Election season has come to Pescadero. And Puente, along with the state of California and the rest of the country, is witnessing a surge in citizenship applications.

“There’s a lot of people applying for citizenship,” says Rita Mancera, Executive Director of Puente. “It’s mostly because of what’s at stake with the elections coming up.”

Citizenship applications always swell during an election year, but this year’s numbers are unusual. In California, the number of citizenship applications from Latinos doubled from January through March, compared to the same time period in 2012. States like New York and Texas are seeing similar trends.

Here on the South Coast, the numbers are modest, but significant. Puente has helped 15 participants start the application process since January, compared with 5 people last year. Many participants are about to apply, or have applied and are waiting for an appointment from immigration authorities. Others have begun studying the long list of civics questions that comprise a portion of the naturalization test. Some others have worked with a Puente tutor to help them prepare.

Many applicants have been permanent residents for a while, and longtime community members. They were in no rush to apply for citizenship … until now.

“Older people tend to either resist become citizens or wait a longer time. Those are mostly the people who are coming in right now,” observes Mancera. Nationally, only 36 percent of eligible Mexicans actually become U.S. citizens, while 68 percent of all other immigrants do, according to the Pew Research Center.

This election represents a political awakening for Marisol Silva. She lives in Pescadero with her husband and young son, who are both U.S. citizens. This year, she decided to apply for citizenship as a way to unite the whole family and assert her right to vote. Silva and her husband are following the November election campaign closely. “The Republicans and the Democrats, there’s a big difference. The Latino voters have to help choose a better candidate,” she says.

She has other reasons, too. Silva is a teaching assistant at Pescadero’s preschool. She is also enrolled at Cañada College, earning credits toward a degree in Early Childhood Education. She’s a straight-A student with a perfect 4.0 GPA. She knows that as a citizen, she would be eligible for academic scholarships.

Alejandra Ortega is a local mom who works at Puente. “As a resident, I was not in a rush to become a citizen. And now I just feel like I need it – to be able to vote and have more rights.” She plans to apply for citizenship this month, and hopes she’ll be in time to vote in the election.

Once she is a citizen, Ortega hopes to run for school board in the La Honda-Pescadero Unified School District. As a citizen, she can do so. Her civic contributions will benefit her entire community.

Even with a green card, the citizenship process is a tall order that requires proving competency in English in addition to passing the naturalization test. It used to take three or four months to get an appointment. With a backlog at immigration offices statewide, it’s now taking six or seven months. It’s a major commitment and costs $680 to apply. That’s a hardship for those with very little disposable income, so Puente will sometimes loan an applicant the money if they don’t qualify for a low-income fee waiver.

Puente’s immigration services extend far beyond citizenship, however. Last summer, Puente obtained Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) agency recognition, an accreditation that allows certain staff members to file legal papers on behalf of clients who need visas, green card renewals, and help with legal problems, including deportation. Additionally, Puente is a one-stop shop for local youth to obtain and renew their work permits under DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). Dozens have done so.

Puente also educated the community around DAPA (Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents) before it was blocked by the courts. Puente helped local mothers and fathers gather all the documents they would need to apply. “It’s absolutely heartbreaking that they’re going to be forced to live as if they are invisible,” Mancera says. “We have mixed-status families where the parents are not citizens and the children are. They’re always living in fear.”

Noel Chavez, right, with Alejandra Ortega

Noel Chavez grew up in such a family. Puente’s Education Director initially came to the U.S. without legal papers when he was seven years old, with his parents, four brothers and seven sisters. The family was fleeing violence in Michoacán. He has been a permanent resident since he was in college.

That’s just one of the reasons why Chavez cares so deeply about politics and the future of this country. “I identify myself with the ‘Dreamers,’” he says. In 2008, he worked with the Obama campaign and went to Nevada to register Latinos to vote in that seminal election.

This summer, Chavez applied for citizenship.

“As a citizen, I know my message is going to be much stronger. I really want to make sure that people know their options. That these elections are important. That if you’re going to be affected by those in power, you need to educate yourself before voting,” he says.

Would you like to support Puente’s legal services or help one applicant with their fee or partial citizenship fee? You can! Click here.

Sunday, September 25, 2016

4-6pm at Harley Farms Goat Dairy

See you there!

