Un nuevo comienzo para Lusmila | A New Beginning for Lusmila
By Violeta Rodriguez • Read in English
Un nuevo comienzo para Lusmila
Proveniente de Ecuador, prepara guisados con sopa y arroz y comida típica de su país para distintos clientes.
Originaria de Santa Isabel Cantón, un pequeño poblado en Ecuador, Lusmila llegó a Estados Unidos en 2011. Tenía 31 años de edad y el plan de encontrar trabajo.
“Pero sentía mucho miedo”, recuerda hoy a los 41 años. Me habla por Zoom desde el barrio del Bronx, en la ciudad de Nueva York, al recordar esos tiempos. A pesar de que no nos pudimos saludar con un abrazo, nuestra conversación por la pantalla es tan cálida como antes de la pandemia, cuando podíamos vernos en persona.
Durante los tres primeros meses que estuvo en el país, Lusmila no tuvo ninguna fuente de ingreso. Además estaba apenada. Había dejado atrás a Julio, su hijo de entonces 17 años.
Una década más tarde, las cosas han cambiado para ella. Tiene un trabajo, un esposo y un hijo llamado Arcy, de 3 años. Dedica gran tiempo a su familia. Quiere asegurarse de que en su casa todo esté bien ordenado y nunca le falte nada a Arcy. Pero no todo es tan fácil. Hoy Julio tiene 26. “Y ha pasado una década desde la última vez que pude abrazarlo”, agrega con tristeza.
Lusmila se hizo miembra de Grameen America hace 6 años. Una conocida le comentó sobre los préstamos que una organización otorgaba a mujeres interesadas en emprender, que no sabían inglés y con un trabajo que no le garantizaba demasiados recursos.
Asistió a la primera reunión para saber más.
Al pasar las semanas, Lusmila recibió un préstamo de $1,200. Ella invirtió este monto en los ingredientes para cocinar almuerzos, comprar aguas y sodas que empezó a vender en el Morrison Park, en el Bronx, los fines de semana. Desde entonces Lusmila renueva su préstamo cada seis meses. Hoy invierte en los productos necesarios para preparar guisados con sopa y arroz que luego vende. También prepara pedidos especiales de comida típica de Ecuador para distintos clientes. Por estas semanas cocina a un grupo de maestros de la construcción que mantiene su faena en su mismo vecindario.
AYUDA PARA TODA LA VIDA
Lusmila reconoce que sus dudas respecto al programa “Promotoras Grameen” duraron un tiempo. ¿Cómo explicar que este grupo solo tuviera buenas intenciones con ella? ¿que quisiera enseñarle a cuidar de sí misma?
“Nunca antes nadie me había explicado algo de salud”, dice. Siendo alguien que no confía rápido en las personas, al pasar de las semanas sintió que las promotoras la ayudarían. Por ejemplo, ofreciéndole talleres de salud y bienestar. Después de acudir a un taller sobre alimentación saludable supo cuánto azúcar contenía la soda y optó por eliminarla de la despensa familiar. Hasta ese entonces en su casa no podía faltar la soda tradicional de dos litros.
Tras acudir a una de las sesiones de un taller acerca de prevención de cáncer de seno escuchó por primera vez la palabra mamografía. Con la voz entrecortada confiesa: “Yo nunca había escuchado que teníamos que hacernos ese examen”. Hacía un tiempo Lusmila se había palpado una bolita en el seno pero le daba vergüenza preguntar. Un día decidió contarle a su promotora, Anel Martínez. Ella le agendó hora para una mamografía. Pero Lusmila no acudió a la primera cita.
“Me daba pena y miedo que alguien me tocara o me viera y decidí mejor olvidarlo”, dice.
Al pasar de las semanas, su promotora le ofreció nuevamente la cita y Lusmila asistió. La doctora vio algo en su seno izquierdo y decidió repetir su primer examen. Lusmila recuerda haber llamado a su promotora llorando. Cuando le habían dicho que pasaría por un procedimiento llamado “biopsia” había imaginado lo peor. La promotora la calmó y le explicó que era una acción de rigor para despejar dudas. Para entonces era 2020 y empezábamos a entrar en la pandemia. El caos reinante en los hospitales provocó un atraso en el plan. “Estaba ansiosa de que esto pasara rápido. Tenía miedo de que fuera algo maligno”, dice Lusmila.
Aunque tardaron unos días, los resultados lo descartaron. Lo suyo era solo una acumulación de masa. No había de qué preocuparse.
“A mi promotora siempre le voy a agradecer”, agrega Lusmila, “pues se preocupó por mi salud y ha estado ahí escuchándome”.
Lusmila luego cuenta que aún conserva en un cajón de su cocina una cuchara de madera que el programa le ofreció a todas las miembras para celebrar el término de uno de los talleres de autocuidado. En casa todos tienen prohibido usarla. La quiere conservar como símbolo de lo que un día llegó a su vida: “la promotora”.
