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On any given day, a Spanish speaker who knows little — or no — English comes to the Rowan County Department of Social Services for assistance.
And almost always, Social Services officials ask them to come later, when the agency could arrange to get an interpreter, or when the person seeking help could bring an interpreter along.
Social Services didn’t have any staffers with strong bilingual skills and depended on two contract Spanish interpreters, who only came by appointment.
But not any more.
Social Services has hired Zully Hardaway as a full-time Spanish interpreter.
Hardaway, who is Puerto Rican, works from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. She translates forms into Spanish, interprets for the agency and Social Services clients and, as time permits, assists with clerical duties.
She helps clients fill out the forms in English as well as understand them.
The majority of Spanish-speaking people come in for public assistance programs such as food stamps, Medicaid and Work First assistance.
Hardaway is not a social worker, so she doesn’t try to determine if people are eligible. She only helps the agency and clients talk to each other.
No matter what she does, to Social Services, she is an answer to their prayers; to Latinos, she’s the hammer that helps Latinos knock down the barriers of language.
“Anytime a Spanish speaker came in, we either had to reschedule them to come back to meet with our interpreter or I was called to help them, and I really couldn’t speak Spanish all that well,” said Deborah Kendall, income maintenance supervisor and Hardaway’s boss. “I would spend at least four hours translating my questions and their answers during a client interview ... when the interview could have taken no more than two hours.”
Using such translation Internet sites as Babelfish.com or FreeTranslation.com, the site would translate sentences word for word, often losing the meaning of the words and confusing Kendall and the client.
“Zully is what we desperately needed,” said Patricia Spears, income maintenance administrator. “The staff likes her. She makes the clients feel comfortable ... She’s an answer to our prayers.”
For as long as Hardaway can remember, she has been bilingual.
“I really don’t remember learning English, I just know that I spoke Spanish at home and English in school and to some of my friends,” Hardaway said.
She grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., along with her brother and two sisters. Her parents, Segundo and Catalina Gonzalez, are from Puerto Rico.
After completing her studies of medical records technology at Manhattan Community College, Hardaway decided she wanted to leave New York and begin looking for other places to live.
“I knew that I wanted to move, but I just didn’t know where I wanted to go,” she said. “When I came to North Carolina and visited Salisbury, I fell in love with it, and my friend and I decided this was the place to be.”
Hardaway has lived in Salisbury for 20 years, and since moving here, she has seen vast culture changes.
“Twenty years ago, there wasn’t a sign of a Latino community,” Hardaway said. “About 10 years ago, I started seeing more and more Latinos.”
Before working at Social Services, Hardaway worked at KoSa for 10 years in the beaming department, where she worked with polyester fibers. Then she worked at Dillard’s distribution center in Salisbury for a year and a half as their Spanish-English translator.
A friend spotted Social Services’ advertisement for an interpreter.
“My friend saw the ad in the Salisbury Post and told me about it because I was bilingual,” Hardaway said. “I decided to apply because I have that advantage, plus I enjoy helping people.”
Social Services officials interviewed Hardaway and seven others for the interpreter position before Christmas, according to Spears. But something just stood out about Hardaway.
“She really didn’t have the education background as some of the other applicants,” Spears said. “But she had a strong work ethic and had a very personable personality ... She made me feel very comfortable just talking to her, and I was sure she would be that way to the clients.”
Working at Social Services for more than a month now, Hardaway said she is glad to see more members of the Latino community coming in.
“I’m here to help them understand what Social Services has to offer and how it can help them. I’ve met some really great people, and it just makes me feel good when they call back and tell me how glad they are that I’m here,” she said.
A major part of Hardaway’s job is helping clients fill out public assistance forms.
Previously, many Latino clients who couldn’t read the forms would throw them away.
“I tell them not to throw them away because someone can always help them fill it out,” she said.
She also suggested how they can help themselves.
“I told them that learning some English would help them understand some of the words and instructions,” she said, “but some refuse to learn English because they’re afraid of losing their culture.
“I told them that learning English doesn’t mean they have to give up being Mexican, Cuban or whatever ... They’d still be who they are.”
Social Services also has had to confront Latinos’ fears that if they come to Social Services for help, they may be deported.
“Regardless of their immigration status, DSS will see them,” said Spears. “We are not allowed to call the Immigration Naturalization Services, but we do call them to verify green cards, and if they are not a legal alien, the clients have to contact INS to become American citizens.”
The majority of Hardaway’s clients are from Honduras, El Salvador, Cuba and Mexico, and even their words don’t always have the same meaning.
“The Spanish language is pretty understandable no matter where you are from. But with all of the different versions or ‘slang’ used, I can run into some barriers.”
Hardaway said that proper Spanish is spoken in South America. But in places like Mexico, Puerto Rico or Cuba, the language spoken is a “slang” of Spanish.
For instance, the Spanish word for self-employment that Hardaway uses could be the form used in South America. The Latino community here uses another word.
“I was using the word ‘employ propio’ and my clients didn’t know what I was talking about,” Hardaway said. “But one client told me that in the community, the word self-employment is said, ‘negocìo propio.’ Since I’ve been doing that it’s gone over very well.”
Hardaway has dreams of doing more than helping people with language. She wants to become a social worker.
“I know that I may have to go to school to become a social worker, if so, that’s an option that I’ll take,” Hardaway said. “I just admire the job of social workers. It seems very interesting. I think that being an interpreter would go hand in hand with social work, plus the Latino clients could really benefit from it.”
For more information about the Spanish Interpreter’s services or agency services call 704-633-4921.
Contact Cortney L. Hill at 704-797-4249 or chill@salisburypost.com
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