Marta Cerda and David Cerda

00:02 My name is Marta. Cerda. I am 58 years old today is December 2nd, 2020. I am from Chicago Illinois participating with me joining me is my older brother David Albert Serta.

00:20 Yes, my name is David Alberto. Cerda. Today is December 2nd, 2020. I'm 59 years old and speaking to you from Chicago, Illinois.

00:40 You could get started.

00:44 Okay, my name is Marcus at Rochester that I'm speaking with you about the impact of covid-19 on our family my mother my hubby Sarah just turned Ashley 86 years old on October 27th 2020.

01:05 She was a Trailblazer. She brought bilingual education to Chicago as the first Latina member of the Board of Education. She brought jobs for any money to Chicago. No hear her work for mayor Harold Washington. She also helped Chicago to become a sanctuary city. Was she work for Mary Washington and Chicago was the first Sanctuary City one of the first in the United States. She also was the founding executive director of the Latino Institute a policy think-tank which helped bring research and data technical assistance alarm for profit and also support programs for the first time in Chicago. So she had a profound impact on the Chicago Latino community and really importantly my mother helped Inspire others de leaders and they get into government positions and political life into lead organization. She transformed

02:05 Are those Latino community and truly a ray back to the beginning as a member of the Board of Education? She helped to put Latinos under math and to have our voices heard in the Chicago educational City educational system.

02:23 Do you want to know if she also helped bring us here Evelyn or to make that chapter happen by getting $100,000 from National foundation so that I could exist and it now has with several schools and many programs to help are used to develop. So my mother really transform Chicago and made a huge impact and had a lot of first he was really a Pioneer and I called her a luchadora fighter fighter for her people and for everyone's have extra access to resources like education Healthcare and so much more

03:01 Sadly my father my mother and I got covid-19.

03:08 This was a shocking. This was upsetting my father after the hospital first, and then my mother I did not go to the hospital, but I continue to work to recover from home.

03:20 My mother fought very hard to recover but does she seem to be turning the band and seemed like she was going to be able to come home and then covid-19 and her for a long and position for really really hard to get it out of her lungs so she could breathe but they were unsuccessful and after several days of agonizing. She she passed away November 8th 2020.

03:47 My father a few days later left the hospital came home for a little while. But he had to be hospitalized. He was 2 weeks covid-19 had a negative impact on this system as well as he's ninety-three by Father David there that he is the first Latino judge and the first let me know if I was Justice. I thought he had a lot of first also is amazing, Trailblazer himself at 93 when it weakened him so much and he had to go back to the hospital for another. Of time and had a number of things going wrong and now he is in a rehabilitation center. And this is over a month ago that he had it at your family think October 19th of a long time ago. So we still be so badly with covid-19. So he continues to work in the rehab center.

04:47 His ability to walk independently.

04:51 And I will actually ask my brother David for your thoughts.

04:56 Well, I guess I'm here to speak about covid-19.

05:02 And this is a problem that my mother died unnecessarily because this was not handled properly by our current president of the United States who has acted in the self-interest dropped this pandemic. He learned on January 28th that this illness illness was airborne and deadly instead of sharing that with the the rest of the world in the United States. He decided he would keep it secret because that because making a public would upset the stock market and upsetting the stock market would upset his re-election.

05:46 Then in April.

05:49 Martian late, March and April when it became apparent that the virus was Airborne eat had a decision to me whether to admit that he was mistaken and then encourage people to wear masks.

06:04 Or not and he decided not to do so because that would for him be admitting that he had done something wrong. And so again keenly focused on this is singular goal to get reelected. He decided to run against the coronavirus and in doing so he encouraged people not to wear masks which is exactly the opposite of what we should have been too. And so he allowed the coronavirus to continue it to be spread and this went into the fall when he else super spreader events around the country and continue to disregard

06:46 His scientists in scientists around the world mother took cover beginning with the quarantine in and very rarely left her car parked and she should have survived this but for the willful and wanton disregard the president our current president for human life.

