By Suzanne Gamboa - NBC News
Slowly, the force that escaped from Irene Morales's body when she battled this summer against COVID-19 is returning.
What he will not get back is his brother, his sister, his father, or his aunt.
They were all taken away by the coronavirus when it swept through the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.
The disappearance of these members of the Morales family, and the cruelty of COVID-19, also erased Morales' indecision about who to vote for.
Your vote will be a tribute to your family;
she will vote for Joe Biden, she said.
[Follow all the information about the coronavirus pandemic]
Regarding President Donald Trump, Morales, 75, of Rio Grande City in Starr County, noted:
"It's a bit disappointing when I hear him say, 'Don't be afraid of COVID-19. Nothing has happened." .
Good thanks God.
How lucky for him that he did not suffer ... Why have so many other people died?
This is the real COVID-19. "
Early voting began Tuesday in Texas.
Texas Secretary of State Ruth Hughs announced that 16.9 million people have registered to vote - 1.8 million more than in 2016, according to the latest figures.
In the four Rio Grande Valley counties, Hidalgo, Cameron, Starr, and Willacy, the number of people registered increased to at least 76,770.
But the numbers that accumulate in this part of the state are what tell the story of the coronavirus victims.
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The central four counties of the Lower Rio Grande Valley recorded nearly 70,000 coronavirus cases on Monday, of those, nearly 3,000 people died.
Nearby Webb counties, where Laredo is located, and Zapata, both on the border, added another 14,700 cases and 303 more deaths.
[Crossing the border into Mexico is the hope of many in the United States for medical care]
"There is not a person in Hidalgo County who has not been affected by this horrible virus," said County President Norma Ramirez, a Democrat.
This includes her.
The virus killed Sergio Muñoz, a former state legislator who was the party's vice president for the county, in July.
For Democrats to turn the tide of the election in Texas - the last Democratic presidential nominee to win the state was Jimmy Carter in 1976 - they will need a larger turnout and more voters from the Lower Rio Grande Valley and parts of South Texas.
These counties are Democratic strongholds.
[Follow our coverage on the presidential election]
Community groups working to register and attract voters, primarily through phone calls and text messages, but also by knocking on doors, say the devastation of the virus has become a motivator in the elections.
According to them, Latinos are recognizing not only that their community has been devastated by the disease, but also that
the inequalities they have endured for years have worsened after the impact of the coronavirus in the region.
The number of unemployed has risen here to levels not recorded since before 2000. Car and pedestrian traffic on international bridges - the area's economic engine - has slowed, hitting the retail sectors of the border cities that benefit. of Mexican buyers.
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The area is itself much poorer than other parts of the state.
There is a high prevalence of diabetes and obesity, and about 30% of adults in three of the counties do not have health insurance.
In Willacy County, the uninsured adult rate is about 22%.
[The pandemic hits businesses hard on the US-Mexico border]
"We are sending messages that connect with people's sense of hope," said John Michael Torres, spokesman for LUPE, a community group founded by civil rights leaders César Chávez and Dolores Huerta.
"What we have faced in the last six months highlighted what we have battled for decades. ... We can have more, and we should have more."
Medicine shortage "shows that inequality is there"
The two weeks that Dr. Sujan Gogu, a family physician, helped treat COVID-19 cases at Harlingen Medical Center were like a war zone, said Gogu, who lives in McAllen in Hidalgo County.
"I would hear 'code blue' (the warning to health workers for cardiorespiratory arrest) every time I was upstairs. It was so frequent," Gogu said.
"There were times in our hospital when we didn't have remdesivir," he added, referring to the experimental antiviral drug that was used to treat Trump.
"There was not enough. [...] That shows that the inequality is there."
Gogu, one of the founders of Doctors in Politics, a political action committee (a PAC) he founded in April, said
he has become more involved in politics and become more Democratic
.
"I don't think the Republican Party represents the values that patients need," he said.
