0:00 1266_Gonzalez_Sandra_Pt2
Mon, 7/6 12:17PM • 51:21
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Anglos; America; United States; Spanish language; citywide; Coronavirus;
Education--Distance Learning Applications; Education--Online-Learning; Essential
Worker; Facility--Hospital; Health Services; Language Barrier; Medical Field;
Pandemic; Public Health Measures; Social Distancing;
SUBJECT LOC SUBJECT HEADINGS
youth; Hispanic Americans--United States; Hispanics (United States); Latino
Americans; Latinos (United States); Spanish (language); Spanish language--Usage;
Spanish-speaking people (United States); Coronavirus infections--Diagnosis;
COVID-19 (Disease); Quarantine--America; Quarantine--Texas; Quarantine--United
States; Social Interaction--United States;
Dominique 00:09
Hello, today is June 29, of 2020. My name is Dominique Montiel, and I'm
interviewing Sandra Gonzalez for the Voces Oral History Center at the University
of Texas at Austin. Um please know, Miss Sandra that this interview will be
placed in the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American collection at UT Austin. If
there's anything that you don't want to answer or talk about, you know, I'll
honor your wishes. So just let me know and, and we can skip that part. Also, if
there is something that you want to talk about that I haven't brought up, please
bring it up and we'll talk about it. Okay. And because we're not conducting this
interview in person, I need to record you consenting to some statements. So I
will ask you a series of five questions. Please say yes, I agree or No, I do not
agree after each one. There are two questions before the rest that we need to
make sure that you agree to before we move on. Okay, um, Voces wishes to archive
your interview along with any other photographs or documents at the Benson
library at UT Austin. We will retain copyright of the interview and any other
materials that you donate to Voces. Do you give Voces consent to archive your
interview and your materials at the Benson library?
Sandra 01:42
Yes, I agree.
Dominique 01:44
Great. Um, do you grant Voces copyright over the interview and any material you provide?
Sandra 01:51
Yes, I do.
Dominique 01:53
Do you agree to allow us to post this interview on the internet where it may be
viewed by people around the world?
Sandra 02:01
Yes, I agree.
Dominique 02:04
Great. Um, so we have many questions in the pre-interview form that you already
filled. Um, we use that information from the pre-interview form to help
research. The entire form is kept in a secure Voces server. Um, before we send
that form over to the Benson, we will have stripped out any contact information
for yourself or your family members. So that will not be part of your public
file. Your public file will only be accessible at the Benson library. Do you
wish for us to share the rest of your interview in your public file available to
researchers at the Benson?
Sandra 02:45
Yes, I agree.
Dominique 02:47
Great. And lastly, on occasion, Voces receives requests from journalists who
wish to contact or interview subjects. We only deal with legitimate news
sources. Do you give consent for us to share your phone number or your email
with journalists?
Sandra 03:04
Yes, I consent.
Dominique 03:07
Awesome. Great. Thank you so much for that. I know it's a little bit of a long,
a little bit of a long preamble, but we have to make sure that you know that
you're all right with everything. So, thank you for doing that. Thank you for
for staying with me. Um, so just to get us started, you know, tell me a little
bit about yourself, where you live, what you do, your family situation.
Sandra 03:32
Okay. I live in San Antonio, Texas. I was born and raised here. My mother still
lives in the house that I was raised in. My father has passed away. My, I've
been married now for 17 years. And my husband and I have two daughters. They are
10 and 14. And so it's fabulous for the live here in our house. In a very busy,
very busy family, I'm a nurse. My husband works for an engineering company and
he's a design project manager and he plays mariachi, I play mariachi as well.
So, we have both have to both have two jobs. And then my daughter's our, one is
going into high school. She's going to be a ninth grader at a private, private
school. That'll be our first experience for either one of us to try a private
school. My husband and I we were in public school and men. Then my youngest,
she's going into the fifth grade. At the same elementary school, her and her and
my oldest have attended that same Elementary School. It's a school Northside
school district is what it is here in San Antonio. They're, that they're part
of, or they have been part of and my husband and I, we just so happened to have
been raised on the south part of San Antonio, we went almost to the same
schools, but we did end up going to the same high school not at the same time.
And we ended up just together. And his parents, both of them are alive. My
husband has one sister, and I have one sister, neither one of us have a brother.
Other than through marriage. We both have brothers through marriage. We have
brothers in law, and we have a dog and a new dog to us this year and worked out
very well during quarantine that this dog has tons and tons of attention. And
what else? That's a little summary.
