Parental Guide Aims at Latinos

A national program to help Latino parents recognize and talk with their children about problems such as drugs, alcohol and depression was introduced Friday at a town hall meeting in Santa Fe Springs.

The theory behind the Hispanic/Latino Initiative, created by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is that pamphlets and programs simply translated from English to Spanish lack a certain cultural perspective and alienate large segments of the population.

With this in mind, 17 Latino officials spent more than two years designing the booklets and information sheets, which will be distributed through community-based organizations around the country, officials said.

“These materials were made with the heart, soul and spirit of the Latino people of all the United States,” said Nelba Chavez, head of the department’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. “They reflect the values of our people.”

About 200 people showed up for the event, the third of five meetings held in Southern California, Miami, Houston, Chicago and New York.

The handouts included a poster with information about the most commonly used illicit drugs, which included their Spanish and English street names.

Chavez said older immigrants often know very little about such substances because they may not have been common in their communities south of the border. Federal officials hope that if parents have some basic facts, they will be more perceptive and convincing when communicating with their children.

Other materials include a cultural pride poster, a children’s book about health issues, and fictional stories about Latinos learning to discuss alcohol and drug use.

About one in 10 Latino youths admits to binge drinking, while the same proportion admit having used illicit drugs, according to Chavez’s agency. Though those numbers are not strikingly different from figures on other ethnic groups, officials at Friday’s event said the number of Latino youths is growing so fast in America that it is a crucial front in the war on drugs.

Luisa del C. Pollard, the project manager, said the $1.5-million initiative in some cases will help give authority back to the parents when traditional roles have been altered in the United States.

“In the Latino community, the elders have power,” she said. “But when you come to this country, the child might have been born here, might be the one to speak English. Now the child is the purveyor of information.”

She said that often the children speak directly to doctors and teachers and bill collectors, and relay the information to their parents. The pamphlets, she said, will help some parents turn that flow of information around.

Pollard said the booklets are designed to appeal to Latino readers. The cover of one folder shows a traditional Latin American plaza with street vendors and children playing soccer. All photos also feature Latinos, so readers will identify with the characters, she said.

Some speakers at Friday’s event said the program’s emphasis on family and respect will enable parents to use familiar Latin American values to better raise their children. Henry C. Lozano, one of the 17 committee members and president of California for Drug-Free Youth, recounted how his father taught him by example to respect the family name while growing up in the fields of Imperial County. “My father said to me, ‘Look at me, young man, because this is how I am walking.’ ”

Several parents said it has been difficult to find information in Spanish on alcohol and drug use.

“This is a great effort,” said Maria Palos of Whittier. “We are reading about depression in adolescents that parents sometimes don’t know how to confront.”

Sara Vargas said she was preoccupied and cerrada (closed off) when her daughter began running with the wrong crowd a couple of years ago. Vargas went to Project Info, a Whittier group that hosted Friday’s event, which helped her talk with her daughter. She said she is delighted to see such an effort nationwide.

“The communication needs to be more extensive,” she said.