Spanish translator Manny Santiago translates for those watching online or attending the Riverside County Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023, in downtown Riverside. Her fellow translator, Rocio Vasquez, sits nearby. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
As a member of the majority-Latino city council of Coachella, F. Manuel Perez on Spanish translations of government meetings.
But when he became a Riverside County supervisor in 2017, Perez was surprised to learn that the practice was not used by the highest elected body in county government.
Now, with the recent addition of Spanish translators at Board of Supervisors meetings and the printing of board agendas in Spanish, “we’re finally getting somewhere,” Perez said by phone.
“The work that we do in communities of color, specifically in Latino communities, (with) vaccinations (and) public health (and) requiring information to be in both languages — (that) has not been the case before.” He added that his fellow supervisors have been “fantastic” in supporting these efforts.
San Bernardino County has offered Spanish translators and “listening device-assisted Spanish translations” at Board of Supervisors meetings since August 2021, said David Wert, a county spokesman.
The county also publishes a weekly e-newsletter, emergency-related materials and other content in Spanish, and has done so since about mid-2020, Wirt said, adding that the county does not offer a Spanish version of the board’s agenda.
New Spanish language outreach seeks to make local government more accessible in Riverside County, where Hispanics make up 52% of the population. Census data shows Spanish is spoken in nearly one in three households in the county, a percentage more than double the national average.
Outreach is also required as part of a settlement of a lawsuit over how supervisors redrew their districts in 2021. The ACLU of Southern California and Latino advocates claimed that the new maps, created to account for population changes indicated by the 2020 Census, disadvantaged Latinos. A reasonable opportunity to elect more board members.
Besides making board proceedings accessible to Spanish speakers, the settlement also calls for the county elections office to make Spanish translations of all legally required public documents available and to provide Spanish language interpretation of all public meetings and registrar of voters hearings.
At board meetings, typically held two or three times a month at the district’s downtown Riverside headquarters, interpreters work in a side room where they translate what’s happening as well as comments from Spanish speakers who want to address supervisors.
Listening devices, available from the Clerk of the Board, allow those in board rooms to listen to proceedings in Spanish. Meetings can also be viewed online via a live stream in Spanish, and the district has added several bilingual public information officers.
Communicating in Spanish pleases Luz Gallegos, executive director of the Perris-based TODEC Legal Center, which helps immigrants in the Inland Empire and Coachella Valley.
“Throughout our long fight for social justice, language access has always been a priority for our organization,” Gallegos said via email. “We firmly believe that language access is a right and should not be a privilege.”
The province should also provide translations in indigenous languages, Gallegos said, adding that during the COVID-19 pandemic, TODEC team members translated public health documents into Purepecha.
“At TODEC, we firmly believe that the people closest to pain should be closest to power,” Gallegos added.
Perez used to be the only Latino supervisor in Riverside County. That changed this year when Superintendent Yxstian Gutierrez joined the five-member board.
Perez, who traveled to Mexico as a county representative to build sister city relationships, said the board’s understanding of the county’s Latino community has “grown quite a bit” since he became supervisor.
“Our mission is to serve, our mission is to protect, our mission is to make sure (public) services are accessible, and that literacy is critical,” Perez added. “If (people) are able to connect the dots between (their language) and the world, it makes things much more democratic.”
Dear Supervisors of Riverside County,
The Riverside County Board of Directors is proud to announce the expansion of its outreach efforts to the Spanish-speaking community. As the demographics of Riverside County continue to evolve, it is important for us to ensure that all members of our community are informed and engaged in the decision-making process. With this expansion, we hope to better serve and connect with the Spanish-speaking residents of Riverside County, and strengthen our commitment to diversity and inclusivity. We are excited to share this news with you and look forward to the positive impact it will have on our community.