Dominique 05:51
That's perfect. Thank you. Thank you so much for that for getting us started.
So, you mentioned briefly that you are a nurse. Could you tell me a little bit,
you know, describe a little bit, your workplace and your role there.
Sandra 06:07
Okay, well I am a staff nurse, registered nurse at a hospital I'll mention the
name, it's Methodist Methodist Hospital, and we are a hospital that treats
children. We have a pediatric hospital and we have a Women's Hospital which is
for all kind of women, surgeries, gynecological and then we are labor and
delivery very large labor and delivery a very large NICU at the hospital and I
have worked at the NICU and I currently work mother baby, I take care of women
that are pregnant. And we have an adult, you know, straight on adult hospital as
well. It's all together. So, 10 floors for adult care as well. So, it's a very
big, it's a very, very big hospital. It's just growing and growing over the last
several years. But that's what I do. As a registered nurse, I take care of
women, once they have delivered their baby. And I take care of their newborn as
well. And I still get pulled to the NICU I work there, I'll work WSU which is
Women's Services Unit. And I'll be pulled as well to antepartum and that's for
women that are pregnant at the time, and they're in the hospital.
Dominique 07:31
Thanks for that. So really, really interesting and fascinating stuff. You know,
you mentioned that you work a lot with pregnant women who now during the
situation, you know, are some of the most the most vulnerable people during this
virus. Can you tell me a little bit about how your work has changed and how your
interactions with your you know, your typical patients have changed? Now that we
have COVID-19.
Sandra 08:01
Well yes, it has definitely been quite the change in our hospital. When we first
started to the city of San Antonio kind of started to go through a lot, just
caution, slowly ended up a shut down. But the hospital, we jumped on it very
quickly. I remember working, it was my shift, I had to tell my patient suddenly
give you an hour, but then your visitors all have to leave. We are not going to
have any more visitors at the hospital. We are allowing one and we are very
fortunate that our patients get to have one person with them. The entire rest of
the hospital was not allowed to have visitors. And in particular, if you were
and it was very slow, we didn't have very many cases in San Antonio, but our
hospital had very few at the time that came in as a Positive COVID in right away
immediately the hospital learned how to take care of a patient with COVID with
Coronavirus 19 because of course there's several Coronavirus, but Coronavirus,
19. In particular we, when we took care of them at the hospital, we tried to
make very minimal with one nurse, taking care of them, and only allowed to be in
their very short time. So now we've, what we tried to do for the sake of having,
you know, you worry about having the beds, so that's why our hospital stopped
doing elective surgeries. And we started having just the necessity. So those
were patients that needed to be admitted because they were so sick, and they
were in the hospital. So, the elective surgeries didn't happen. So how it had
changed for me was our unit was considered a non COVID unit. So, any patients
that came in just so happen there that just so happened to be pregnant and
positive COVID or maybe didn't even know until they got to the hospital. But
what we started doing is we started checking all women during their pregnancy
before they came into the hospital. So that was a little different. All patients
that were pregnant and coming to the hospital, got a COVID test. Then, if all
negative, they went through the labor and delivery department, they came up to
our floor and then they get discharged from our floor and we are technically
supposed to be non-COVID. Now if it happened that a woman comes into the
hospital. This is just for my unit. This isn't every single unit on the hospital
but in our unit. When a woman came in and she is pregnant, and she tests
positive, well they put her isolated on a whole different floor, and she has one
nurse that takes care of her during the shift, only one nurse, now we are
blessed that we're able to do that right now, because we have so few cases. But
yes, we would have one nurse take care of her during her labor and delivery,
then one nurse take care of her during her postpartum time. So that decreases
the amount of people that are even given access to a patient that is positive
COVID. And that person could not have any visitors. So, any patient that is
COVID positive they cannot have any visitors in our hospital. Yeah. So, in that
way, it changed us. What we needed to do in my unit is we had to bring up
another unit which is women's Services Unit, we brought them up to our floor,
they were negative COVID patients as well. So, any woman that needed
gynecological any issues with that, and they needed to be in the hospital they
were up on our floor. So, what ended up happening is we lost a few of our beds,
and it went to that unit. And that unit also was small because they weren't
doing any elective surgeries, no gynecological of any kind of surgeries going
on. So, they took some of our floor means we were kind of tight with our, with
our amount, of floors. Well, it ended up and it has been very tough on our floor
because women don't stop having babies. They don't stop. They are still having
their babies and so we can't. We're just a very, very busy hospital with labor
and delivery. We're very busy with women that are having their babies. And
another thing that changed. And it's an interesting thing, not every single
hospital will do an automatic COVID test on everybody that enters as a patient
and ours does. So, the doctors, the OBS they like that, so they started sending
their patients to our hospital instead of some of the others in San Antonio. So
even busier, were very busy. Yeah. So that's a lot. That's a lot of that has
changed just from my unit alone.
