A daughter of immigrants, poet shines light on health care system
Health care is not exactly a common topic for poetry. But poetry is the medium used by Rockford, Illinois, resident Giulyana Gamero, 18, to share her experiences of advocating for her Spanish-speaking, immigrant parents in various health care settings.
“Hearts and chests and lungs and breathe. I tell him to breathe,” begins one of the poems about her father, Gustavo, which she recites in a poetry video series. “There is a waver in his voice when he asks for rough translations. But I’m counting the days down until school resumes to capture me again, swooping his little girl from his home.”
Gamero’s father, who was born in Mexico, has been living in the United States for over 20 years and has picked up English here and there. For many non-English speakers, navigating a jargon-loaded, fussy health care system presents persistent obstacles that deter vulnerable populations and minorities from receiving the care they need.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 9 out of 10 adults in the United States have difficulty understanding and using personal and public health information when it’s filled with unfamiliar or scientific lingo.
“There’s a lot of challenges to overcome when it comes to language barriers,” Gamero told the Tribune. “And a lot of this is almost saddening to see just because there aren’t as many accommodations … as there should be.”
Expanding accessibility would require increasing health literacy – understanding one’s own health and the health care system – by having professionals use more plain language and employing interpreters or translators. Otherwise, patients can experience more negative health outcomes or higher medical costs.
‘A DIFFERENT CREATIVE LEVEL’
A senior at Auburn High School, Gamero was chosen as the City of Rockford’s 2022 Youth Poet after being nominated by her English teacher and going through an elaborate – but, in her words, exciting – written application process.
“She was in a different space, at a different creative level than her peers,” said Mary McNamara Bernsten, executive director of the Rockford Area Arts Council, which helped establish the Youth Poet program. “And it’s been so fun to see, from the beginning of
2022 to the end, how much Giulyana has come into her artistic voice. It’s not an easy thing to do, especially as a younger person.”
Gamero has loved poetry for a long time. She said she developed an interest in creative writing as early as first grade.
“My love for poetry started during a poetry unit in my English class in seventh grade, where I was introduced to slam poetry and the spoken word,” Gamero said. “And that, honestly, really sparked this passion in me for poetry just because of how authentic and raw and real it felt.”
As Rockford’s Youth Poet, Gamero was approached by CURA Strategies, a health care communications agency, to develop a health literacy poetry series inspired by her own experiences.
The series would be part of the city’s Health and Human Services’ Rockford Ready health literacy initiative, which aims to empower residents to take control of their health, in partnership with the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine’s Office of Health Literacy. The project was created with support from the Rockford Area Arts Council and Frank and Harvey Film Production.
In creating the Rockford Ready health literacy poetry video series, Gamero said she had to find a delicate balance between a concrete subject matter – her lived experiences in the health care system – with an abstract voice.
For instance, one of her poems uses the colors of ambulance sirens, “Blue, Red, Blue,” to convey the importance of seeking preventive care and routine screenings to address health concerns before they become serious, life-threatening issues.
“Cool blue, honest red, blaring on city streets from lingering infection. I wonder if it could be me?” the poem goes. “Honest red, cool blue. If it’s between holding onto my breath and being at the brink of death, or swallowing my pride and ask until there’s nothing left, my mouth would be a cannon. And I would be firing off. I’d ask all the right questions if I knew there was something wrong.”
ADDRESSING INEQUITIES
The use of preventive care varies across racial and ethnic groups, according to a report by the Defense Health Agency, part of the Military Health System. Language barriers such as limited English proficiency, for example, impact the use of preventive services in minority populations, according to the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
According to the Milken Institute, Hispanic adults have
demonstrated the lowest health literacy of all ethnic and racial groups, and adults who spoke only Spanish at home before schooling have the lowest average health literacy of any population.
Rockford Ready’s health literacy poetry series was based on the idea that art, such as Gamero’s poetry, can address these inequities in health care.
“Often art reflects the challenges in the society that it’s in,” McNamara Bernsten said. “And artists are … sort of the journal-keepers and scrapbookers of the age, whatever age that is. … Providing insight and perspective and advocacy to an area of need is something that artists can do really effectively.”
Writing poems for the series not only strengthened Gamero’s health advocacy, it helped her advocate for her own voice in her work, said Anqunette Parham, executive director of Rockford’s Health and Human Services Department.
For instance, as Gamero developed the series, her poems were subjected to critique and feedback from academics and clinicians from UIC’s Office of Health Literacy.
“It was actually even an opportunity for us to have that conversation with those folks about the fact that this is the interpretation of a young woman of our health care system,” Parham said. “And it doesn’t have to feel good, and you may not like it, but this is her truth. This is how people are experiencing the system.”
But the beauty of the young poet’s words – and the frustration of her lived experiences – shined through the academic scrutiny.
“I’m just so incredibly proud of the work that she created for us, and the fact that these pieces will continue to live on just really gives credence to the importance of health literacy for communities of color here in Rockford,” Parham said.
THERE’S A LOT OF CHALLENGES TO OVERCOME WHEN IT COMES TO LANGUAGE BARRIERS. AND A LOT OF THIS IS ALMOST SADDENING TO SEE JUST BECAUSE THERE AREN’T AS MANY ACCOMMODATIONS … AS THERE SHOULD BE. Giulyana Gamero, who uses poetry to advocate for her parents in health care settings