The number of Coronavirus cases in Rio Arriba County jumped again today, with six new reports. [1] The daily number had dropped to one, and the 14 day total was dropping. Now it’s back to 14 active cases in the past two weeks.
Six isn’t much when reads about the increases elsewhere. Tuesday three states recorded new highs: Florida had 2,783 new cases, Texas had 2,622, and Arizona had 2,392. [2] Two of those border New Mexico.
To get some perspective on those numbers, the total number of cases reported so far in McKinley County is 2,987. In San Juan County, it’s 2,148. That’s the total since the first case was reported, not the number for a single day.
Those are states with large numbers of Spanish-speaking residents. Politico reported today that many of the new cases are Latinos of working age. Laura Barrón-López was writing about states like Maryland and North Carolina, where people who speak Spanish often are recent migrants. [3]
These are people who work in meat processing plants, hospitality, and construction. The immigrant men I met in Santa Fé were skilled tradesmen, and their wives often worked as maids.
As anyone knows who has spent any time in the valley, it is a journalistic convenience to assume everyone who speaks Spanish has the same cultural and historic background. Recent migrants to North Carolina are different from those in Florida, and both differ from Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.
As one example of the easy generalization, Barrón-López mentioned the greater presence of underlying health problems among "Latinos," without being specific. The assumption with African-Americans is that poor health is related to economics and diet.
We know in the valley that the centuries of intermarrying in isolated communities before 1848 created special genetic problems, of which diabetes is one of the most serious results. Superficially, we sound like the national sample, but in fact our medical profile is unique.
One thing she mentioned that is common here is the hesitancy to seek medical help, either from lack of insurance or distrust. The patients in North Carolina were very ill when they finally came to an emergency room.
The positive side, and one that contradicts the assumptions about poor health and diet, is that the death rate among Spanish-speaking patients is lower than the national average. That was attributed to the fact they were younger, and thus able to fight off the disease.
These generalizations reinforced my view of the situation here in Rio Arriba County, where I’ve wondered if the number of cases was misleading. If people who become ill don’t get tested, and recover, they don’t become statistics.
One thing I’ve noticed in my recent trips into town is that different people are working at counters. I’m sure this is partly because individuals don’t make careers of running cash registers.
I stopped at one of the hardware stores to buy six cinder blocks. It was the third day for the yard man. This is not an easy job. Cinder blocks weigh between 30 and 35 pounds. Six isn’t a lot, but people usually buy more. Lifting heavy objects, and he said some of 16' lengths of lumber are heavier than the blocks, is grueling.
I hope the new faces don’t mean some of the people I saw in the early weeks of the contagion got sick. One rarely knows their names, but I recognize their faces because they do their jobs better than most. They may not be friends, but they no longer are strangers.
Sources:
1. Wikipedia. "2020 Coronavirus Pandemic in New Mexico." Updated 18 June 2020.
2. Nick Visser. "3 States See Record High In Daily Coronavirus Infections After Reopening." Huffington Post website. 17 June 2020.
3. Laura Barrón-López. "Rising Coronavirus Cases among Latinos Alarm Public Health Experts." Politico website. 18 June 2020.
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