Dominique 13:16
That's absolutely fascinating. I can imagine that. You know, of course, like you
mentioned, pregnant women don't stop having babies
Sandra 13:24
Haven't stopped at all.
Dominique 13:27
For sure. So, kind of on that note, you know, you mentioning that it's so busy
and now you're having, you know, people route people into your hospital. I kind
of want to know, how, how do you feel safe in your workplace, like, can you tell
me a little bit about, you know, whether you're being tested, what are the
measures that are being implemented, to keep you as you know, an essential nurse
and essential, you know, member of staff safe. I'd love to know a little bit
about that. And just your personal experience through that.
Sandra 14:02
So, what we started doing immediately besides ending all visitation, so that was
very little exposure from the outside so that in that way it's safety for us.
Because all the visitors and we have so many visitors before this, so many I
can't even tell you how many come through the doors to come and see their loved
ones at the hospital. That's a thing. People want to see their loved ones at the
hospital and they'll go visit all times of the day, they go all day. So, in that
way that was to protect us, okay. It was to protect the other patients and we
need to protect our patients that are in the hospital. So in that way that alone
cutting visitors was for our safety, but then we started having a Zar, we call
them a PPE Zar, so the patient protection equipment, they would go around to
every floor the hours of 8, 12 and 4 around the clock and see if your floor
needs any more PPE. Do you need more masks? Do you need more sanitizing wipes,
they're, they're pretty. You don't use them without gloves. You use them with
gloves and they're, they're much more potent than a Clorox wipe. But you wanted
to see if our floor needed more of that. So, they tried. It wasn't just out in
the open for everybody to use everybody to grab. Sorry.
Dominique 15:35
Oh, no, no worries. Don't worry when those things happen. No, we assumed that
with everything being on Zoom and everything being online. Haha. Well don't
worry about that.
Sandra 15:53
Um, my daughter's having her friends call her. So, we didn't run out of the
supplies was the whole idea like jumped on it right away. I mean of course we
weren't as some, some states were not as fortunate. Obviously, we hear about
that the case is just were overwhelming and the supplies were running out. So
far, we've been okay. Because we immediately shut down visitation, the city
started to shut down. And so, um, very few cases. And so that helped us to save
our beds basically and to save for the just in case that came in. So, for me,
besides being on a COVID negative floor, I do feel safe. And when we have had
COVID positive patients, what we do is not just we have the supplies for the
person that is going to take care, the nurse that is going to take care of that
patient. We also have a buddy so that is like I've been the buddy to a nurse,
it's going to take care of a patient, what I do is I stand there, and I read the
instructions on how to put on everything correctly. There's a whole education we
had to go through of how to wear your specific equipment, how to wear everything
from the mask, the shield, the gown, the gloves, how to take them on, dawn it
and to doff it, like take off the supplies. And there's a whole slew of hand
wash, then take it, hand, wash them, do this hand wash, then take this off hand.
So that's a lot. So, I do feel safe that way. But that's my hospital and we
jumped on it very quickly. And we were just fortunate. We didn't have a lot of
cases at the time. So, in that way, yes, I feel safe.
Dominique 17:43
That's awesome. This is all you know, fascinating. It's a lot but it's super,
super interesting. For me personally as well. I kind of want to ask you a little
bit about you know, you're around patients every day. You're telling me that you
see patients with COVID pretty often. And I kind of want to know a little bit
about how that has changed your relationship with people outside of work. You
know whether or not you know, you have to be careful when you come home. You
know what I mean? Those things. And so, if you could tell me a little bit about
how that has changed, how being a nurse has changed things for you in your daily
life, and relationships in your daily life?
