Months prior to her death, Garcia filed a police report explaining to the authorities that she feared for her life; and months later she would make a similar phone call. She reiterated details about her violent home life in her native Spanish, but because the domestic-incident report was never translated to English it was overlooked.
The language barriers that Spanish-speaking Latino immigrants face whenever they enter a school hospital or courtroom, particularly in the South, is concerning. Very often, there are no interpreters present to answer questions or to respond when these individuals need to communicate with a teacher, a doctor or a judge, leaving them vulnerable and at the mercy of those individuals with whom they need to communicate. Nonetheless, things may be changing in one small city in Chatham County, Georgia.
