How language creates barriers for Mexican Indigenous community

LAMONT, Calif. — When it comes to the immigration process among the Hispanic community, Spanish is the language that comes to mind for how best to communicate.

In parts of the rural Central Valley, where an estimated one-quarter of farmworkers and day laborers in the area are of Mexican Indigenous descent, a community that includes many languages and dialects.

In recent years, Indigenous advocacy organizations have found that it’s becoming more difficult to communicate necessary information to their community members.

In Lamont, California, the organization Centro de Unidad Popular Benito Juarez, named for the first Indigenous Mexican president, sees firsthand the struggles that the COVID-19 pandemic and fear of immigration enforcement have created for different indigenous groups across