Staff from more than 15 Chesterfield County departments gathered at the Beulah Recreation Center Aug. 27 to hear from the county’s native Spanish speakers.
The program, “Café con la Comunidad,” was designed to give Chesterfield’s Hispanic residents a chance to interact with county leaders — including Board of Supervisors chair Jim Holland and County Administrator Dr. Joe Casey — in their primary language.
“We are home to almost half the Latinos in the Greater Richmond region,” said Dalila Medrano, one of the event’s organizers and the multicultural community engagement coordinator in the county’s office of diversity, equity, and inclusion. “We feel proud that we’ve been a safe home, and we want to make sure our residents feel connected to the government.”
Topics discussed during the meeting ranged from economics to public safety to professional development. Government officials used headphone translation devices to facilitate questions being asked in Spanish.
Longtime Chesterfield resident Alberto Torres, who hails from Puerto Rico and works for the Internal Revenue Service, took the microphone to ask what the county is doing to address affordable housing, and what the plans are to improve public transit.
Carolina Calderon has lived in Chesterfield County for four years, emigrating from El Salvador, and she has papers. She explained to county officials that she has a specific problem without a simple solution: She attended El Salvador’s national university, and graduated with an engineering degree. But those credentials aren’t recognized in the United States unless she meets additional requirements that include lengthy examinations.
“I’d have to do all my study over again,” she told VPM News in Spanish. “I’m a professional in my country. I studied, prepared and made a lot of economic sacrifices, and here I can’t work the job that I know.”
County officials said that while a solution would most likely have to come from the state level, Chesterfield could try to influence state agencies that regulate professions like engineering to change the rules and accept foreign credentials from skilled workers more often.
Public safety was also a frequent topic of interest. One woman asked for more to be done to stop bullying of children who don't speak English fluently.
Other parents worried about school security. School board member Dominique Chatters responded by discussing the presence of security vestibules in school buildings — a new feature this year.
One of the most important issues raised came from Mara Aceituno, originally from Honduras. Aceituno — who volunteers with Latinos en Virginia, an outreach group that helps victims of domestic and sexual violence — asked what the county could do to make migrants without documents feel safe calling 911 without fear of deportation.
“There are a lot of people who suffer acts of domestic violence but they don’t know where they can turn to for help,” she told VPM News. “Many people worry about calling the police when they’re undocumented.”
Casey, the county administrator, directed her to resources on the county’s website and noted that any victim of a crime has the right to call the police — with 911 the fastest way to do so.
First responders at the event echoed that sentiment.
“You should never hesitate to call us,” said Lisette Fuentes, a firefighter and paramedic with Chesterfield Fire and EMS. “You should contact us regardless of your status in the United States.”
Medrano, the event organizer, said this would be the first of many bilingual community meetings.
“We are committed to holding this event multiple times a year,” she said. “When the residents come out, they feel that the government is being held accountable and we can provide updates based on questions from [the] last meeting.”
