Latina-owned co-ops help with language translation, maternal health

EDGEWATER, Colo. — Two Latina-led workers cooperatives are helping provide critical services to the Jefferson County community and surrounding areas.

Cuenta Conmigo Co-op provides maternal health care services to new moms and the Rocky Mountain Language Cooperative provides translation services to Spanish-speakers. Both are a part of the Edgewater Collective , a nonprofit that helps support Latino-owned businesses.

“Cuenta Conmigo is a community group that emerged from this deep interest in supporting each other during the times of raising our little ones. So it's focused on maternal and child health," said Cuenta Conmigo Co-Director Paulina Erices.

Through a cultural lens, the co-op provides lactation, nutrition, and mental health services to parents while also providing them with community and cultural connections, Erices said.

Cuenta Conmigo is helping new mothers at the Edgewater's Collective

“We do home visits, phone visits, calls to families who are raising a little one… We do classes for child care providers, for community leaders, sometimes a counselor,” Erices said. “We have done studies on the impact on mental health based on the practices of hospitals or even community. We want to know how people are feeling, what they want, what they need.”

Erices said Cuenta Conmigo’s research has revealed a disconnect between Latina mothers and healthcare providers.

“There are some hospitals that are sending us referrals, and we know they are making beautiful efforts to try to connect with moms and families. But unfortunately, it doesn't happen everywhere that way. And many moms are telling us, for example, that they didn't have someone who spoke Spanish, for example, to help them, and it's so very hard to work with an interpreter that's using an iPad that's... even a male. And here we are talking about nursing this baby, welcoming a new baby, sharing more intimate things… So the language barriers really make a difference,” Erices said.

The Rocky Mountain Language Cooperative is also helping Latino families overcome language barriers.

“We are a community-based cooperative formed by three women of color, and we provide language services,” Marcela Gaete, Rocky Mountain Language Cooperative said. “It’s very gratifying, especially because I feel like I'm a bridge, and with that concept of being a bridge, I'm helping that person understand what's happening and giving them a tool so they can also be heard. “

Gaete said the co-op provides services to local organizations.

“Normally, community organizations, nonprofit organizations, are the ones that need our services to provide information to the community. We show up about 15 to 10 minutes earlier for their meetings. We provide the equipment for the people that need it that are not bilingual, and then we start,” Gaete said.

But Gaete said language is not monolithic.

“Everybody speaks different Spanish. So we have to learn their lingo too, in order for us to provide a good service for those communities. Mexicans speak one way. Chileans speak a different way. Venezuelans speak a different way. And sometimes you have to try to adapt. And that's the beauty of our co-op, that we have that flexibility to adapt,” Gaete said.

Gaeta and Erices both said launching their businesses has been a dream come true.

“So we're very, very deeply grateful for Edgewater Collective and the whole community for supporting us, for validating us,” Erices said.

Erices said that support and validation gives them the ability to further support and validate their community.

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