Sandra 18:32
Yes, definitely a change, most of us nurses that say we're not taking care of an
actual patient that day. We don't have a COVID positive patient that day, most
of us nurses. Well, first of all, we get to the hospital and all of us employees
have to have our temperature taken and they give us each a mask. So, we have to
wear that mask for our shift. Okay, that's just plain old taking care of a
non-COVID patient we're going in on our scrubs. And so what usually what we do
is at the end of the shift, we take our hand wipes, and we clean everything down
the whole everything our pencils our pens our stethoscopes, our bottom of our
shoes, we clean that and then we get all our stuff ready together. And if
there's anything that needs to be wiped down, we wipe it all down. And then we
walk out of the hospital that's walking out of the hospital, get into our car,
most of us take off our shoes, and we step in and we sit in our car. And then
when we get home, we run immediately to our either through our garage, or if we
have to go through the house, we make sure our shoes are not on us. We leave
them at the door, and we run to the shower, no contact with family. Take off our
scrubs and we've put them in a designated area or in a bag and take a shower
right away. No touch no contact with anybody at your house at all until you get
your shower. And there's a lot of nurses I know they'll go through the garage
they get naked in the garage and then they go into but that's kind of our norm
as far as us getting home. We, those that are taking care of COVID positive
patients, they will shower at the hospital before leaving. Mm hmm. Yeah. So,
they take off everything shower, and then same routine they get on home. Their
shoes are different. They're not wearing the same shoes they had in the
hospital. And then they go in and they take a shower again. Yeah, but yeah, you
shower before you leave the hospital if you're taking care of a COVID positive
patient. And then as far as socially we do our we just do what is recommended.
We try, I think most nurses, most healthcare workers and not just nurses, our
patient care assistants housekeepers at the hospital the lab techs of course, we
work with a lot of doctors, and so we're all trying to do our best once we leave
the hospital and we're away from work to do what's recommended. Everybody
everybody has their their thing with that, right?
Dominique 21:26
Wow.
Sandra 21:27
It's wow.
Dominique 21:31
It's the is the reaction for sure. Um, so I'm just thinking, you know, San
Antonio being a city that has so many, you know, Latinos and Latinas. How you
know, how the fact that you are a Latina, changed, any experiences that you've
had as a nurse during all of this, you know, whether you've had people come in
that you know, need to speak in Spanish or things like that. You know, I would
love to know whether that has affected anything as well.
Sandra 22:08
Well, um, well we know COVID is real doesn't discriminate, right? It's
everybody's affected, pretty much the same. they've, they've seen for some
reason there's more of a more people of color are getting affected and I don't
know whether that's the workplace, you know, people are working at Walmart and
HEB that are of color, maybe you've and that's what they're kind of kind of
thinking that they're seeing more of a more cases in in African American and
Hispanic. And I don't know whether that's just their job. That's their position
they hold and you see less I don't know whether you see less whites. I don't
know what that is, but, but as far as into the hospital. Nurses are of all
different nationality or origin, like there's so many diversity in nursing, and
in San Antonio, we have a lot of Hispanic employees. But we have a lot of
Hispanic patients, a lot. And so yes, you do have that this has always been an
issue, you have patients that come in and they prefer speaking Spanish. So, I'm
very happy I get to speak with them. I've always loved that I can speak to my
patients in Spanish, because it's difficult, you have to get a translator and we
have translators in the hospital, in the form of an iPad and you have to dial
into it and find the language of your patient. And so, it's tough, because
that's a whole added, a whole added time. Just to try to communicate with your
patient because they're afraid, you know, every patient in the hospital didn't
want to be a hospital. So, you have to deal with people and their fears. So, I
love that I can speak Spanish. I've always found it and believe me, I'm not the
best to find but I know near the best, but I've always been happy and I think a
lot of nurses that are there they find me very lucky that I can communicate with
the patients in San Antonio, we have a lot of Hispanics but we have a, when the
people come into the hospital they have a lot of fear. So, when you can
communicate with somebody, especially now that's really difficult and we don't
just have Hispanic we have Asian, you know, and you have to find their language
as well in this in this translator. But but being Hispanic and being in San
Antonio, I think it's a great thing that I can communicate and they can and will
not just have not just that I can speak the language but they see me and they're
like, okay, good, somebody will get me because Hispanics, you kind of are so
used to having your loved ones around you, you want your love around, you know
what I mean? We want our family, we want our sisters, or Dios, you know you're
just used to it. So, it's very hard for the Latin community to, to realize and
practice distance, it just is and there's families are like that. In any case,
but um, but to come into a hospital and realize you're not going to have anybody
with you, that's really difficult and very scary for a patient, so in in the
hospital in my work that is tough for my, for my patients that I'm an advocate
for. So, it's, it's hard, it's hard for them. But once they come into my
hospital, that's who I'm there for, I'm not, or at least the way, that's the way
it should be. I'm there for them. I'm not really, I'm not really there for
everybody else. I'm there for the patient. And so, we need to make it safe for
them. So, it's tough because Latinos, we want our family we want to love. It
gets tough to for them.
