Her spirit still inspires

Her smiling face is the first thing you see when you walk through the door of the Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center. A large portrait of the 6-year-old daughter of migrant farmworkers hangs on the front wall.

Virginia, who died in 1975 for lack of medical care, is immortalized in many ways.

Employees proudly say they work for Virginia Garcia, and her story motivates them. Every desk at the center holds her framed miniature portrait. The clinic's van is emblazoned with her image.

And recently, Gaea Haymaker, the center's camp outreach coordinator, stumbled upon Carolina, a 4-year-old with a tale frighteningly similar to Virginia's. The daughter of migrant farmworkers from Mexico, Carolina had suffered a foot injury that had become infected, just as Virginia did 30 years ago. But unlike Virginia, whose parents couldn't find treatment until it was too late, Carolina had a place to go, where doctors could understand her mother's Spanish and she could get the help she needed.

Her mother took Carolina to the Virginia Garcia clinic to receive antibiotics. When Haymaker followed up with the girl, she decided it was best to take her and her mother to the emergency department of OHSU Hospital in Portland. Haymaker stayed through the night to offer support and help translate.

Thirty years ago today, on July 3, 1975, the Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center opened its doors. Since then, it has expanded its scope but stuck to its mission -- to provide culturally appropriate and quality care to those who need it most, the underserved and the uninsured. It has moved beyond humble beginnings in a converted three-car garage with no sign out front to become an independent center serving more than 20,000 patients a year, with four primary clinics, an obstetrical and a dental clinic, all in Washington and Yamhill counties. It offers discounted pharmaceuticals and care on a sliding scale.

Many people make a personal connection with the center, which has helped them bridge cultures and take better care of their health.

"I'm connected to the mission of Virginia Garcia because of my own life," says Maria Loredo, the center's chief operating officer and a 27-year employee.

"I never got it from anybody that I could do anything other than work in the fields," Loredo says. The clinic gave her another opportunity.

When Loredo began working at the center as a receptionist in 1978, the clinic was staffed with volunteers from St. Vincent hospital in Portland. It was open only during harvest season for patients who needed urgent care.

One of the first people Loredo met while doing outreach at farmworker camps was Amelia Sosa, then 18 and pregnant with her second child.

Sosa had medical problems with all six of her pregnancies. She heard about the clinic by word-of-mouth. Sosa relied on Loredo and the staff at Virginia Garcia because it was the only medical facility with employees who spoke Spanish.

"I almost lived at the clinic," Sosa, 47, says in Spanish, with Loredo translating.

Loredo and Sosa reminisce about the harsh conditions of the migrant camps, when Sosa had no phone, no car to take her children to the hospital and little support from her husband, who was often working on the fields.

Sosa and her daughters continue as Virginia Garcia patients, even as the center has changed.

The center has expanded with the area's population, including more uninsured, as well as with the changing cultural and ethnic backgrounds of its patients.

"We are broadening our definition of what it is to be culturally appropriate," says Gil Munoz, the center's director.

Although 66 percent of the patients who visit the Virginia Garcia clinics are Latinos, an increasing number are Vietnamese, Chinese, Somali and Russian.

Virginia Garcia works with interpreters from the Asian Health and Service Center of Portland, who speak Vietnamese, Korean and other languages. But the center struggles to find interpreters for dozens of indigenous languages in Latin America, Munoz says.

"We don't have the capacity to serve all of the people who need us," Munoz says. He estimates the center serves only a quarter of the people it could.

Patients' health-care needs are also changing.

Munoz says the center is managing more chronic conditions, such as diabetes, asthma and hypertension. In the early days, it dealt with more agricultural work injuries.

The center emphasizes prenatal care, pediatrics, cancer screening and most recently, mental wellness, in all of its clinics. Mental health issues, such as depression, have prompted the center to offer therapy at the Cornelius site.

With cuts to Medicaid looming, the staff is on guard, because the center receives half of its funding from the program.

However, it wouldn't be the first time the spirit of Virginia Garcia has beaten the odds.

"It's a great challenge," Munoz says, "a multidimensional one."