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María de Jesús Caro Villa, 82, and Albano Villa, 83, are cared for by their granddaughter, Nitzia Chama. AARP says that one in four family caregivers is a millennium.
Nitzia Chama for NPR
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Nitzia Chama for NPR
María de Jesús Caro Villa, 82, and Albano Villa, 83, are cared for by their granddaughter, Nitzia Chama. AARP says that one in four family caregivers is a millennium.
Nitzia Chama for NPR
Nitzia Chama arrived in Los Angeles from Veracruz, Mexico, with the dream of becoming an actress. Eight years later, at the age of 30, she reconciles independent concerts, runs errands with her grandparents and takes health education classes to learn more about diabetes.
Chama is the only family of her grandparents in the region and, as their health needs increase, Chama's responsibilities also increase.
The grandparents of Chama are Albano Villa, 83, and María de Jesús Caro Villa, 82. She affectionately nicknamed them Papá Albanito and Mamá Chuyita.
Mamá Chuyita illuminates emotion by recounting the many ways her granddaughter helps them. Speaking in Spanish, she says. "Nitzia takes us shopping, we get haircuts for me and my husband, in the fashion district alleyways and everywhere we want to go – Nitzia takes us."
"As a Latina," says Chama, "I can see and just love to feel different from our family, we are very close."
According to a study by AARP, about 40 million people in the United States are considered family caregivers. Of the 40 million, one in four is millennial and more than half of these identify as African American, Asian-American or Hispanic.
The AARP study does not provide data on citizenship, but Chama's situation shows the unique experience of families with mixed immigration status. Chama is a legal permanent resident. His grandparents are American citizens.
Although she did not plan to be a caregiver, Chama quickly took on the role of seeing the health of her grandparents take a turn. Papá Albanito has been diagnosed with diabetes, early stages of Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. Mamá Chuyita has developed high blood pressure and arthritis.
These conditions prompted Chama to learn more about their health problems and the resources available within the US health care system.
"I'm 30 years old and I work, I'm doing my own business," says Chama, "but my happiest place is with my family." For her, the provision of care is not a burden. Although it may be a sacrifice, Chama considers that it is the right thing to do.
In fact, AARP reports that the millennium Latinx generation has 42 hours per week on average, compared with 36 hours for other millennial care providers. This is in addition to the full-time jobs that many already have.
"There are already wage disparities when we think about women, not to mention women of color," says Josephine Kalipeni, Director of Policy and Partnerships with Caring Across Generations. His organization is a national initiative to transform the long-term health care system in the United States.
"These are things we do by family duty and honor and by the desire to truly honor our parents, but it's a sacrifice for career mobility and the pursuit of long-term financial security." "said Kalipeni.
The Kalipeni group wants to make family care more easily recognized as a form of home care that can claim financial subsidies from the state and be counted towards social security.
"We are talking about ethnically very diverse communities, made up of immigrants and sometimes very heterogeneous families," said Kalipeni. "And if we really think about solutions, we need to think about the current immigration structure and the challenges it poses for care and care."
Papá Albanito and Mamá Chuyita did not expect to live such a long life and age in the United States. Papa Albanito told Chama that he would die without her because she is all they have. In Spanish, he says to Chama: "I can not say anything else because I told you so already."
Chama is saddened to hear her grandparents talk about death. She tries to keep up morale by organizing fun social outings and tries to make every race an adventure by posting images on social networks and using Facebook Live.
"If we have this wonderful opportunity to take care of them, we must do it with love, with patience." Said Chama. "We must make them feel that they are so important in our lives."
The dreams of Chama have changed a bit since his arrival in Los Angeles. They must now buy a house for her grandparents so that they can all live together as they get older and that Chama establishes her own family.
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