Dominique 26:06
Yeah. Absolutely. And I agree. And I guess maybe just shifting on more towards
you know, your personal experience and your life with your family and your
friends kind of continuing you know, that that sentiment, you know that, you
know, Latinos want to have their family around and they want to have gatherings,
how has that, how has COVID affected your ability to be able to do that? And if
you have, like any specific anecdotes or you know, birthdays that you missed,
things like that. Can you tell me a little bit just about you know, your, your
experience going through that?
Sandra 26:48
Um, well, my mother lives on her own since my father passed away last year, so
she's on her own and so that as my sister and I have gone and we have literally
we could just stand outside. If we have just had any contact with people during
the day. We'll just stand outside; we'll talk to her. But for the most part
we've been, thank God, for the most part. She's been very careful. My sister and
I have been very careful in our environments. So, we go, and we see my mother,
we go into the house and we do gather that way. But it, it's now so many more
cases in San Antonio. So, we have to be very careful. We know that it affects
the elderly a lot more. My mother's 88 so we know it affects the elderly. More,
it's more harsh on them than on a body, of a younger body. But um, as far as any
other kind of get together. We haven't done a whole lot of that. We've done our
get together with my mom, my sister and then my kids and my joke is always don't
breathe on grandma.
Sandra 28:03
That's my thing. But don't worry that
Sandra 28:08
but that's, we have to. We know that it's out there. But like my mother says,
why are you going to go over there and, and be more at risk? Don't do and all
parties wait on the parties, where are you going to go and, and have the get
together with everybody? Why risk it? That's my mother's view on it. And then my
sister's been real diligent about keeping distance from people, wearing the
mask, and we both, my husband, my sister, and I, we play music. So that is right
out in front of people. So that's been also very difficult for us because we are
exposed to others because of this. For the longest time when this the city had
the shutdown, back in March, well, we weren't performing, we just weren't
performing. We weren't playing for other people; we weren't in front of them.
And then slowly the city started opening up. So just recently, we have had to be
around more people than we ever did. And so, we have taken the precautions of
keeping your distance from the people that you're performing for. And even with
the fellow musicians, we want to keep our distance from one another. We wear a
mask when we get into the place, and we're going to cross any paths with anybody
and then we take off our mask when we're going to keep distance from someone.
So, in that way, that is, that has been a real challenge. To keep that part is
actually more challenging than the hospital. Yeah. Because we got to think about
our kids, we got to think about our mother, you know, and, and we're running
across other people. And, yeah, that's challenging.
Dominique 29:57
I mean that was something I was going to, ask you anyway, but you touched on it,
you know how this has affected you being a Mariachi. You know, I feel like
that's super interesting as well. And the fact that, you know, it's harder
you're mentioning, being a Mariachi than being at the hospital with all this.
Sandra 30:17
Yes, I know, I saw a post on Facebook of a girlfriend. She's a nurse. And almost
like she's like, it's almost like we feel safer in the hospital than out here
because everybody's wearing all their protective gear and everybody's keeping
their distance, and everybody's been screened when they come into the hospital.
They've been asked all the questions, they've had their temperature taken, and
any of the patients they've been tested. So, it's strange, like we're almost
feel safer in the hospital than when we're out because you don't know.
Dominique 30:54
I imagine though. I mean, that makes a lot of sense. Sure.
Sandra 31:02
With mariachi, the shutdown happened. All the events were canceled, all the
venues were closed. So, we didn't have any performances. For both things, we
didn't really want to be in the middle of everything and we and then our
clients, they had to cancel all their events. Unfortunately, weddings were
canceled, quinceañeras were cancelled, and good old parties at the house, you
know, they had to like stop that. But that is actually how we started playing
again was the serenatas outdoor, I'm actually going to go in a couple of hours,
go play a serenata outdoors in just a minute. So um, so that's how we started
back to performing again, is we were outdoors and our clients are way over
there. And we're playing for them and a lot of parades. You know, you've seen
the drive parades that are for celebrations and they would come by and we'd be
playing at the same time. And then everybody would stop their parade and they
sit in their car outside of their car and listen to us while we play. And then
more events started happening as the city started or the state, the state
started to open more, more events were happening. So, I've played a couple of
times and indoor, and, and, yeah, just gotta be careful. We go in with our
masks, and we get into our spot where we're gonna stand. And then we start to
play. Yeah, a little different.
