Latinos are here for our society- An open letter by Manuel "Manny" Gonzalez

As our country begins to heal from one of the worst health care crisis in history, we see around us the toll it is still taking across all industries and businesses. In the US over 600,000 deaths have been attributed to COVID-19. This health care crisis has also produced an economic crisis with over 50 million workers in our country, about a third of the pre-pandemic labor force, applying for some form of economic stimulus as businesses and whole sectors of our economy had to shut down to help slow the spread.

Every day since the onset of the pandemic, millions of Latinos have reported to their jobs, risking their health and that of their families, in industries that have kept vital services running for the rest of the country. Farmworkers, construction crews, cooks and servers in the food industry, gardeners, janitors, dishwashers, caretakers, nurses, doctors, delivery drivers, you name it, our country would not be running if it were not for the services of the essential workers risking their lives every day.

Latinos are keeping our infrastructure afloat and suffering disproportionately. Let's start with the basics. People need food to eat to survive. For people to have food, food must be harvested and processed.

According to the U.S. Census, about 18 % of our country's population is Latino. Yet, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Latinos represent well over 60 % of farm laborers, graders, and sorters, about 30 % of food manufacturing workers and over 30 % of "essential workers."

Not surprisingly, only about 16 % of Latinos have jobs that allow them to "work from home" according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor. All of this increased "exposure"

results in Latinos having more cases, hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and fatalities. This heightened exposure is often termed "socio-economic" factors.

Some would argue that these numbers are related to Latinos having higher rates of underlying conditions such as diabetes. But those higher rates would not totally account for the current multiples like 4X hospitalizations and worse outcomes.

In addition to the underlying conditions prevalence not being proportional to the multiples, the fact is that underlying conditions would not be determinant of outcomes if Latinos had the luxury of being able to work from home and avoid exposure and not have to be out with others picking and processing our food and other service industries jobs so we can survive.

As Latinos continue to support our most basic infrastructures though thier essential work, they also need our help to survive themselves. Let's advocate for decent pay, access to quality education and excellent health care.

Latinos are here for our society. Our society should be here for Latinos.

Manuel "Manny" Gonzalez is President of MGM Consulting, LLC. and Chairman of the Center for Leadership at Florida International University as well as serving on several non-profit and for-profit boards and a former Vice President at Procter & Gamble. Mr. Gonzalez was awarded the National Hispanic Health Foundation Leadership Award in 2014 for his work in improving people’s health. His company has donated thousands of masks in South Florida to help protect people and slow the pandemic.