When the Covid pandemic hit Salem, Vicky Falcón Vázquez quickly saw that vital health care information wasn’t reaching many of the people who needed it most.
Spanish-speaking and Latin American people, many of them working essential jobs, often didn’t get the messages health agencies put out. At a time when people were being told to stay home, many didn’t have that option.
So Falcón Vázquez invited then-Gov. Kate Brown onto her radio show.
For about 15 minutes in June 2020 , the governor addressed Oregon’s pandemic response and efforts to keep essential workers protected. An interpreter brought the governor’s words in Spanish to listeners of Radio Poder , the Woodburn-based community radio station.
“That meant something to the community,” Falcón Vázquez said of the appearance. “Usu