Targeted by gangs and thieves, San Francisco’s growing Mayan community has demanded that the police hire a language interpreter to work with the community, which has grown from 15,000 to 20,000 in the last decade.

San Francisco community leaders have identified the main perpetrators of some recent violent crimes as gang members, homeless people and serial thieves. Mayans are targeted because they work late at night, are known to carry cash and are a vulnerable population that’s not likely to report crimes due to language barriers and mistrust.

“This is something that we are very worried about,” said Carlos Isauro Felix-Diaz, the Mexican consul general in San Francisco. “For us it’s fundamental to prevent these types of circumstances in which our countrymen, the Yucatecos, have been involved in these attacks.”

In October Jose Chuc Mul, a local and beloved cook, was beaten to death during a street confrontation with a dozen men which occurred at about 2 a.m. The consulate responded by arranging a meeting in November between leaders in the Mayan community and Police Chief Greg Suhr, to discuss safety measures.

“I hear you, Chief, say there are programs at the Mission Station that provide service in Spanish, and that’s great, but in the case of our community it is not enough,” said Alberto Perez, Director of Programs at Asociacion Mayab, a Mission nonprofit serving the Mayan community in San Francisco.

“There are a lot of people in our community who are bilingual, speaking Spanish and Mayan, but a lot of them prefer to talk in Mayan, and even more so in situations that are so stressful, like talking to a police officer.”

Chief Suhr agreed to arrange for Mayan language interpreters.

According to Mission Local, the vast majority of Mayans in the United States are economic migrants who are unable to find work in Yucatan and live in extreme poverty there. At home, their own countrymen ostracize them because of their indigenous appearance and because they speak a different language.

Asociation Mayab has a training class to help Maya language interpreters acquire certification to interpret in the legal and medical communities.

By Alex Dupont
Marketing Communications Specialist
Language Translation Inc.

See Also

• Language interpretation can be an essential tool for use by law enforcement
  Language interpreting is the process of translating spoken words from one language into another.
• Targeted by Gangs and Thieves, Growing Mayan Community Demands Translators
  The killing of a beloved cook in October was the latest in what the Mexican consulate general in San Francisco says are targeted attacks against the city?s Mayan community
• The Indigenouse Interpreters of San Francisco
  Asociacion Mayab features a training program to address an increasing need for indigenous language interpretation services in medical centers and judicial courts in California.