What were Maria’s needs as a Mexican immigrant with limited English literacy?

Question

Carla Hudson, a Black social worker with the Women’s Resource Center (WRC), had worked with Maria Velasquez, a Mexican immigrant and mother of two children, for several years as she struggled to escape a violent home situation. Maria was Carla’s first Spanish-speaking client. Maria’s spoken English was easily understandable, but she could not read or write English well. As Carla assisted Maria in acquiring mainstream services, including Head Start, TANF, Food Stamps, and WIC, she noticed barriers to services that she began to suspect were related to discrimination against Spanish-speaking clients. When two White Head Start caseworkers refused to help Maria attain educational support that she needed in order to gain English literacy, Carla faced the challenge of addressing discrimination issues in another agency and perhaps throughout the service delivery system in Jasper, Alabama.

Answer 1

Because Maria lived most of her childhood in a Mexican immigrant community in Virginia, she did not have to acquire the same level of English literacy as she might have had to do if she had lived outside a Mexican community. Functional literacy is important to one’s sense of well-being and competence. Maria’s lack of functional literacy put her at risk of misunderstanding instructions in the service delivery and educational systems in Jasper, Alabama. It also kept her from adequately handling basic financial matters, such as understanding whether Head Start may have paid her rent and utilities. Following their marriage, Rodney prevented Maria from gaining English language skills. Because of Rodney’s controlling and abusive behavior, Maria may have been more isolated from other Mexican immigrants in Jasper, even though the population of Mexicans was increasing.
Historically, Mexican immigrants have experienced oppression and exploitation as they settled in the United States. Prejudice and discrimination are very real experiences for immigrants such as Maria. Social workers need to develop a large knowledge base concerning Latino groups in order to be culturally competent. Workers need to monitor themselves continuously in terms of their values, attitudes, and practice with each Latino client or family.