‘The need is huge.’ How Spanish-speaking Gulf Coast journalists covered Hurricane Ida
As Hurricane Ida neared landfall in Louisiana on Sunday, WLOX reporter Andrés Fuentes was tweeting updates in two languages.
“La tormenta se está acelerando muy rápidamente,” he wrote. “Ha llegado el momento de volver a casa.”
“The storm is picking up very quickly. It’s time now to head home.”
As far as he knows, Fuentes, a New Orleans native, is the only journalist in all of South Mississippi who is fluent in Spanish. The information he delivers, along with Spanish-language media companies in Louisiana and Alabama, could save lives in a region where the Hispanic population is growing quickly, but where state and local governments provide few to no real-time disaster updates in Spanish.
“I always go into the mindset, I kind of want my grandma to know when there is a deadly hurricane coming our way, or a deadly pandemic coming our way,” Fuentes said. “That’s why I feel very compelled, because I know how much information is worth, and I equally know how dangerous it is when you don’t have equal or any sort of information.”
In 2010, the Coast already claimed two of the state’s three counties with the largest Hispanic population: Harrison and Jackson. By 2020, Jackson County’s Hispanic population had grown by nearly 60% and Harrison County’s 40%. Stone, Pearl River, George, and Hancock Counties had strong growth, too.
According to the Washington D.C.-based think tank the Migration Policy Institute, most Mississippi Spanish speakers speak English, too. But as of 2019, about 30,000 reported speaking English less than “very well.”
Lorena Quiroz, executive director of the Immigrant Alliance for Justice & Equity of Mississippi, said the need for localized information in Spanish is “huge” in areas from health services to hurricane preparedness. Right now, she said, Mississippi has no frequently published newspaper in Spanish. No radio station. No television station.
“Right now what we’re getting is either from Telemundo or Univision, and those aren’t based here, those are far away,” she said.
That makes finding reliable, local information about life-or-death situations, where each word could make a difference in preparedness, a less than straightforward task.
On Saturday afternoon, Quiroz’s organization convened a meeting with community members across the state, from Laurel to north Mississippi, to talk about Hurricane Ida.
“They had no idea how bad it was going to be,” she said. “They knew there was a storm coming. But they didn’t realize what it would mean or what it could mean.”
Jambalaya News in New Orleans
There is no Spanish-language newspaper based in South Mississippi, but from New Orleans, Jambalaya News has provided critical updates before, during and after Ida.
On Facebook, the media company shared press conferences by leaders like New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell and Gov. John Bel Edwards, providing real-time Spanish translations in the comments to help people prepare for the storm.
The company was originally founded in 2004 as Jambalaya Deportiva, a sports publication. But found its niche in news after Hurricane Katrina, when founder Brenda Murphy stayed in the city while other Spanish-language media left.
“People needed information, and there was a big Hispanic community,” said Murphy’s daughter, Yolanda Alvarado. “There is a misconception that Latinos came to New Orleans after Katrina. They existed way before Katrina.”
Alvarado, 24, is now the company’s social media coordinator, but plays many other roles, too. She said the company has become a source for all kinds of information that English-language media in the United States generally doesn’t provide for its audiences, because those readers can rely more on communication from local governments.
For example, she said, readers might send a Facebook message to ask who to call if a tree falls on their house, or how to set up mail forwarding. Jambalaya News then provides a reliable answer.
The company recently launched a texting service where subscribers get a text when an article publishes. Then they can send any questions they have and get answers back to their phones.
Alvarado said she has no idea how much of Jambalaya’s audience is based in Mississippi, but the company has considered trying to expand into Hancock County, though that’s a challenge with a tiny staff.
“I do know that there is a huge population in Mississippi that is underserved because of the language barrier,” she said.
Latino Media Gulf Coast in Alabama & Florida
East of Mississippi, another Spanish-language media company has its roots in hurricanes.
In 2004, Hurricane Ivan devastated Pensacola, where Grace Resendez McCaffery lives. As with the Mississippi Gulf Coast after Katrina, Spanish-speaking workers arrived to rebuild the area.
Resendez McCaffery realized there was a need: Many of the new arrivals from Mexico weren’t familiar with hurricanes.
As a third-generation American from El Paso, Texas, she wasn’t totally fluent in Spanish in the beginning, but she quickly got comfortable fielding questions and providing information in the language.
“People just assumed that I could fill the role because of my complexion,” she said.
She started publishing La Costa Latina newspaper in 2005. Her company, Latino Media Gulf Coast, Inc., now serves northwest Florida and as far east as Mobile.
In addition to providing hurricane information through the newspaper, during storms, she and bilingual volunteers head to the emergency operations center to ensure there’s help for Spanish-speaking callers.
“I know that we’ve saved lives,” she said.
Resources in Mississippi
In areas with little Spanish-language media, Alvarado said, word of mouth and social media are key.
“So somebody knows somebody that speaks English and tells them the information and they post it and share it with each other,” she said.
“Immigrants aren’t dumb,” said Resendez McCaffery. “They can figure things out.”
On Monday morning, as Ida was passing through Mississippi, one woman asked a question under a Latino Media Gulf Coast post. Was it safe for Mississippians to return home? She had evacuated to Alabama but wanted to get home to Gulfport soon. The City of Gulfport and the Gulfport police had posted about road conditions and the curfew, but not in Spanish.
The page responded with information about how to look for power outages and road closures.
Quiroz’s organization, the Immigrant Alliance, worked with local organizers to circulate information in WhatsApp groups as well as on its Facebook page. They have opened a Spanish-language hotline where people can call for help with food, water, hotel reimbursements and more.
Fuentes tries to provide key information in Spanish during his live shots, and he makes a point of telling viewers to follow him on social media, where he can answer specific questions people may have.
With every disaster, though, he worries it’s not enough.
“I’m sure there are families right now that aren’t all the way informed with what’s happening with Ida,” he said. “That’s something that I think about in my conscience. I’m constantly thinking about ways to get information out.”
▪ Guía de preparación para huracanes 2021, publicado por la Agencia para el Manejo de Emergencias de Misisipi (MEMA por sus siglas en inglés).
▪ Para obtener asistencia despues del huracán Ida, llame a la línea comunitaria operado por Alianza Inmigrante por Justicia y Equidad. En español: 888-970-4253. En inglés: 601-533-2445.
▪ Jambalaya News en Nueva Orleans. Su página de Facebook tiene actualizaciones periódicas sobre la tormenta.
This story was originally published September 2, 2021 at 5:50 AM.
