Elyse Cinquino

My interviewee is a employee at Puentes de Salud as well as a community member, originally born in Mexico and moved to Michigan at nineteen years old for college, she now calls Philadelphia and specifically the South Philly area her home. 

Originally when coming to America she thought she would only be in the United States for school and would move back home after finishing her Masters of Social Work. However after watching a documentary on HBO Max about Puentes, she found herself becoming attracted to Puentes as an organization while missing her culture and background in graduate school. Watching the Puentes documentary, she fell in love with the organization and what it did. After her husband matched for his residency program in Philly, it seemed like a perfect lineup of events for her to move. After living in Philly for a couple of years, the interviewee had a part time role at Puentes and eventually her current full time position at Puentes. Now the interviewee feels rooted in south philly within the Latinx community and her role at Puentes combines all that she’s ever wanted to do professionally.

When discussing her community and what she wished others knew about it, the interviewee said people don't always understand the immigrant experience and why people make the decision to leave their country. In addition, what it means for someone who doesn't have their documentation and the myths about undocumented immigrants. She further stated that people make decisions and form opinions without knowing what experiences of the latinx community and undocumented community are. 

In regards to the events of the past 3 years and how it has affected her community, the interviewee first spoke of the more broad structural changes and how funding for nonprofit changed a lot over pandemic. Within the funding landscape for nonprofits, Puentes depends on grants and during covid there were emergency responses but now that has shifted. In addition COVID-19 created new challenges and further exacerbated issues that already existed within the community. For example food insecurity was very severe during the pandemic and this is how the Food Program at Puentes was born. Previously in 2021 it was more of an emergency response but now has shifted to less reactionary and more intentional. 

The interviewee shared her appreciation of the wealth of knowledge and wisdom in the Latinx community. There is much expertise that often is not recognized as knowledge. She spoke of how Puentes tries to use this knowledge to their advantage and shine light on things that normally aren't recognized. For example, someone who speaks an indigenous language has a very unique skill which could be transferred into a role as an interpreter. What some may see as barriers, Puentes sees as skills and opportunities.