29th Annual Awards Celebration Gala

Embracing our dreams, sharing our hearts

Last week we celebrated our 29th Annual Awards Celebration Gala. This year's gala was extremely meaningful as we celebrated our Park and Community Center Familias Corazones Verde's ten-year anniversary from its groundbreaking. What was once an empty dirt lot in the 92701 zip code today is a safe place where families come to gather, play and learn.

After many years of community organizing and advocacy, we came to an agreement with the city of Santa Ana, who leased us part of the land at a very low cost and also received a generous piece of land as a gift from Northgate Gonzalez Market, to build the green space and community center. Today hundreds of families join us daily for a movie night, arts and crafts, jewelry making, music therapy, plus many more activities for the growth and healing of the spirit, mind, and body. We have beautiful greenery throughout the park and two playgrounds maintained by volunteers and our community Comite de Familias Corazones Verdes. 

Our Community Center is filled with books, arts and crafts supplies, and a fully equipped kitchen for healthy cooking demonstrations. And let us not forget that our food distribution began here, supporting our neighbors with 50 meals a week to where we are today, distributing over 600 grocery packages each week. 

Thanks to your support we were able to raise over $200,000 to help support our mission and our programs.  You can still contribute to Latino Health Access by donating HERE or volunteering.  

For partnership opportunities please contact Maria Cervantes mcervantes@latinohealthaccess.org

In Recognition and Appreciation

We would like to thank and congratulate all those involved in bringing our Park and Community Center Familias Corazones Verdes to fruition.

Congratulations to this year's Corazón Comunitario Recipients 

City of Santa Ana, Northgate Gonzale Markets, Comite Corazones Verdes, Mr. Jim Bostic, McCarthy Building Company, and St. Joseph Community Partnership Fund. 

Our Board of Directors

Recently Joined Board Members

Dr. Lorenzo A. Gonzalez

Dr. Gonzalez family originates from Michoacán and Jalisco Mexico, and he was born and raised in Anaheim, California. Before his journey in medicine, he comprised part of Latino Health Access as a youth intern where he found his passion for community health. Lorenzo obtained his Doctorate of Medicine from UC San Diego and is a graduate of the PRIME Health Equity program. While in medical school, he obtained a master's degree in urban planning from USC's Sol Price School of Public Policy.

His interests are in the impact of the built environment on chronic diseases, equitable affordable housing, and economic development. He will continue to empower interns, residents, and fellows to utilize organized labor as a mechanism for social justice by bargaining for the common good. Lorenzo strongly believes the disease is the manifestation of oppression and seeks to enhance his advocacy skills to better serve his patients and communities.

Dr. Martha Rivera

A bilingual, bi-literate, bicultural leader and practitioner with experience in strategizing and leading cross-functional teams to and through organizational transformation in support of positive community impact.

As the proud daughter of immigrant parents and a first-generation college graduate, Martha Rivera was born and raised in Santa Ana. She earned her Bachelor's Degree in psychology and Spanish from Chapman University and her Master's Degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2013. 

Having worked in various educational institutions and non-profits, both public and private, she has seen the systemic failures and how time and time again, our students and families of color are marginalized. Knowing all of this now, Martha is done filling in the gaps of inequity. Now, she wants to change the systems that created those gaps and partner with others with the same commitment. She believes that our collective action and collective impact is one that needs to move beyond transaction to transformation.

Dr. Alana M.W. LeBrón

Assistant Professor of Public Health and Chicano/Latino Studies at the University of California, Irvine. Her research and teaching focuses on understanding and addressing policy, systems, and environmental factors that shape health inequities affecting low-income communities of color.

Her own lived experiences of supporting family members with chronic conditions and experiencing barriers to accessing quality health care and educational opportunities shapes her passion for community-driven solutions to promote health. In her free time, she enjoys walking on the beach and playing outside with her family.

