Building Interpretation Capacity - Mayan Languages

Immigrant and Refugee Support

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative

MCHA has worked with immigrants since our founding in 1996. Immigrants have attended our weekly classes and other events, and are assisted with housing, health and food issues. Most of our staff is bilingual in Spanish and our outreach staff speak Mayan languages, the languages of Guatemala, and know their communities. LA County is home to one of the largest concentrations of non-English, non-Spanish speaking Central American immigrants in the country, but the US Census does not track them. Experts say that estimating population numbers is difficult because immigrants may be reluctant to reveal they speak an Indigenous language - fearing discrimination - or may not think it relevant. The burden ends up on children to interpret for their parents, or nonprofits provide interpreter services during medical and other emergencies. A local nonprofit, CIELO, with UCLA have count various language populations, but have not utilized the data, to our knowledge, to require interpreters.

Through this project, which is a pilot/new program but also involves some research, MCHA will accomplish three things: Train groups of interpreters for at least three languages not readily available in commercial and even nonprofit companies that provide interpretation. MCHA will utilize existing interpretation training programs and pay for as many community members as possible to be trained, many of whom do this work informally or out of necessity for a friend or family member Create a small interpretation company for health care facilities, social service agencies and government agencies to use for at least the three languages, Akateko. K'iche and Q?anjob?al (also Kanjobal). Find placements, develop rates, explore and develop certifications, competencies and quality control, and create systems for assignments, hours worked, etc. Explore with CIELO and UCLA the use of their data enumerating how many speak various languages in what zip codes and whether their work from 2020-21 needs to be updated or expanded. At certain thresholds, the state is required to provide interpreters for health care. It's probable that some languages have met those levels. Use stories of poor interpretation and mishaps from the interpretation group to emphasize the need for this service.

If successful, at least 10-12 Indigenous language-speakers will be trained and will obtain paid work. The ability to work, to form their own collective of paid workers and exhibit leadership in this way will be tremendous. Their earning power will be a boost to their families and a model for their children. Interpretation is a valuable career and in great need! Indigenous language-speakers will be encouraged to come out of the shadows and be counted, for purposes of their language and civil rights. We also believe we can create stronger partnerships with the various indigenous immigrant groups for the purpose of improving the rights of non-English, non-Spanish speakers, particularly the right to interpretation if a language is spoken by certain numerical levels in one zip code or two contiguous zip codes. The state updates language needs infrequently. If successful, we expect to see fewer medical mishaps, medication errors and other problems that happen due to misunderstanding.

This is a proposed or early-stage project. We will define and measure success by: Whether we are able to recruit and place interested immigrants to be trained as interpreters in a qualified program. Two non-profits, CIELO and PALS, have such programs. We need to know more about their costs, how they certify and the legal responsibilities of being an interpreter and creating a small business. We expect that not everyone we start with will be able to complete the process, or may have to drop out for some reason. Our ability to successfully create the infrastructure for the interpretation company. We have a great deal of confidence in our three staff, at least one of which has been a small business owner. Our ability to connect with UCLA and CIELO to present the state with language needs data. The admission of need and provision of interpreters may not happen within the year of this project, but we will lay the groundwork to continue to take up the request until it is met.