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  • On the Frontlines: Rural Iowa Latino/a Ministries during COVID-19
  • Kristy Nabhan-Warren34

This past summer, I had the opportunity to be a part of a conversation about how COVID-19 has impacted Eastern Iowa Catholics among local church leaders. These individuals, who are part of the Diocese of Davenport, have decades of experience ministering to an increasingly diverse community of white, Latino/a, Vietnamese, and Burmese parishioners. Before COVID-19 hit the state in the spring, they met in person each month over coffee and pastries; these days they gather over Zoom and have coffee virtually. Yet the joys and challenges of serving multicultural and multilingual populations remains the focus of their conversations. While Iowa is a predominantly white and rural state, the sizeable and growing number of Latinos/as and their ongoing economic and social precarity are of particular concern for these men and women who are committed to a more just church and society.

Three interlocking themes emerged from the Zoom meeting: Work is dangerous; There is so much fear; and Latino/a Catholics want community.

Work is Dangerous

According to Father Guillermo Treviño, the parochial vicar of St. Joseph parish in West Liberty and St. Patrick parish in Iowa City, Spanish-speaking parishioners have been “living in fear” because of immigration laws, potential ICE raids, and now COVID-19. Most Latinos/as in his parishes work in meatpacking at the turkey processing plant in town, West Liberty Foods, or at nearby Columbus Junction’s Tyson hog processing plant. As we have seen in the news, Latino/a workers have contracted COVID-19 at packing plants across Iowa at an alarming rate, as the slaughterhouses have been slow to respond at [End Page 18] best, negligent at worst, in addressing their workers’ safety.35 What we have not heard about as much, says Father Guillermo, is that Latinos/as and other refugees infected with COVID-19 end up spreading it to their family members, as they tend to live in multi-generational homes.36 What Father Guillermo has learned in working closely with his Spanish-speaking parishioners in West Liberty and Iowa City is that some Latinos/as who work at the meatpacking plants and who have COVID-19 have hid their symptoms and continued to work at the plants because they need the paycheck and are afraid of getting fired. According to Father Guillermo, around 500 workers at West Liberty’s turkey plant have been sickened by COVID-19. Some have died. The other Zoom participants nod in agreement when he mentions that the state has not been fully honest in its reporting of the numbers of COVID-19 cases. “The numbers are higher than they have been reported,” Father Guillermo says with a shake of his head. He continues to shake his head, looking down, as he talks about presiding over three COVID-19 funerals for Spanish-speaking parishioners in the past several months, all of whom were infected by the virus at the turkey processing plant.

Father Guillermo is correct in his assessment that COVID-19 cases have been underreported in the state of Iowa. A recent report found that Iowa’s State Department of Public Health had recorded 221 cases of COVID-19 in the Tyson plant, whereas the company has counted 522 cases.37 As we have seen on a national scale in the meatpacking industry, Iowa slaughterhouses have been veritable petri dishes for the virus to develop and spread. Workers perform their jobs side by side, mere inches apart and nowhere near the recommended six feet.38 [End Page 19] Father Guillermo says that almost all of his parishioners who have contracted COVID-19 contracted it from the packing plant, or live with someone who works at a packing plant. He emphasizes that for Latinos/as in particular, the family is the central unit and extended families tend to live together, making is impossible for them to maintain social distancing.39

Father Guillermo’s ministerial relationship with his parishioners was complicated during COVID-19 when the vice president of West Liberty Foods asked him to serve as a translator and go-between for the company and his Spanish...

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