Promotoras work alongside volunteer community members to organize grocery boxes to deliver to families. 

Promotoras and community health workers (CHWs) have been addressing the myriad of health disparities that have resulted from long-overdue improvements in our health and social systems for many years. They were on the ground working with marginalized communities long before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. And now, as recent immigration enforcement actions and violations of human rights in our community have left families living with extreme uncertainty and fear, the work of promotoras continues to be vital. The mere presence of armed, masked agents in our streets is permeating a fear that keeps families from leaving their homes to buy groceries, go to doctor appointments, or see their friends. People are losing their jobs or opportunities to find work, and many are struggling to pay for food, rent, and other basic needs. Safety net programs are being defunded and dismantled. And yet, promotoras are present, finding creative, safe ways to outreach to families, offer services, and elevate hope. 

The significance and role of this workforce is perhaps best described by a promotora herself: “And yet, we come in. We come in from a place of dignity, from sharing, from love. But never from a place of rescue, because that would be contradictory: we are part of the very communities with which we collaborate.

Thanks to the lasting, long-term relationships we have built, we can create brave spaces: spaces where our humanity is welcomed, where vulnerability is not hidden. We talk about fear, worry, anger, despair, helplessness, rage, pain… In times of so many threats, these spaces are a necessary parachute.

Community members learn about their 4th Amendment rights during a Human Rights Ambassador training led by Human Rights promotoras.

And although all of this might not seem to be in the “official description” of our work within the system, as promotoras, we do it. Because our commitment goes beyond the institutional: it is born from the community, strengthened by collective resistance, and sustained with dignity and the constant desire to see others better, and we cannot be indifferent in the face of so much injustice.

Rosalia, Promotora Coordinator of Corazones Verdes Park, poses in front of a butterfly made by a community volunteer during a family event.

We, promotoras, stand and will continue to stand in solidarity beyond a title or a check because this is more than working for the community. We have a stance for human dignity.”

by Hilda Ortiz, Latino Health Access