What happens to your mouth when you’ve never been to the dentist? Molly Wolfes can tell you. Puente’s Community Health Coordinator knows a woman who discovered it was so expensive to pay for an extraction, she decided to pull her own tooth. Another man had such advanced tooth decay, he came home from a day of free dental care with three teeth gone. They were too far gone to save.

Ever since she began work to establish Puente’s highly successful medical clinic, a satellite of San Mateo Medical Center’s Coastside Clinic in Half Moon Bay, Wolfes has also been campaigning for a mobile dental clinic to serve the communities of Pescadero, Loma Mar, La Honda and San Gregorio. No dental office exists anywhere on the South Coast, and many low-income residents lack both transportation to a dentist and the means to pay. Tooth decay, left unchecked, can lead to other medical problems, as both dentists and patients know. But without insurance, a deep cleaning alone can cost a thousand dollars, says Wolfes.

As a result, “A lot of times the treatment is based on cost, not need,” she says. “I think a lot of patients have had some pain, but they haven’t gone to dentist. They think, ‘I’ll treat that when its bad enough I can’t eat.’”

Not anymore. A new grant-funded partnership between Puente, Apple Tree Dental and Sonrisas Community Dental Center of Half Moon Bay is bringing world-class dental care directly to patients on the South Coast. Once a month, Puente’s childcare center in Pescadero is transformed into a professional dental office complete with reclining chair, x-ray machine, mobile lighting and suction boom. Everything is on wheels. Apple Tree Dental, which recently affiliated with Sonrisas, has a computer system to input patients’ dental records. And patients are charged just $25 per visit.

Part of the dental team with a patient.

As word spreads in the community, up to 12 patients line up for a dental visit each month. By the end of the year, Puente will have logged 150 patient visits. The program exists thanks to a grant from San Mateo County’s Health Care for the Homeless/Farmworker Health Program, which in turn receives funding from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration. Apple Tree has made a number of in-kind donations too.

But the need exceeds the grant funds, says Dirk Alvarado, Executive Director of Sonrisas. It will take years to address problems that call for surgeries or reconstructive care, and to bring patients back into a state of overall health. Sonrisas, a nonprofit, will need to raise at least $20,000 to cover the gap. Sonrisas serves 1,400 adult patients a year, and also screens 1,400 schoolchildren from two Coastside school districts.

A patient mid-appointment (the glasses are to protect his eyes during the procedure).

Alvarado remembers an earlier effort to bring dentistry into the field – literally. Back in 2014, Puente helped Sonrisas visit a few Pescadero farms during working hours. The dental “office” was an ad hoc folding chair in a tractor barn. “We knew we were onto something,” he recalls. “It cut down a lot of the barriers for the workers as far as losing productivity to travel to the dentist, and it helped the farmers because it was one less thing their workers had to worry about.”

He cringingly remembers how urgently those workers needed dental care. “The pain would be so bad, in their mouth and their teeth, they would be in tears.”

Dr. Dick Gregory, the San Mateo Center Director of Apple Tree Dental (and coordinator of the affiliated site in Half Moon Bay), has observed that dental decline can also lead to long-term self-esteem issues. “Sometimes, people that have not had access to dental care are ashamed of their smile. To smile unselfconsciously is not something they take for granted,” he says. “And when they finally can, that’s something that just lights you up.”

As dentists do triage, Puente has launched a simultaneous initiative to educate local residents about what it takes to maintain a happy mouth. Puente’s team of community health workers, also known as Promotoras de Salud, are going door to door, showing people the correct way to floss and brush, describing the warning signs of tooth decay, handing out free toothbrushes and dental floss – and of course, making appointments at the dental clinic.

Yesenia, one of Puente’s health promoters, celebrates a clean mouth!

Puente is also working to promote preventative oral health. “In the long run, regular dental visits and good oral care at home play essential roles in preventing extractions and other costly procedures.” Says Wolfes.

As wonderful as it is to have a dentist and hygienist in the community once a month, Puente believes patients of all backgrounds deserve to have regular access to quality dental care without putting their financial security at risk.

“I hope that one day we have a full medical and dental clinic in one space where we can treat the people of the community,” says Wolfes.

Your generous gift to Puente today to supports health programs for people on the South Coast and will impact many. Thank you!