07:13 And I would add that it was not only was her death very cruel watching her die on an iPhone taking her last breath, but it was also cruel because in the last eight months she did not get to hug and kiss her grandchildren when she enjoyed tremendously. So she last eight months of her life where an isolation and then she died a very cruel way.

07:42 Absolutely true. And yes, you had three beautiful grandchildren and David Bentley Mall and Amalia Rose and Pilar to see if she loves dearly and they were the joy of her life. Like I did want to add about covid-19 that I watch the news like everyone else and I saw people is my brother said saying to buy who loved ones via FaceTime, but I never thought that our family would go through that also.

08:14 It was just cruel because when my father went into the hospital, we should not be with him. We cannot help him and then when my mother happened to my mother is she suddenly was not able to walk and she had been walking around the house perfectly. Well in all the sudden she can walk so I called an ambulance and they took us to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. I was in the ER with her other nurses realize that I had pulled it also and they asked me to leave normally if my one of my parents are either one where hospitalized I would be by their sides helping them throughout their illness in the hospital to make sure they were okay. My mother begged me to stay with her and I had to say I could not stay with her this most horrifying moment when a most terrific smile once in my life, you know, she begged me to stay and I had to say they will not let me say she will not let me stay I'm so sorry to bother you. I want to stay with you and you don't they just kept telling you to leave so I had to

09:14 Walk away from my mother knowing that might be the last time I would be with her in her life, which is what happened.

09:22 That we received the call that they have done everything they could to get her oxygen functioning well and that it was she was going to pass they asked me if I wanted to be by her side. Should I have phobias 19 and I could enter the covid-19 was going to be placed. And so I ran to be by her side. She was not able to speak to me at all and I did share what you going through with my oldest with my brother David so that he could see what see her and at least he was her during the time that she was passing. It was very very difficult. My father came to be with us. Also. He was on the same floor just a few doors away from my mother so he came and he and I and my brother on the on the iPhone with my older brother. I have a younger brother Arthur my older brother David was with us when she took her family took her last breath.

10:17 And there was nothing we could do to keep her with us or to really truly say goodbye. I said to buy via FaceTime to her.

10:27 You know, but that was definitely not enough about me not enough. So it was a very difficult time and I do want to convey the message that so many people don't think it's going to happen to you and I didn't again I didn't think we could happen to our family as I my brother said, you know, my mother was in her home. She was staying away from people and we thought you was safe, but there was no safety from covet for our family and to see her suffer for days was the worst thing of my life and I wish that she could have passed she's had that she had not gotten covid-19 and that everyone had won their masks and kept their distance not had parties and thought about people like my mother who was just wanting to grow old gracefully and have time with her grandchildren and her beloved husband David. They celebrated their fiftieth 60 60th wedding at

11:27 July 2nd 2020 and they have been together about 62 years. So it's a great loss for my dad who is trying to move on without his beloved Maria on and he still at the side struggling to recover at a rehabilitation center. So he can walk without a walker. My father had been able to walk independently before covid-19. I can tell you to struggle with fatigue and with challenges with my lungs and I continue to have no taste no smell and my lungs are not fully functioning yet. And this is been weeks and wait for me.

12:09 So it doesn't touch you. So please be safe. Please wear a mask. Please wash your hands. Please stay away from people because you know, you do not want to love lose a beloved mother as our mother was beloved by us by my my brothers and I but she was also be loved and thought of as a mother to so many people in the city of Chicago and Beyond it was a mentor for so many and she created said bilingual education. She named school. She helping you don't want us to be created credited with Willie making that happen on the board of education she transformed and gave access to resources to so many thousands upon thousands of people. She made a difference in their lives. So children can learn to speak English as bad as it continued to retain their Spanish and she did everything that you could

13:09 My parents are. To my parents July getting married July 2nd 2020. My mother is with Puerto Rican from lares Puerto Rico. My father is Mexican. He grew up here in Chicago in Chicago. And then later in Berwyn. They were married July 2nd in Puerto Rico. Church in Puerto. Rico charge. My mother had a large family with a very very hot day and it was a huge celebration of the joining of my my father and my mother and my father the time was a lawyer Mexican lawyer and they match when my mother was concerned about the situation with Puerto Rican who were gathered in the meeting arrested in front of her and so she wanted to give her testimony or give her or fat deposition or information about what happened in that case and my father was called as a lawyer.