Dominique 32:34
Oh, I bet. I bet it's super different. That's so interesting.
Sandra 32:42
The people they want their events. I mean, they want there to celebrate their
loved ones. Birthday to celebrate. And of course, graduation parties were kind
of like a no because it was during that time when we were shut down. And the
weddings you're seeing now they're starting to happen again and the
quinceañeras started happening again. And then we're just standing there at a
distance like, no one is wearing a mask no one. Like all our clients know all
the family like, Okay.
Dominique 33:20
Oh, thank you for sharing that with me. You have any pictures of, you know, that
experience that you want to share with us?
Sandra 33:27
Yes, yes. I'll have to send it. Yeah. Yeah.
Dominique 33:32
Um, I guess we can move a little bit in a different direction now that I was
thinking about it a little bit. You know, you mentioned at the beginning that
you have two daughters that, you know, are still in school. And I think one of
the things that COVID has affected a lot, as well, has been, you know, how, how
kids are receiving education. So, I guess as a parent, I would love to hear your
perspective. You know how, how COVID has changed the way that your children are
receiving education and the challenges that they have faced in doing that. And
you tell me a bit about that.
Sandra 34:15
I think I will have a lot of mothers tell you the same story. Spring Break
happened, and then there was no returning back to school. So, we had our spring
break, and then suddenly, yes, no returning back to school, oh, for a week, and
then no returning to school for two weeks. And then, so it wasn't just like,
wait a minute, okay. Of course, we want to stay home, we want to stay safe. But
then it was like, oh my God, my kid has to get out of vacation mode. Now. My kid
has to learn how to not be in spring break anymore without going to school and
that was, so I've heard it I've discussed it with so many mothers. And we've had
through the whole thing, and I don't mean to leave out dads. Because I know that
they, they try but I mean, the mothers are having to become the teacher, the,
the bell, the, the one that pulls up the stuff on the screen on online. Yes, my
school, my daughter's school district started doing distance learning. And, so,
teachers had to learn how to give them their lessons online. And then at first,
the first six weeks that they were out, it was like, okay, we're not going to be
really tough on the grades. It's going to be like just kind of let's, let's try
to work with one another. It's not so diligent about the grades. And then the
next six weeks, the final six weeks it was only two, six weeks left when they
went into spring break. So, the final one was more for grades and by this point,
the kids are just tired of distant learning. So, so yeah, for my kids, and they
were really bad and I think a lot of mothers will agree. They just did not do
well. You know, college online, okay, but kids, 10-year-old, a 14-year-old, oh
my goodness, wow. So difficult for them to learn that way it is. And then a lot
of mothers found they had to sit with their kid, while they're going over these
lessons. And these assignments, they had to sit with their kid to do this. So
not every mother can. I know. When I went to work, I'm gone all day long. I
don't get back till after midnight, and I leave at 10 so that was my shift. My
shift is 11- 8, 11pm. So that was zombie. My kids were zombies during that time
I was at work but for a lot of mothers that that, you know, were teachers they
got to stay home with their kid. For mothers that their office closed down, they
got to stay at home with their kid, but it's not as easy as it sounds, like, you
were your home you can do that schoolwork with them online. It was, it was not
that it was not that easy. We became everything from the mother to the cooking
the meals too. Time for school to start to enforcing them. Like while they're
sitting there you think you can get some dishes done, but you can't. You've got
to sit over there. And you got to make sure they're doing their schoolwork. And
Heaven forbid if anybody had three or four kids. Oh my, wow.
Dominique 37:41
Yeah
Sandra 37:41
It was just always really tough for teachers because in the mariachi group that
I'm in, the majority of the girls are teachers, they're music teachers in the
group I'm in. So, they had to deal with being a teacher, online with their
students and then they had to deal with being teachers of their own kids. You
know, that's, that was really difficult for teachers, um, and then just getting,
just getting the kids to pay attention. It's just a whole other. It's just a
shocker to them. They don't know how to be at home and do school, they really
don't, like, they've never had to, like, you know, even people that are grown
people and decided to take an online course in college.
Sandra 38:27
That's a whole -
Sandra 38:30
it's so difficult for them. So yeah, it was really, really hard on the kids. And
the moms too.
