‘When someone cries, I cry’: Families of victims rely on translators to navigate life after Key Bridge collapse

BALTIMORE — In the more than two weeks that have passed since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse snatched the lives of six construction workers, the bilingual case managers guiding the victims’ families through the ongoing fallout have spoken to the victims’ immediate and extended families “almost every day,” making themselves available after hours and on days off, according to two employees at the Baltimore-based Esperanza Center.

“We want to make sure that we’re getting all the information correct, that we’re relaying the correct information, that we’re not just collecting one answer and then going from that,” Lupita Espino said. “If we’re not contacting them, they’re contacting us and we’re making sure that we are answering those questions that they have.”

Espino and another bilingual case manager, Mayra Loera, are both Mexican women who count Spanish as their first language and are working with the victims’ families through the Esperanza Center. They answered questions about their work on the phone from a car Thursday so they could run into a home for a visit with one of the victims’ families afterward, taking advantage of rare spare time.

Espino and Loera are just two of the many people that are part of a coordinated response to the Key Bridge collapse which has necessitated bridging a language gap for the primarily Spanish-speaking families most affected by the March 26 tragedy.

All six victims of the Key Bridge collapse were Latino immigrants, hailing from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico. Three bodies have been recovered from the Patapsco River and three others have yet to be found among the tangled wreckage.

The Esperanza Center, run by Catholic Charities of Baltimore, is a resource center for immigrants that has operated since 1963, according to its website. The center is working with the Baltimore City Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs to provide bilingual case management for the affected families.

Loera said case management involves setting up home visits with the families, filling out financial applications and even just being there with the victims’ loved ones so they can get the personalized emotional and fiscal support they need while grieving an unimaginable loss.

That work can include gathering information on next steps like arranging funeral services, sending recovered bodies back home or bringing family members to the United States for the burials. Loera said a nonprofit, which she did not name, has been helping families apply for visas, some of which have already been approved.

“We are here for them to make sure that this is a little bit easier. It’s not going to be easy but it helps them at least keep this organization going so that they can receive the aid that they need,” Espino said. “That’s probably one of the most important things as a case manager right now for the situation, is being there for them and hearing them and being their voice.”

Espino and Loera are in contact with family members for all six victims; they’ve also spoken to another construction worker who survived the collapse after being rescued and treated at a hospital. Espino said he is quiet and kind but they are trying not to intrude on his space. Loera said he is receiving medical and mental health care.

“We’re ready to hear him when he’s ready to talk,” Espino said.

Espino and Loera started working with the families about midweek after the collapse, they said. But on that first day, the FBI Baltimore field office deployed Spanish-speaking linguists to the scene. Supervisory Foreign Language Program Coordinator Anastasia Steinour said each field office has a group of linguists, who do translation and interpretation full-time, in addition to working with contractors that can supply more.

The FBI declined to disclose how many linguists were there that day, though they said there were “multiple.”

Jennifer Bacon, an assistant special agent in charge with the Baltimore field office, said it quickly became evident that interpreters were going to be needed for the families waiting to find out more about their missing loved ones. The FBI’s linguists, who are “professionally trained by the FBI and FBI only,” worked with victim service specialists to facilitate conversation between the families and the different agencies that had gathered at the scene.

Steinour said the linguists have helped interpret for briefings, Gov. Wes Moore, Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller, the Coast Guard and other law enforcement.

Giuliana Valencia-Banks, the chief of immigrant affairs for Baltimore County, said the FBI linguists were “the most professional, highly trained, culturally responsive interpreters I have ever seen work.” Valencia-Banks said she saw at least four FBI interpreters working one-on-one with family members, who relayed information about next steps such as search and recovery.

Though there are bilingual people like Valencia-Banks and her counterpart in Baltimore Catalina Rodriguez Lima who can speak to families in Spanish as needed, Valencia-Banks noted that interpretation and translation are professional skill sets that should be handled by those trained and certified to do so.

And beyond language, there’s a question of cultural competency and the ability to connect with Spanish-speaking residents who can often be wary of government employees and resources.

As native Spanish speakers, Espino and Loera can sometimes connect more easily with families by doing things like picking up on less commonly used words the residents might say in their home dialect.

And shared culture can ease communication and connection, too — Espino said when talking to the families, she can almost feel them relaxing because they don’t have to question if they’re understood. Loera said even if it’s just for a few moments, they can take the families’ minds off the tragedy as they exchange memories from back home.

Loera said clients have told her that talking to her is like talking to someone who truly understands them beyond just speaking Spanish.

“Those are the words that we get: ‘You understand,'” Loera said. “Like I can connect with you. I can tell you this and I know that you understand exactly what I’m telling you.”

While the logistics of handling round the clock translation and interpretation services can be difficult enough, there’s also the question of the mental and emotional toll it can take.

Bacon said that the FBI takes mental health seriously and everyone involved with the crisis response, including victim specialists and linguists, are offered employee assistance that “runs the gamut from time off to spiritual help to literature-based help to pure counseling.”

Both Espino and Loera described the current moment as being in go mode, focused on helping the families and pushing through the intensity of their work.

Espino, who has been with the Esperanza Center for a little over a year, said the work has been difficult for her, even in comparison to other “heart wrenching” cases she’s handled in the past.

“I absorb the emotions of other people so just, when someone cries, I cry,” Espino said. “I try and stay strong as much as possible when I’m interacting with the families. Obviously, a few tears have come out here and there, but that doesn’t take away from the job that we have to do and we have to be strong. We have to get the work done and we have to be there for them.”