Vida Y Salud in Crystal City, Texas
A sturdy, capable woman, Margarita has an air of competence. Although her life has been anything but easy, her eyes dance merrily when she speaks.
Born and raised in the dusty town of Carrizo, Texas, only a few miles from the Mexican border, poverty has always been part of the picture. Most families from this area are, or were, part of the migrant farming work force. Margarita wasn’t going to settle for the hard-work, low-pay lifestyle of her parent’s generation. After school, she moved to Mexico for eight years – trying her hand at making a living there. But the United States was her home, and she moved back to Carrizo and got married.
Her husband is a dozer operator and truck driver, and for years he made an adequate wage. For awhile, Margarita found work that she loved as a secretary in Eagle Pass, on the US side of the border. They began their family and had two children. They felt that their life was on a positive path.
But as the economy worsened, jobs for her husband became scarce, and then she lost her secretarial job. Finally, her husband was totally out of work options and they were scrounging to feed the family. Frightened that they couldn’t afford to take the children to the doctor if they got sick, she found the Vida Y Salud Health Care clinic, in nearby Crystal City. This clinic exists to provide low-income families with quality health care for free or on a sliding scale. They never turn a patient away due to inability to pay.
One of the clinic’s most important services is their Women’s Health program. Women in this south Texas region are crucial to their families as parents and as breadwinners. The Breast Cancer Relief Foundation’s Mammogram Access Program has awarded the Vida Y Salud clinic a grant to provide women of the area free mammograms. The clinic has arranged a partnership with Uvalde Memorial Hospital to perform these screenings. A forty-five minute drive away, it is the closest facility with a mammogram machine to Crystal City. Margarita was thrilled at this opportunity. Concerned that she should begin her breast cancer screening, she also knew that her financial situation in no way allowed her to pay for a mammogram. She had even investigated the possibility of arranging a payment plan, but there was no nearby facility even offering mammograms.
With the new TBCRF grant to Vida Y Salud, her problem was solved. She scheduled her appointment on one of the twice-monthly screening days. And because she didn’t have transportation, the clinic picked her up in the company van. This transportation is provided for all the ladies receiving mammograms. They are brought to the hospital and returned to their homes at the day’s end.
Through her massive determination to maintain a higher standard of living for her family, Margarita finally procured a job at a local lumber store. She is a dedicated employee and is working to improve her pay-level and status. She has ambitions to move back into secretarial work. She is fully aware of her importance to her family and grateful to have one less obstacle in her path.
