By Marykate Zukiewicz
While the Navy has left Vieques, the
contamination that it caused in the island’s environment continues to affect
the health and well being of its in habitants. A study conducted
by the Puerto Rican Department of Health in 1999 shows that
the cancer rate of Vieques is 26.9% higher than that of the
main island in Puerto Rico. Yet for the people of Vieques,
cancer is not simply a statistic; it is a very real part of
their everyday lives. Women, often responsible for taking care
of many of their family’s daily needs, suffer a particularly
difficult hardship when they or someone in their family have
cancer. Yet Vieques women whose lives have been touched by
cancer serve for us as powerful models of courage and amazing
grace.
Chemotherapy on the Ferry
Nayda Cruz
Benítez sits
on her shady front porch one late afternoon. She is well
dressed, reclining confidently in her chair. I would never
guess that she has been battling with colon cancer for the
past year and a half.
Nayda Cruz Benítez
Photo: Marykate Zukiewicz
|
“I don’t look like I did when they diagnosed me.
Back then I was very frail. For a long time I told myself that
I wasn’t sick, but then I finally went to the doctor
and they found two large tumors in my intestine. Then I began
treatment.”
Her cancer treatment has required incredible endurance. In
addition to that fact that chemotherapy itself is a grueling
process, most cancer patients in Vieques must make the trip
by plane or by ferry to the main island for each treatment
because the tiny Vieques hospital does not offer chemotherapy
or radiotherapy. Once on the main island, most cancer patients
without cars must also negotiate public transportation.
“To have chemotherapy, I wake up at five in the morning
because the ferry leaves at seven o’clock. From the ferry
on the main island, I look for a public bus to take me to the
hospital where they do chemo. And from 9:00AM to 3:30PM I sit
there in the hospital receiving the treatment. Well, when I
leave I have to get on the ferry home at 4:30PM, I am nauseous
and there are just too many people on the boat around me.”
“I sometimes have to make the trip by myself when my
husband has to work. And the first time that I had the treatment
I got dizzy afterwards while I was walking and I fell.” Nayda
says, “I tell you, when I ride the ferry in the morning
I am fine, but when I come back on the boat in the evening,
I am a mess.”
Yet fortunately, in spite of these
unbelievable obstacles, Nayda has had the strength to continue
treatment and she has
made tremendous gains in her health in the past year. “From
what I understand I am getting better. I am going back in a
week to get evaluated and if I am fine I won’t have to
finish my last four chemotherapy treatments.”
Many women like Nayda in Vieques attribute
their endurance to their loved ones. They also credit Project
Health, a local
group sponsored by the Vieques Women’s Alliance, which
holds bimonthly meetings to provide women affected by cancer
with resources, health advice, and emotional support. Nayda
explains, “It was a difficult process emotionally. I
thought I would die and I became very depressed. I was so depressed
that I didn’t want to leave the house …but when
I went to Project Health for the first time, I never missed
a session because they gave me so much support.”
“You have to pay attention to
your body”
Another member of Vieques Project Health
is Cecelia Alejandro, or “Jenny,” as everyone affectionately calls her.
She has been battling cancer for seven years. Jenny says, “I
found out that I had cancer seven years ago. During the six
months that I did chemo, I spent three days in bed afterwards
every time. It was terrible. But I was lucky because my daughter,
Angélica, lives on the main island and could help me through
the process. Since I detected it early and had operations and
treatment, I got better—and I’ve been in complete
remission ever since.”
Cecelia "Jenny" Alejandro
Photo: Zaida Torres Rodríguez
|
Jenny Alejandro has been active in
the Project Health support group since it began three years
ago. “Personally, it
has helped me a lot. In one of their seminars, I learned how
to eat macrobiotic foods, fresh veggies and fruits. I learned
this in the program: you have to pay attention to your body…also
they facilitate conversation in the group meetings. Those meetings
helped me loosen up for sure, because before I wasn’t
much of a talker. And so in the meetings I was speaking more
and more.”
Now Jenny has a reputation for being
the most energetic member of the group, often appearing in
local and national interviews
speaking out about cancer in Vieques. She smiles. “This
group helped to liberate me.”
Most inspiring about Vieques women affected by cancer is the
way in which so many have found strength to reach out to their
community to support one another through Project Health and
other programs.
“We should have a clinic”
A third participant of the Project
Health group, Zaida Torres Rodríguez, represents this kind
of compassion and community spirit. In 1997, Zaida lost her
seventeen-year-old daughter,
Liza, to leukemia after a difficult two-year battle.
Zaida Torres, coordinator of Vieques Women¹s Alliance
Photo: Marykate Zukiewicz
|
“After she got sick, Liza had
several surgeries and had to ride a plane twice a month to
go to the medical center
in Rio Piedras. When they began radiation therapy we had to
stay there for a month. Liza was a fighter, and I also had
to sacrifice a lot. But these are tests, things that happen
in life. You have to do them. And to this day, I have made
it through. I know that God has given us many opportunities.”
Since her daughter’s death, Zaida
has found the courage to go public with her story. She has
reached out to the local
and international communities, including her participation
in an influential peace delegation that lobbied the U.S. Congress
for the removal of the Navy from Vieques in 2001.
“I gave testimonies about my daughter’s
struggle with cancer and about the environmental pollution
of Vieques.
I am fighting for the good health of every person and child
on the island. The United States bombed the island for sixty
years, contaminating our land and our people.”
Earlier this year, she has also become
the coordinator of the Vieques Women’s Alliance. Through this group she
tries to put individual women in contact with health resources.
It upsets her that the Vieques cancer patients must make the
exhaustive trip to the main island. “We have to look
for resources. Given our cancer rates and the contamination
of the land, we deserve to have services close to us. I think
that here we should have a clinic with personnel, including
a chemotherapist. They say that we are humans in danger of
extinction.”
“We didn’t think we would
reach our goal”
Many women in the community have shown
determination in raising awareness about the struggle against
cancer in Vieques. As
an example, just this year, Vieques held it’s first Relay
for Life, co-sponsored by the American Cancer Society, to raise
money for cancer patients on the island. Hundreds of Viequenses
participated, including Nayda, Jenny and Zaida.
Zaida Torres explains, “Well, we understood that since
Vieques had one of the highest rates of cancer, one of the
best ways to bring the message to Vieques was to collect funds
for the relay. And Vieques walked for twenty-four hours. We
walked with a flag of Vieques…We didn’t think we
would reach our goal that we established, and that was $20,000.
At one point we were unsure. But because people got so excited
at the last minute, we earned $35,000!”
There is still a long fight ahead to
clean up the land and to get Vieques cancer patients the
services they need. Jenny
Alejandro, breast cancer survivor of seven years, knows that
it will take the effort of the entire community. “Vieques
has to speak out. People have to know how people here have
cancer, and how we have struggled.”
Marykate Zukiewicz is a volunteer
working with the Vieques Women’s Alliance.