[The reality of Hispanic women in the Rio Grande Valley]
The coronavirus forced 21-year-old pre-med student José Pablo Rojas to drop out of school, drop out of an internship and suspend his job for the Texas Freedom Network by registering voters.
He, his father, mother, and brother were sick with COVID-19.
The family regularly cross the border to obtain their medicines and care, although their father, a legal resident, sought care at a hospital in the United States fearing that the reduction in border crossings would prevent them from returning.
"Here in the Valley, the cost of health care is very high. When it comes to health care, most of us say, 'Let's go to Mexico, where $ 50 covers everything," he said.
[Health or money: the dilemma for the undocumented workers who feed California]
Rojas' first vote in an election will be for Biden, he said, because "healthcare should not be a privilege."
Fighting for more people to participate
Rosalinda Moyar, 66, from the city of Edinburgh in Hidalgo County, lost three friends to the pandemic, including her best friend of 20 years who died on September 27.
They were bingo partners.
They got through the pandemic together buying disinfectant wipes on Senior Discount days at Costco, he said.
Moyar has only voted once in his life, when Hillary Clinton ran for president four years ago.
She said she
was angry that Trump had downplayed the virus.
"Now I am more determined to vote," she assured.
Beto O'Rourke, a former Democratic presidential hopeful from El Paso, managed to energize voters across the state in his 2018 Senate campaign, but underperformed Clinton, who won about 70% of the votes. votes against Trump's 30% in the lower Rio Grande Valley.
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Abhi Rahman, spokesman for the Democratic Party in the state, said his party can win if it outperforms Clinton in the Rio Grande Valley and South Texas and maintains the gains that O'Rourke made in the suburbs and cities.
Because the area is reliably Democratic, local party activity is often limited to the primaries, but in this general election, "everyone is doing something to get people to vote," Rahmann said.
The 'Trump train' vs. biden's caravans
The Lower Rio Grande Valley region is still very rural in some places, and Hispanics voted for Trump in 2016. The region also has many residents who work for Customs and Border Protection, as well as the Immigration Service. and Customs (ICE), whose members tend to be more conservative.
Local residents are seeing
a more aggressive push from Trump supporters in the area
, with more car caravans ('the Trump train'), including one in Laredo that drew thousands of people.
The Democrats have had their own caravans (which they call
Riding with Biden
in English).
René Mora, 27, of Laredo, said the coronavirus struck him in March, after sharing drinks with his mother and friends.
He could barely stand up when his brother took him to the ER.
He is unemployed and owes $ 8,000 in medical expenses.
Mora still supports Trump and believes that the media has exaggerated regarding the virus.
Trump "got a bad hand" and made the best of what he had, Mora said.
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"I don't believe in the victim mentality," he added.
"Even though I got sick and almost died, I am grateful. It brought my family together and made me understand and appreciate my life more."
The presidential race has hardened in Texas.
According to a poll by the University of Texas and the Texas Tribune published last week, Trump has a 5-point lead, 50% to 45%, among potential voters.
Potential Hispanic voters favor Biden by 54% to 37%;
the margin of error for this sample is plus or minus 7.4 percentage points.
In a poll by Democrats they are almost even.
Hidalgo County Republican Party Chair Adrienne Peña-Garza said she
expects strong Hispanic participation in the region in favor of Trump
.
He added that it is "nonsense" to link the coronavirus crisis and their deaths in the region to the elections, later calling doubts about Trump's response to the coronavirus "fake news."
Those who have lost family or friends and vote for Biden should know that the best is yet to come if Trump returns to the presidency, he said.
Daniela Vento, violinist of the Mariachis Azucena group, said that her band stopped receiving calls to play at parties, with the spread of the virus.
Instead, he
received calls to perform at funerals.
Several of his relatives fell ill from the coronavirus over the summer, including his father and mother.
His grandmother died on August 3.
He would have turned 81 in November.
Vento said she plans to vote for Biden.
"We need someone who really cares about citizens and does not say that 'it is not so bad' when we have relatives who have died," he said.
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