More than just the flu
A landscaper's day is all about dust, mud and insidious lawn shavings. Photo by Jorge Melchor.
In a family landscaping business, the patriarch’s cough led to pneumonia, and then to a fight for his life. His son can only look on in horror, from a distance, and go on tending lawns and gardens.
By Jorge Melchor
Gustavo didn’t think anything was really wrong when his father first got sick.
His dad, Juan, had just come back from a vacation in San Isidro Labrador, a small town in El Salvador. Itt was cold outside in New Jersey, so the family thought the patriarch had come down with a simple seasonal ailment.
But Gustavo recalls that his father had returned just as the United States was shutting down nonessential businesses and urging people to stay home in an attempt to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Soon, Juan was having trouble breathing and couldn’t get out of bed.
The family took him to the hospital on March 28 and learned he had pneumonia -- caused by the coronavirus. Today, Juan is on a ventilator.
A choice of risks
Gustavo faced a tough decision: Keep working and running the landscaping business, each day risking exposure to the potentially deadly virus. Or, he could stay home and watch his income, and the business his father built, fade away. He has stayed on the job, wearing a mask as he goes from lawn to lawn and keeping well away from clients. Gustavo worries he will also get sick, but pushes that thought out of his head. He says he has work to do.
That overriding need to work is one reason he requested his identity be obscured in this article. Palabra agreed because Gustavo fears retaliation -- and worries the family business will be stigmatized -- because of his father’s illness.
Gustavo said the situation is frustrating because he is healthy. He shows no signs of illness in the months since his father became sick.
So why is he cautious about speaking out? He’s a U.S. citizen, afterall. His father is an immigrant, and a longtime legal resident.
Bernadette Aulestia said many first- and second-generation immigrant families -- even if they’re legal residents -- remain reclusive and apart from other communities. Immigrants, she said, can feel isolated and vulnerable when they’re living in the margins of an economically segregated society.
Aulestia is working with the $1K Project to help idled workers and families that are unable to find aid during the pandemic.
“Many, in reality, are the people working in services like restaurants, construction, hair salons – basic services,” she said. “The Latino community has been hit very hard by the pandemic. And this community doesn’t always have access to government services.”
Bernadette Aulestia works with the non-profit $1K Project to help those left behind by pandemic relief funds and programs. Photo by Jorge Melchor.
Anxiety on the front lines
At the same time, studies have found that people of color dominate the ranks of frontline, essential workers. As a result, they are getting sick at a higher rate. Workers in the service industry, like nail technicians and restaurant waiters and bartenders, face months without income. Those who have legitimate Social Security numbers can qualify for government relief programs, while the undocumented are cut out.
Gustavo is avoiding an economic freefall by working through the family’s anxieties.
The hardest part, Gustavo said, is seeing his father on video calls fighting for his life from a hospital bed.
“The only thing I can say is that it is very painful to see a family member like this … All I can do is fight for him, try to make him better,” Gustavo said. “Yes, I do fear becoming infected. But right now I have to put everything in the hands of God, and trust that I will be fine.”
is a freelance visual and data journalist whose video, online, print and broadcast work has appeared on outlets including NBC News, The New York Times, the History Channel, and the Financial Times. He has worked as a freelance journalist in Mexico and the U.S. and currently lives just outside New York City.