For Nelly Gonzalez, it wasn’t the music, the sun or even the fried yucca that brought her to the Salvadoran-American Festival in Wheaton on Sunday.
Gonzalez, who arrived in the United States in 2006, doesn’t have health insurance and doesn’t get to the doctor often, although her family has a history of diabetes. “It costs $80 a visit and they don’t do anything, so I don’t go,” she said.
But when she heard about the health tests available at the fair, Gonzalez was more than ready, she recalled.
“That’s it! We’re going!” she said as she stood in line with her daughter Catharine, 16, waiting to get her cholesterol and blood sugar levels checked.
Gonzalez was just one of hundreds from the D.C. region who came to Wheaton for the festival.
Vendors sold fried yucca and other goodies, while dancers performed traditional Salvadoran routines, and bands played to hundreds of Latinos from the Washington region.
A smaller number of people lined up for health demonstrations and consultations, tucked in the back of the fair, in a parking lot.
Maryland Del. Ana Sol Gutierrez (D-Montgomery), who was at the fair, said she helped organize the health fair because she wanted to help connect immigrants to services they don’t have enough access to. “There’s not really an outreach effort,” and the community is underserved, she said.
At the festival, several medical vans offered checkups and consultations for services ranging from measuring body mass index to testing blood sugar and cholesterol levels. A dozen other tents also counseled on such issues as how to quit smoking and how to connect to low-cost health-care programs.
“It’s good to learn what resources there are for . . . communities like ours,” said Santiago Castañeda of Prince George’s County.
Castañeda has health insurance but was recently diagnosed as pre-diabetic, he said. He stood in line to get a second opinion.
“I want to see if my doctor is lying,” he said, laughing.
A few feet away, Selene Tituana talked to women about the importance of checking themselves for potentially cancerous lumps in their breasts. She demonstrated by using two models of breasts. One woman she talked to had a lump for three years, Tituana said, explaining that many women wait too long before getting tested.
“Most wait until [the lumps] are more magnified, and they can’t do anything,” she said.
Meanwhile, Adolfo Leon-Navarro was selling ice cream and fruit bars from a pushcart.
“It’s good; it brings the community together,” he said of the festival as he sold icy pineapple and strawberry fruit bars. He had packed 300 treats and had sold 40 by early afternoon.
In another area of the fair, Montgomery County Fire and Rescue personnel passed out plastic firefighter hats and talked to families in an effort to connect with them and instill basic fire-safety lessons, said Nelson Ortiz, a firefighter. One of the points they made clear: Those with a fire need to call 911, even if they worry that they won’t be able to communicate with a dispatcher.
“We’re going to make sure everyone’s okay,” Ortiz said.
Nearby, dozens lined up to make appointments to renew their passports or identity cards. More than 300 people had set up a meeting with the Salvadoran consulate by lunchtime, an official from El Salvador’s Ministry of Exterior Relations said.
About an hour after lining up for a health test, Gonzalez got her checkup.
A doctor said her cholesterol level was excellent but added that she needs to work on her glucose levels.
“I have to eat lots of vegetables and fruit and exercise a lot. . . . It doesn’t agree with me so much,” she said, smiling.
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