About three years ago, Sareth Garcia's immune system began breaking down. Rashes and infections, crippling headaches, kidney problems and what felt like a painful cramp near her heart landed her in the hospital more than once.
Garcia weighed 265 pounds. Without a car, the uninsured single mother had no way to get to a doctor's office, let alone pay for medical treatment, despite working several jobs to care for her two sons.
"I was so afraid to die," the 47-year-old says, clad in a floral hat and a light pink button-down bearing an insignia for La Unión Del Pueblo Entero. LUPE, a community group founded three decades ago by activist César Chávez, connected Garcia to a low-income clinic where she received a free medical assessment and insulin for her newly diagnosed diabetes. She credits the group with giving her the determination and resources to begin improving her health.
