angelina and carmen

Angelina, or in her native Q'anjob'al language, Axul on June 6, 2007.

She's 26 and only speaks Q'anjob'al. no Spanish. She lived in the same village in the Guatemalan highlands her entire life until the father of her four kids was killed in an accident. Carmen speaks Q'anjob'al fluently, so as a result Angelina really trusts her.

She migrated to Alabama to get work to send money back home. She worked the harvests for a few weeks before she met a Guatemalan man who worked with her and romanced her. He got her pregnant and convinced her to move to Lake Worth. It's been three months since she's heard from him.

I spent my last few days at the paper working on this. Between travel time and deadlines, we did not have a lot of time. What could, and maybe should, have been a long-term project, had to be done in two days. She was two weeks from delivery at this point. There was a huge language barrier and I've always been rusty on the non-verbal communication, but Carmen was patient and helped me a lot. In accordance with the newspaper's policies, I did my best to shield Angelina's identity.

It wasn't easy. But as hard as it was for me trying to make usable images while being limited by company policy, I can't imagine what it's like to be in Angelina's shoes. Q'anjob'al is not a written language so even when Carmen explains to her every detail on the paper, it costs Angelina a great deal to sign where she's indicated because she doesn't know how to write. I asked her at least three or four times while I was with her about how she felt about this whole thing -- being alone, not understanding what people are saying around her, all this paperwork, moving from a village to the US -- because wherever we went she was totally calm. Never furrowing her brow or projecting an ounce of anxiety. Every time I asked she reassured me with a smile/nod combo, that she was, you know, okay.

Angelina's story was an example for a story on the challenges in pre-natal care Hispanic women in West Palm Beach are facing. The county, especially is the Lake Worth area, is full of migrant workers and immigrants predominantly from Central America. Carmen works with Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies and does tons of outreach work to the community. Hardcore door-to-door-ing in three different languages. She's kinda my hero.