Complete List of Board Members

• Marisol Ramirez, Chair 
• America Bracho, M.D. CEO
• William “Bill” Crosby
• Rita Cruz Gallegos
• Lorenzo Antonio Gonzalez, MD, MPL
• James Kennedy, Ed.D.
• Alana LeBron, Ph.D, M.S.
• Olivia Maldonado
• Sr. Herlinda E. Ramirez M.
• Edwin Rivera, MBA
• Marta Rivera, Ph.D.
• Catalina Santamaria, MBA
• Dorothy Lane Siddall, M.D., FAACP

LHA Support Groups

by LHA's Emotional Wellness Team

Join us in reading a story of a participant named Diana, a case management advocate at Emotional Wellness who lives in Santa Ana.

The story in her own words.

Neighbors know that I work for Latino Health Access, and starting the pandemic, many have come to my door asking for help. Of these, I had a case of a mother with four children between 11 and 18 years old who was diagnosed with breast cancer, already advanced to the throat and lungs, and abandoned by her husband when he found out she was sick. The uncertainty for the well-being of her family was a perennial concern, and she expressed to me that she did not understand why her husband had abandoned her at this difficult time. The disease progressed rapidly, and, unable to pay her rent in total, she received an eviction order. Her brother and nephew were infected with Covid, and fear led her to look for work to support the family, but the chemotherapy and fatigue were too much, and she couldn't continue. 

We talked often about her fears and thoughts of death. I told her that this was like a dream, she would sleep, and her family would be fine and in good hands. I reminded her that her family was full of unity and love because that was a gift she had given them.

I referred her to our Civic Engagement and Advocacy "CEA" program, which handled eviction cases, and they helped her explain the situation to the landlord and look at options. This enabled her to have a decent place during their time of illness with her family. She talked to me every day, seeking hope that her children would be okay after she was gone; those conversations were deep and reassuring. She died but no longer felt alone, without hope or peace. Her children are with their biological father, and their uncle lives very close to them to continue providing them with the emotional support they need to live without their mother.

For Inquiries about our Emotional Wellness Programs contact us by phone at 714-694-3994

or 

Josefina: jjimenez@latinohealthaccess.org

Noraima: nchirinos@latinohealthaccess.org

Adelaida's Story

Community Advocacy and Engagement "CEA" Team

Adelaida is a 46-year-old Latinx migrant woman who lives in Santa Ana, CA. She is also a single mother of 4 children, and a survivor of domestic violence. Adelaida first heard about LHA through a tenant counseling flyer she received at a community center in her neighborhood. Given the urgency of her housing situation and constant harassment by her property owner, Adelaida sought LHA’s help the same day she received the flyer. The financial hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic led Adelaida to accumulate rental arrears. Due to Adeilada’s living situation, an LHA tenant counselor informed her about Santa Ana’s emergency rental assistance program, and other internal LHA resources such as the food bank, and her tenant’s rights. During their conversation, the LHA tenant counselor helped her sign and submit her emergency rental assistance application and invited her to attend CEA’s meetings, where she could continue learning about her rights and work with other tenants to find solutions to the issues of housing insecurity, evictions and the social determinants of health they experience.

Adelaida is currently an active member of the community in Santa Ana. She is a Housing Counselor and is part of the California Statewide Housing Justice and Advocacy Network. She facilitates and creates agendas in the Santa Ana Esperanza Tenants Union, where she is an active member in advocating for policies at the local Santa Ana level and at the state level and committed to continuing to learn and stop the displacement of communities of color.

For inquiries contact Laura Pantoja at Ceaprogram@latinohealthaccess.org or

(714) 257-5531‪

Volunteers Needed! 

Latino Health Access is on a mission to reduce hunger in our community. We are looking for volunteers that have a passion for helping others in their most desperate time of need. 

No experience is necessary, we will help you along the way because, what we care more about is a friendly smile and a desire to help others. 



If you are interested in becoming a volunteer at our food bank please contact our volunteer coordinator, Brenda Cervantes by email at bcervantes@latinohealthaccess.org 

Amazon Smile

There are many ways you can help us and if you haven't done so yet, you can choose us as your charity of choice when shopping on Amazon all your qualifying AmazonSmile orders will support our programs.

Mission: Latino Health Access partners with communities to bring health, equity, and sustainable change through education, services, consciousness-raising, and civic participation.

Programs: Healthy Weight/Peso Saludable, Diabetes Self Management, Emotional Wellness, Community Engagement, and Advocacy, Elder Adult

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