Con la mano derecha sobre su pecho, dice emocionada: “(Esta ayuda) me la llevo para toda mi vida”.
A New Beginning for Lusmila
Comes from Ecuador, prepares stews with soup and rice and other typical homemade food from her country to diverse customers.
Native from Santa Isabel Cantón, a small town in Ecuador, Lusmila arrived in the United States in 2011. She was 31 years old and had a plan to find a job.
“But I was very afraid,” she remembers today at 41 years old. She speaks to me via Zoom from her neighborhood in the Bronx, in the city of New York, when she remembers those times. Even though we could not greet each other with a hug, our conversation through the screen is just as valuable as before the pandemic, when we were able to see each other in person.
Lusmila later told me that during the first three months that she was in the country, she had no source of income. She also felt sorrowful. She had left her son Julio behind, who was 17 years old at the time.
A decade later, things have changed for her. She now has a job, a husband, and a son named Arcy who is three years old. She dedicates a lot of time to her family. She wants to make sure that everything in her house is organized and that Arcy never lacks anything. However, not everything is easy. Today Julio is 26 years old, “… and a decade has passed since the last time I was able to hug him,” she adds on with sadness.
Lusmila became a member of Grameen America six years ago. An acquaintance of hers commented about the loans that an organization granted to women who were interested in business, who did not speak English, and who had a job that did not give them enough resources.
She attended the first meeting to gain more knowledge.
As the weeks passed by, Lusmila received a loan of $1,200. She invested that money in ingredients to cook lunches and to purchase water and sodas that she began to sell on the weekends in the Bronx at Morrison Park. Ever since, Lusmila renews her loan every six months. Today she invests in the necessary products to prepare stews with soup and rice, which she later sells. She also prepares special orders of typical Ecuadorian dishes for specific clients. During the weeks, she cooks for a group of construction workers who are currently working in her same neighborhood.
HELP FOR LIFE
Lusmila recognizes that her doubts towards the Grameen Promotoras program lasted for some time: “How to explain that this group only had good intentions towards her? That they would like to teach her to take care of herself?”
“Never before had anyone explained to me anything about health,” she says. As someone who does not trust people easily, as the weeks went by she began to feel that the promotoras would help her. For example, by offering health and wellness workshops. After attending a workshop on healthy eating, she learned how much sugar was in soda and decided to eliminate it from the family pantry. Before then, the traditional two-liter soda was always kept in her house.
After attending one of the sessions on a workshop on breast cancer prevention, she heard the word mammography for the first time. With a broken voice, she confesses: «I had never heard that we had to take that test.» Some time ago Lusmila had felt a small ball in her breast, but she was ashamed to ask about it. One day she decided to tell her promotora, Anel Martínez. She made an appointment for a mammogram, but Lusmila did not show up on the first date.
«I was ashamed and afraid that someone would touch me or see me and I decided to forget it,» she says.
As the weeks passed, her promotora offered her the appointment again and Lusmila attended. The doctor saw something in her left breast and decided to repeat the first exam. Lusmila remembers calling her promotora crying. When she had been told that she would undergo a procedure called a «biopsy,» she had imagined the worst. The promotora calmed her down and explained that it was a necessary procedure to clear up doubts. By then it was 2020 and we were beginning to enter the pandemic, so the chaos in the hospitals caused a delay in the plan. “I was looking forward to this happening quickly. I was afraid it was something malignant,” Lusmila says.
Although it took a few days, the results ruled out malignancy. Her lump was just a benign mass. There was nothing to worry about.
«I will always thank my promotora,» adds Lusmila, «because she worried about my health and has been there listening to me.»
Lusmila later states that she still has a wooden spoon in a drawer in her kitchen that the program offered to all the members to celebrate the end of one of the self-care workshops. Everyone is forbidden to use it at home, as she wants to keep it as a symbol of what one day came into her life: «the promotora.»
With her right hand on her chest, she says excitedly: «(This help) I will take it with me for my whole life.”
Written by Violeta Rodriguez, Promotoras Program Site Manager - Bronx
Violeta Rodriguez es mexicana y madre de dos hijos. Desde muy joven supo que trabajar para la comunidad era su vocación. Lleva siete años colaborando con Grameen America y hace un año trabaja para Grameen Primacare como coordinadora de promotoras en el Bronx.
Violeta Rodriguez is Mexican and the mother of two children. From a very young age, she knew that working for the community was her vocation. She has been collaborating with Grameen America for seven years and for one year she has been working for Grameen PrimaCare. She is the site manager of a group of promotoras from the Bronx.
Grameen PrimaCare provides underserved women from low-income immigrant communities with a health promotion and empowerment program utilizing a promotora model to create healthier lives.