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COVID-19 Testing Pop-Up Swoons, Swabs To Mariachi

Lucy Gellman | November 23rd, 2020

COVID-19 Testing Pop-Up Swoons, Swabs To Mariachi

Fair Haven  |  Music  |  Arts & Culture  |  Public Health  |  COVID-19

 

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Members of Mariachi Son de mi Tierra CT, who played for over an hour Sunday morning. Lucy Gellman Photos.

Juan Gonzalez was anxious about getting tested for COVID-19. For months, he’s heard about a swab that travels so far up one’s nose it feels like it’s getting close to their brain. But when he had the chance to get swabbed alongside live music, he leaned his head back, listened to the strains of trumpet, vihuela, and violin, and let the melody take him away.

Sunday, Gonzalez was one of a few hundred people to turn out for free COVID-19 testing—and a live mariachi serenade—from Fair Haven Community Health Care at the corner of Grand and Blatchley Avenues. The event joins a push to get more New Haveners tested as cases rise in the city and across the state. As of Sunday, New Haven had reported 4,452 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 120 deaths.

“It’s very important for us to be out here, to stay here,” said Mariachi Son de mi Tierra CT director Christian Vázquez. “Some people are so scared to get the tests. We’re telling them: wait, get the test, listen to mariachi. We make people relax.”

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Juan Gonzalez. 

Part of what made the event so special was the guest appearance from the group, which performed for over an hour as the grey sky sputtered and attendees rolled in. Dressed in thick, tightly woven wool ponchos to fight the cold, musicians said they hoped people felt comforted by the music. Now residents of Meriden and New Haven, the five hails originally from Guadalajara, Mexico—the home of mariachi—and said the music helps them feel close to home.

Suzanne Lagarde, chief executive officer of Fair Haven Community Health Care, said that the organization wanted to offer a Sunday testing option because most of the city’s sites are open during the work week, when residents may not have time to wait in line or drive to a site.

The idea to invite members of the band came from her staff, who suggested that the band might make the site feel more welcoming. As they suited up in blue and green personal protective equipment, some swayed to the music and clapped between patients.

“This is our community, and we know that the incidence of disease is high here and people have difficulty accessing testing,” she said. “A lot of testing events are drive-throughs, and people don’t have access to those. It’s just important. It’s part of what we’re all doing to keep our community safe. We do the best we can.”

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Top: Shuang Yang. Bottom: Members of Mariachi Son de mi Tierra CT. Director Christian Vázquez, who also plays violin for the group, is to the far left. 

Early in the day, Shuang Yang was one of the first to turn out to the site, as blue and black tents popped up in the parking lot of the former Christopher Columbus Family Academy. While Yang was waiting in line, members of Mariachi Son de mi Tierra set up at the far corner of the lot, on a raised sidewalk next to the school. Before long, Vázquez’s violin threaded itself through guitar and wailing brass.

As the financial manager at New Haven Promise, Yang works in a socially distanced office space off of Audubon Street. While neither he nor his colleagues have experienced any symptoms of COVID-19, he said he’s aware of the risk of asymptomatic transmission as cases rise in the city. When he saw an Instagram post promoting the event, he hopped on his bike and headed from his home downtown to Fair Haven. He called the mariachi an added perk.

“I like it,” he said Israel Flores held a long, full note on the trumpet. “The whole vibe is really positive. It makes people relax and feel happy.”

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Nestor and Myreya Alvarez: A welcome distraction. 

Nearby, Annex resident Myreya Alvarez and her son Nestor stopped to watch the musicians. Because Nestor is an employee at Stop and Shop, the two have been trying to get tested for weeks, but have struggled to find a place that will take them without a doctor’s referral or the appearance of symptoms. When he found out that he could walk right up to a site on a Sunday, Nestor Alvarez was sold.

“At first, it was a little manageable, you know, since cases went down,” he said. “But it’s very important at this point to get tested, so honestly we can not spread it. We were doing good, and then all of a sudden we’re one of the hot states now. The best thing we should do is get tested and stop moving around. Stop going from place to place and coming back.”

For both of them, the music was both a welcome surprise and a welcome distraction. Nasopharyngeal swabs are not known for their comfort; Myreya Alvarez joked that the sound of gentle strumming “helped me get my brain tickled.”

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Lifelong Fair Havener Gerald McClease Sr.

Lifelong Fair Havener Gerald McClease Sr. also praised the band for giving him something else to focus on during the test. Sunday morning, he visited the site after hearing about it from his wife, who also chose to get tested. Working as a student intervention specialist with the New Haven Public Schools, McClease said he is constantly out in the community talking to people.

He has five young grandsons, including one with asthma. He wants to make sure that he doesn’t infect a family member because he’s asymptomatic or not yet symptomatic.

“I just want to keep it safe,” he said. “If anybody out there is scared of this virus, they should come get tested.”

By 11 a.m., a trickle of patients had become a steady flow. Families, many with young kids, rolled into the line. In the parking lot, Lagarde gently guided Gonzalez over to Chika Obidike, a dentist at Fair Haven Community Health who has been doing COVID-19 testing since March.

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Lagarde explained that Gonzalez was nervous: he’d told her that his heart was pounding as he waited in line. Even from under a mask and face shield, Obidike’s eyes softened. She nodded; the corners of her eyes crinkled momentarily in the new shorthand for a smile.

“She’s done about 20,000 tests at this point,” Lagarde said. “You’re in good hands.”

Obidike put her left hand on the back of Gonzalez’s head, her fingers fanning out in a blue glove. She lifted the long white swab and inserted it into his left nostril. Several yards away, Edgar Santillán adjusted his vihuela and belted into the microphone. His woven wool poncho and red moño charro moved with his arms as he strummed. Gonzalez let the music transport him. He later said that he’d decided to get tested after a colleague had tested positive.

“It was actually very gentle,” he said afterwards. “And the music was a different experience.”

For more information about COVID-19 case count and testing in New Haven, visit the New Haven Coronavirus (COVID-19) Hub and sign up for citywide alerts.