Dominique 38:37
I bet, no exactly. I spoke to a teacher earlier last week, and she was telling
me how you know, it was so tough on the kids but also on the moms. So, she was
like, please ask the moms how, you know, they were able to, to deal with all of this.
Sandra 38:57
Yeah,
Dominique 38:58
And I'm curious To know a little bit as well, you know, did your school help out
with, you know, technology and, you know, giving out, you know, for families
that maybe didn't have technology, and just in general if their school, you
know, help the community some way, you know
Sandra 39:20
They had Chromebooks available for the kids and they just showed up at the time
they were supposed to go get them and they, some, I think, signed them out. We
didn't get, we didn't get a Chromebook. The girls used my laptop or an iPad. We
just so happen to have an iPad. So, they use that things were a little difficult
on. Pearson was the learning company that they went with, our school district
went through Pearson, I guess there's several different companies. And I think
there was a few glitches between Pearson and if you had a Mac or Pearson, you're
not, yeah strange, so, there was a few glitches in all of that. So, what could
the teachers do? They tried to send out resources, like make it a tab to where
your kid can go and click on a resource and, and maybe show them in a video of
where to click and where to go. And so, in that way, but it's still them
learning online, you know, I mean, it's not like they have a person right here
to show them and the parents are learning as well. The parents will go to the
resource or the, so I think communication and school, period, is always tough
when it comes to communicating with a parent, I think it is. I found that with
my oldest when she was going to elementary school and as she went to middle
school, it was really tough. Because a kid can kind of decide they don't want
to, they don't want to pay attention. But then for a teacher or an
administrator, to try to keep in touch and make sure that they're sending emails
to every single parent. You know what I mean? Communicating with every single
parent. So, there's definitely, there's definitely holes that kids can fall
through. And that's what I'm really worried about because my kids had a really
hard time with distance learning my youngest, especially my 10-year-old. So, I
feel really bad for, if the parent, didn't have the support from their parents
at home. I mean, if the kid doesn't have the support from the parents at home, I
can't even imagine what is going on with those kids. Um, just being that I
think, my kid, she can just be a little lazy. But if I wasn't there pushing her,
you know, she'd have a really difficult time and then now, so they did the
shut-down. They did the last two, six weeks or whatever online, then it's
summer. Okay, summer, why do they get so excited? I'm like, what are you gonna
do? We're not doing anything different. Those poor kids, they're like, yeah,
it's summer, but yeah, what are we going to do? But anyhow, then summer starts
with and now summer school is supposed to happen in, my, my little one has to do
summer school, the younger one. Um, there was supposed to be I might be going
into something else, but this school district and I think many of them did, they
gave the parents, asked them what they would like to do either full time on
campus, hybrid. So, you spend two days on campus and two days at home or plain
and simple distance learning. And I wanted to be on campus because my kid was
much better that way. But now with the spikes that Texas had last week, now
they're no, they're not going to do on campus at all. So yeah, so totally taking
that away. It was going to be from eight to two was going to be just smaller
number of kids in the class, they were going to get all their temperature taken.
No parents allowed on campus at all. They were going to sit them distant and
they were going to try to feed them lunch, there in the room, that kind of
thing. They were trying all kinds of ways that they could be more careful on the
campus on school and now that's not going to happen. Yeah, so back to distance.
Yeah. So, it's gonna be tough. It's gonna be really tough in the month of July
when the summer school is supposed to be happening. Yeah.
Dominique 43:15
Well, I can, I can't even imagine. And I guess it's a little follow up question,
you know, you mentioned you know, they're going to their summer and you're like,
well, what's gonna change? And I'm sure, but you know, it's been very difficult
for them as well to, you know, to be at home and I was kind of curious to know,
you know, what kinds of things, you know, are they doing to keep busy or what
things are you encouraging them to do? Keep busy while inside? You know, I think
that's really interesting as well, you know, that we really haven't asked, you
know, parents when it comes to their kids.
Sandra 43:58
Some parents, I hear that they're really good about getting their kid outdoors
and anything from hopscotch to using the chalk on the concrete, which is good,
that, that my kid did that a couple times. I have, my daughters both play
sports. So, we go out there and we try to throw the ball with them, catch. Hit
the ball to them so they can practice, they're catching, they're, they're
fielding, they're both volleyball players, as well. My oldest, is a big, big
volleyball like volleyball player, so she tries to play that outdoors but my
girls like, my girls like air conditioning, it's getting and it's getting
hotter. So, we did try a couple of times going to the lake, because it could be
just us going to the lake. But we did go, we were invited by some friends and so
we tried to like kind of go you just keep your distance and it's outdoors and I
know a lot of people have tried that. Going to the lake. But that's about it
because everything else starts to get in a crowd. You know, my daughter, the
oldest one, her volleyball team started doing, because we basically lost the
season, we had already paid for select softball, I mean select volleyball. And
they had just done a few tournaments, just like two or three tournaments. And
they had done they still needed 12 more to go. So basically, lost that money.
