By Delilah Alvarado
(AUSTIN, Texas) Latino cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz is using his art to encourage people to get vaccinated.
Alcaraz is the author of the first nationally syndicated Latino political strip "La Cucaracha," and is now creating art for CovidLatino.org to spread information and encourage vaccinations in Latino communities, especially in the Southwest, according to NBC News.
“It’s right up my alley as far as something that I believe in and that is a crisis, which is vaccine hesitancy in our community, especially among campesinos,” Alcaraz said, referring to farmers.
Alcaraz is a two-time Pulitzer editorial cartoon finalist of the last two years, who also collaborated on the animated movie "Coco." Recently he made a cartoon that went viral for praising gymnist Simone Biles for putting her mental health first in her decision to step away several events in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
One of his cartoons for the COVID-19 game recreates Lotería, a traditional Mexican bingo game, to show the benefits of getting the vaccine. Another cartoon shows how a Latino farmworker looks when he gets the shot versus when he doesn't get the shot – holding a box of COVID-19.
Gilberto Lopez spearheaded the campaign. He's an assistant professor at Arizona State University School of Transborder Studies, whose goal was to create a bilingual website with art to try and break through to the Latinos who are vaccine hesitant. Lopez hopes the website will debunk COVID-19 myths that have spread in the Latino community.
“Whatever information we are putting out there, hopefully it resonates with people and hopefully starts changing people’s ideas and knowledge about the vaccine,” Lopez told azcentral.
The pandemic has disproportionately hit Latinos in the U.S., who have accounted for nearly 30 percent of the COVID-19 cases and nearly 20 percent of deaths, along with other social and cultural hardships such as caretaking and keeping a job.
Alcaraz said his 91-year-old mother-in-law received the vaccination and that "if she can get vaccinated, I don't see why a big, strong, 'campesino' can't."