provided funding and put her in touch with regulatory agencies that had to OK the event before any sleeves could be rolled up.

Prism Health Lab provided a medical team and the Moderna vaccines. The Immigrant Migrant Council helped organize the event and line up providers. Two local businesses chipped in — Nina’s Market in La Salle paid for the hall rental, Jalapeno’s in Peru brought in food — and Spanish-speaking nurses readily agreed to work free.

The catering hall was orderly but also bustling, and that pleased Rosa Romero, director of the diocesan Hispanic Ministry.

Romero said she was grateful Cruz called her because Hispanics are a tough group to immunize. Spanish speakers often hail from Mexico and might have only tenuous standing with immigration, making them averse to signing up for public services.

“Some of the Hispanics are afraid to go to institutions and hospitals and show their IDs,” Romero said. “This creates for them a safe environment for them to get vaccinated and be able to protect their families, their kids and their co-workers.”

Even after reporting to the Flamingo, some of local residents still had doubts. Several questioned whether the vaccine was safe and morally acceptable and, here, Fr. Fabian was able to soothe some rattled nerves. The U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops approved COVID-19 vaccines — albeit while placing Moderna and Pfizer ahead of other shots — but his mere presence quelled many doubts.

“One of the things that they saw,” Fr. Fabian said, “is that we as priests are human and that we also need the vaccine.”

And had anybody thought to ask whether the novel coronavirus is plaguing his home country, the answer was an emphatic “yes.”

“The COVID-19 in Colombia is high and it is getting out of control,” said Fr. Fabian, a recent arrival assisting the La Salle Catholic Parishes through mid-summer. “My home country is trying to control it but they are having a hard time because they need vaccines and the help of the people to control this virus.”

Fr. Fabian said he had no arm pain to speak of and, to Cruz’s great relief, no one vaccinated required emergency medical attention. An ambulance was parked outside as a precaution, but the only side-effects reported were arm soreness and mild fatigue.

Speaking of fatigue, Cruz said she yearns for a day off after assembling the most complex event in her long career as a Hispanic advocate.

“Somebody asked me if I’d do it again. I said, ‘Ask me after we have the second-shot clinic and I’ll think about it.’ ”