So, what her team has tried to do is have clinics open to them to just for free,
basically not having to pay for them. So, there are two hours. So, my oldest
she's, she's going around her team now. And so what they've tried to do is like
everybody, very few adults in there, they take their temperature, they made them
use hand sanitizer like crazy and hand sanitizer when they leave and they try
not to have any adults in there and anybody that comes in they want them to wear
a mask when they're first walking in. When they're actually playing they don't
wear the mask, but, so, we're trying a couple of things you could do with your
kids a couple outdoor things
Dominique 46:27
it sounds it sounds like they're keeping now a little bit and you know, keeping
themselves entertained a little bit better and now with the volleyball and stuff
for you. Sounds great. And I guess to finish off the interview and kind of, you
know, I want to get a little bit of your impressions on when you realized that
COVID-19 was as serious as it is, like, if you have any moments, you know,
whether at the hospital or, you know, in your daily life that you have, you
know, when you realized that this was what it has, you know, become.
Sandra 47:09
Um, well, at first was being at the hospital and having to clear out the
visitors. It was more of a precaution trying to save our beds, trying not to
have an influx of people coming in. So we didn't, we were trying to be diligent
about our patient safety and our safety before it was gonna blow up, you know,
before it was in a really warm but hearing the stories of the nurses up in New
York and New Jersey, that, that gets real, real and they made an offer like a,
like a request can nurses from other states come and help us, so, I do have a
friend and her and her fiancé they went from here, our hospital, she's my
co-worker at my hospital. She works with me, with mothers and babies, her and
her fiancé left and they went to New Jersey. And they went to go help them and
she did. They did I think a six week, maybe less and it was beautiful when they
can go out on their own and see the view and all that up there in New York and
things were real pretty but, they got real real, like she, she just, it was,
it's really tough. The patients and the loneliness and the out of control that
patients are over there, anyone that has COVID and has to be in the hospital,
you're very out of control. Um, and then, knowing somebody knowing a nurse that
went and did that, you know, we just thought wow you're amazing, you're, you're
doing great, like, just to do that for humanity, you know, for someone else. But
our hospital started to, to fill up and then we started hearing about our
friends. I've got friends, I've got co-workers that are positive COVID so they,
yeah, so they had to quarantine, like, get home stay home and everybody's
affected so differently. I know people when they woke up, they had a little bit
of a fever they didn't feel real well almost like a little bit of a flu, by the
next day they were feeling fine but they tested positive. Yeah, they were
feeling okay by the next day. So, everybody's affected a little bit differently.
But, to see that it's just people that you know, you know, you, for the longest
time San Antonio we hardly had any cases. But, but now, I know people, I work, I
am friends with people that have it and thank God the majority of them are doing
okay. But you don't want that healthy, you know, 25-year-old to pass it on to
the 88-year-old person, you know, and I'm not, I don't mean 88 per say, like
everyone's going to bed. I mean, the one that has the diabetes, every Hispanic
has diabetes, right? Ah, sorry. Speaking of speaking of work, it's work calling
me. They probably need help.
Dominique 50:20
no worries, we can wrap up then I know that you are super super busy, and I
appreciate you taking the time to talk to me this has all been extremely
fascinating and helpful and you know, thank you
Sandra 50:32
I can help I know it's, it's such a different perspective. Everybody has a
different view of it like they're coming from a different their, their lives are
affected so differently by it.
Dominique 50:46
Absolutely. And I think you have a really unique story and anyway, thank you so
much, again for sharing and please go ahead, attend to your call. If you have
any pictures, you know, of you wearing a mask playing volleyball or you know
stuff like that that you want to send in
Sandra 51:06
Just your email? Do I send it to your email?
Dominique 51:08
Yes, you can just send it over to my email. Thank you so much, Sandra. It was
really great to meet you.
Sandra 51:14
It was really nice to meet you. Nice talking with you.
Dominique 51:17
All right, have a great rest of your day.
Sandra 51:19
You too. Thank you.
