Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo announces $17.2 million grant for mental health center

As the only Salvadorian elected in legislature, it is of great importance to Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo to be able to represent her community. Carrillo was born during the Salvadoran Civil War, which caused her and her family to flee the U.S. when she was five. She grew up 20 minutes away from the USC campus in the local neighborhood of Boyle Heights.There, she didn’t have access to great health care and was a Medi-Cal recipient, so when she stepped into office, she strove for change.

Carrillo: When you run for office and you represent the community that you grew up in and you share certain values, once you’re at the table to be able to make decisions about your community, you have to show up.

Clínica Romero is a clinic across L.A. County that serves physical and mental health needs for Salvadorian, Central American, and other Latino communities. It is specifically geared towards those of mixed status families and families without legal status.

Carrillo: It’s important that the specific needs, such as the civil war trauma, is addressed for the Salvadorian American community, and that we figure out a way in which we no longer think about mental health as a stigma.

The effort wasn’t a gift overnight. She led many delegations and an international trip to El Salvador with Governor Gavin Newsom to make these funds possible.

Carrillo: And so it’s been a while in the making. And sometimes policy takes time. And so we had an incredible budget in which we were able to allocate these specific funds for Clínica Romero.

This is a huge help to support services for an underrepresented community, ensuring that the members have not only their physical needs taken care of but now, their mental ones as well. For Annenberg Media, I’m Tatiana Sataua.