Astir in the barrios

Relax and tighten. Relájese y apriete.

Juan Francisco Alvarenga, 34, of Waynesboro, nervously clenched his fist as he told his troubles to Rosie Cruz-Bermudez at the Waynesboro Health Department.

Jobless, without a driver’s license and behind on his mortgage payments, Alvarenga turned to his friends for help. In turn, they sent him to Cruz-Bermudez.

She is one of a handful of area interpreters who assist Spanish-speaking people when job losses hit hard — or a brutal winter drives up heating bills.

Waynesboro’s Hispanic population boomed from 150 in 1990 to more than 1,100 in 2007 — making about 5 percent of the city’s 22,000 people, according to the U.S. Census. Officials and population experts who track Spanish-speaking school enrollment said the city’s Hispanic population, concentrated in pockets across the city map, could be twice as large as census statistics indicate.

A growing population increases the need for public assistance, said officials in the city’s social services and health department who hired interpreters in a scramble to meet the Spanish-speaking demand. Even with their effort, Hispanics and officials said asking for help can be an intimidating and uncertain process.

The Virginia Employment Commission offers print, phone and online materials in Spanish. Waynesboro schools employ three teachers for English as a Second Language needs.

Efforts haven’t gone unnoticed by Hispanics.

When the Department of Social Services hired a full-time interpreter three years ago in response to a perceived need, a “deluge” of new clients followed.

“We were amazed at the rapid increase in people coming in,” said Director Elizabeth Middleton.

Social services helps Hispanics with food stamp assistance, which grew 45 percent between 2008 and this year, Middleton said.

Housing searches, high heating bills and unemployment can increase caseloads and trigger Hispanic leaders to tap into their resources and contacts.

Cruz-Bermudez said she has informally helped hundreds of Spanish-speaking immigrants during her 18 years in Waynesboro. They know her as Doña Rosa, Spanish for Lady Rosa.

Even before becoming the Spanish Outreach Worker of the health department five years ago, she said she established herself as a connection between the city’s Hispanic community and government services.

Whether on health-related business, Spanish-speaking people from many nations come to Cruz-Bermudez for help.

“They’ll say Doña Rosa, go to Doña Rosa. Bring all your papers she’ll help you,” she said.

Raised bilingual in Puerto Rico, Doña Rosa flits easily between Spanish and English. In a recent interview, while describing how she refers Hispanics to food pantries and other agencies, she paused to take a phone call.

“I have a lot of walk-ins,” she said, telling the receptionist she’d be free in 20 minutes.

“Sometimes I’m needed in every room at the same time,” she said.

A full-time social services interpreter in Waynesboro left the job last year, but Elizabeth Hogan, 30, has taken up the charge in a part-time capacity. The office in March will apply to AmeriCorps for four Spanish-speaking assistants.

“The need in our agency is so much,” Middleton said.

Hogan works from 8 a.m. to noon each day. Clients frequently need translation of state-issued paperwork, or they wonder about eligibility for benefits.

Undocumented immigrants are eligible only for emergency medical services and still must meet Medicaid requirements and income standards. Documented immigrants can receive energy bill assistance and food stamps. American-born children of undocumented immigrants can qualify families for some services.

On a recent morning, Elida M. Morales, 41, of Waynesboro, rocked in a chair in the social services office alongside Hogan. She appeared nervous, and spoke in short Spanish answers, but confidently pulled documents from her purse in response to social worker Jim Strother’s questions.

A pile of pay stubs, Morales’ identification and a food stamp card settled on Strother’s desk.

Morales, a longtime Waynesboro County Club employee, told Strother, through Hogan, that her husband has struggled to find work during the cold winter.

“Hace frio,” she says.

A mother of three children in Waynesboro schools, Morales moved to Waynesboro 21 years ago from the state of Chihuahua, south of New Mexico.

She travels to the social services office “only when she needs to,” she said. She found out about state benefits while giving birth at a hospital. She since has told other Hispanics, specifically new and expecting mothers.

“One mother will let another mother know,” Hogan said.

Middleton can recall numerous times when phone calls came into social services, in Spanish, that had little to do with their programs.

“We’re trying to make our office accessible,” Middleton said, adding that receptionists such as Hogan gladly refer people to other agencies.

Some Hispanics find the language barrier intimidating, or don’t know where to go for services, but Morales has no fear traveling to the social services office.

When Strother asked her for pay stubs, she handed him two of her husband’s from the past month. His work as a gardener has been uncertain during the past two years.

Will he work again? Strother asked.

Morales was unsure. It’s cold, she said again, and jobs are elsewhere. Sometimes she wants to take her family away, but she knows that won’t happen, she said.

Other hispanics in Waynesboro already have seen friends and relatives leave because of lack of work.

Demographics expert Mike Spar, of the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, said unemployment usually “glues people in place.”

“People don’t move because there’s no place better to move to,” he said.

But Hispanics who spoke with The News Virginian insisted families are leaving. Others are arriving. The Hispanic community churns.

Jesús G. Negrete, assistant manager at El Puerto restaurant on West Main Street, said he knows about eight people who have returned to Mexico or left for larger cities to seek work.

Most expected never to leave America, he said.

Like Morales, Negrete said the last two years have been especially difficult for Hispanics, many of whom work in construction. According to the Weldon Cooper Center, almost a fourth of Mexicans in Virginia work in the industry. Construction has been especially hard-hit by the collapse of the housing market.

Still, center researchers have found that Virginia’s population is growing again for the first time since the onset of the recession in late 2007.

As Hispanics make their way to Waynesboro, they find Rosie Cruz-Bermudez by word of mouth. Mothers tell mothers and friends tell friends: Go see Doña Rosa.

Morales said Doña Rosa is known by almost every Spanish-speaking person in the city.

Doña Rosa said Hispanics who remain in Waynesboro need more assistance than ever. She said she sees at least twice as many people each week than four years ago.

“As soon as I’m here [8 a.m.] there’s someone here,” Doña Rosa said. “I’m always running.”

She helps with maternity issues, family planning, sexually transmitted diseases, school physicals, car seat training and pregnancy testing.

“Everything is word of mouth with the Hispanic community,” she said. “If you serve them well, they trust you forever.”

Alvarenga is just beginning to learn about Doña Rosa’s philanthropy.

“I looked, I looked,” Alvarenga told Doña Rosa, “but there was no work.”

After a year of searching, he said he found a landscaping job at an apple and pear orchard in Lovingston.

The job starts Monday, but if he can’t get a driver’s license, Alvarenga said his family might lose their house.

Enter Doña Rosa.

She said she’ll help Alvarenga learn about a restricted driver’s license. And he said he’ll look to friends for a ride to work in the meantime.