14:09 Two to take her information down by their friends Amelia sharpen father Jordan. The Jordan was from Holy Name Cathedral Church. They match my father said that she blew him away from Judy was what the stuff you said. Wow, what a beautiful woman and he had to get to know her better. So they began to see each other socially for chaperones and then later by the store and got married at nineteen sixty so very very happy and very long marriage is my father said recently power couple who are making a difference to gather my father in the lost and the GI Forum in all kinds of the Bowser tancredi Mala the next American Association of so many other thing that he did so much and they did work together and they supported each other's careers so they could both grow as leaders and jointly were

15:09 How their Community to grow

15:14 Albert is at David Albert. Is there anything like that about our parents?

15:18 I disagree. I thought with regard to the possibility of our parents getting covid-19. That it was not unlikely that would happen. We warned against indoor dining at the time. It was unnecessary. I warned against people traveling in Uber's and taxis unnecessarily and that's what went on because there is a culture a gap where people did not take responsive responsibility that they should have taken and not done indoor dining in this is continues to this day where we have the so-called outdoor dining which is nothing more than putting a tent outside and creating an indoor space Outdoors.

16:02 And we are now going and I warned against all this traveling and having over Thanksgiving holiday and I will see three weeks later the spread of covid-19.

16:53 Did it for his own devices and now we are all paying the price and and we will continue the Pepsi pay the price because although vaccines are on the way. It's going to be a while before they can be distributed. It's a much more complicated problem than people think getting 200 million people vaccinated. Not. Just one shot two shot and until such time people that need to take personal responsibility wear masks not just for themselves, but for others

17:31 I totally agree. And actually my work is the Chief Executive Officer of Home Care Home Health agencies. So we are on the front lines my 320 plus staff are out in the field and they're also impacted by other people who are not wearing that they're wearing masks. They're wearing gloves to wear a shield that you all the protection. I possibly had. But you do it definitely on the the buses and trains hoobers as my brother is said there's there's so much covid in the air that it does impact my work work as well. So while we're saying babe, we're asking everyone else we're on the front lines to also stay safe so we can also perform our duty of protecting seniors taking care of them at all. So I totally agree that that's really important that we

18:27 That everyone shelters in place avoid going to restaurants order in get instacart get things delivered to you Albert Albert. I believe you're going to talk about a little bit more about Uber drivers and restaurant.

18:44 Well, they are backed over drivers are vectors. She just imagine someone who has covered positive has to go to the hospital while they take an Uber to expose the driver passenger passenger gets out of the kit cab or Uber and someone gets in not knowing the person who just had covid is in that over. So what people really need to do is to shelter in place and work remotely if it all possible as this can be done. Now, this is a tremendous sacrifice for people to walk down the street businesses are closed people are unemployed. This is causing a lot of pain but we need to get the virus under control because it is out of control. Once we get it under control we can begin returning to some sense of normalcy, which will not happen for some time because even after the vaccines are implemented there's a great question of as to how long the vaccine will be.

19:44 Cactus and weather be further mutations in the coronavirus or to acquire a new vaccine developed. So this is a grave crisis that aren't people need to realize that I think at this point. There's so many people have died and so many people have been sick and seriously that when you see those numbers going up, which I think are now upwards of $270,000 Americans. This is a very real virus and it's astonishing that the current president have the audacity to announce that he's going to go to Georgia and campaign in his old campaign-style maskless courage campaign song. He lost the election enough is enough wear a mask.

20:40 Hopefully we can minimize the Carnage and upcoming months Armani our mother. I had the joy to write a chapter book about my mother and what I found the reason why I title for chapter La luchadora, is that my mother as you know, the first Latina on the board of education the first to sell anything faced many battles some internally in the community and a lot externally when she was trying to bring a access to the final educational bring more job funding or bring more research and data. She she did but what was I thought the beauty of my mother in addition to the fact that she was always very elegant and beautiful. Is that the fact that she kept going no matter how many obstacles came in her way. She she kept going on her path, and she did not let anyone.

21:40 Anything stop her a longer path, her friends told me stories that about when she was at the Chicago Board of Education how she was the first board member who actually would go out and be there to see the community activists protesting against something that was going on in the school that they would never let never have more money at their that's coming to hear what we were saying. She listen listen to the protesters she tried to work to find solution and she didn't let anything stop her at all as as we mentioned about the sanctuary City and my brother tells the story very well. She was working for Harold Washington mayor Harold Washington. She was an executive and his cabinet and she was just going to work and City Hall and immigration at the time you called immigration Naturalization Service stopped her and ask her or her or her papers to prove. She was illegally in the United States and as she was Puerto Rican

22:40 US citizenship and US citizen and my grandmother was so that she was stopped and he decided to make Chicago a sanctuary City. So that others would not be discriminated against as my mother had that and that was a tremendous value and I can take that status continues in Chicago to the day protecting us all of us all of us all of the Latino Community from this type of discrimination. That's just one of the stories about my mother Albert. Did you want to tell us another story actually thought this was more about covid-19.

23:28 A mother also march with the Martin Luther King Jr. 1966. So she was

23:37 Advocate of protest she also entertained a protest by Barack Obama when he was a community organizer. He came to his approach arrived at her office one day morning actually and got out of her she was in a chauffeur-driven car.

24:06 Asked who was in charge of the protest it was Barack Obama said it was him. He said he wanted he said we would like you to Ephrata office on the Southeast side to retrain steelworkers. She said make an appointment with my secretary come back in a week came back in a week with his protesters. He had him and some of the protesters in her large corner office. She heard him and them out. She agreed to that there was a need for the office. She's and secured an office and then posted posted a job opportunity for someone to manage the office. No one.

25:03 Metha criteria for managing the office which is set by federal guideline Obama calls her and after what's up with the office. She said she posted the position again. No one again was Metro criteria for filling the office Obama called her again. And she said frankly I don't have that you responded to him. Frankly. I can't find someone I posted it twice. I can't find someone to fill the position and he said he said well, I've got someone else Obama got back there with the name of that person and that person was hired. So she helped Obama a secure a victory in his community organizing career here in Chicago and hopefully in some small way assisted him on his way to becoming the legend that he is now,

26:01 And I totally agree my mother really taught President Obama The Importance of Being prepared and creating a plan for what he wanted which was the job training center and he took that lesson to help change his leadership. So totally great story about my mom.

26:22 She is there so many so many stories about her. I loved one story that I told and people were surprised by the story when she was on the board of education and she has been fighting away for bilingual education and then one day she came to board meeting and she began during the board meeting should be God to speak in Spanish.

26:45 Add the board members said we don't we don't know what you're saying Mighty. I just speaking in Spanish and she said that is exactly the point our children supposed to learn if they don't know all the language that speaks that you're speaking just as you that I do not understand what I was saying when I was speaking Spanish that's drop those board members and that helped them to change their vote and vote in favor of adding bilingual education. They understood the Bold move on. My mother's part. I have to say that was a part of who my mother was always there less. She was also a great speaker. She would have people over when we would buy brother and I are my brothers and I would see her seat Heathwood sad when she finished a big eat when she was getting award or was being recognized because she knew how she was passionate about her community. You have a access to everything it needs so that we could adapt.

27:45 And she inspired people to to ride to their teeth as a ride to leadership position. She was just not only beautiful but brilliant so she did require that people, specifically that they know what they were saying that you could get educated and get the skills. They needed to excel in the community has been an assistant became a happy to change. The locks are allowed to be locally and nationally.

28:27 Everyone she touched herself that she inspired.

28:32 What other quick story about my mother I did know about she was briefly at the Hispanic Alliance or