Latine Heritage Month Spotlight: Supporting Spanish-Speaking Communities

Beatriz Flórez Huertas shares information about SFMTA programs.

This Latine Heritage Month, we are celebrating the work of SFMTA Community Liaison Beatriz Flórez Huertas.

At the heart of her job: helping Spanish-speaking communities get around San Francisco.

And Flórez Huertas is especially sensitive to what newcomers might be facing.

Starting with empathy

When Flórez Huertas came to the U.S., she had no connections. She had to learn how to navigate transit, find housing and build a career all on her own.

“When you don’t have family here, who do you rely on?” Flórez Huertas had to ask. “Who tells you things?”

Flórez Huertas says she was lucky to find people willing to share what they knew. “And when I receive help, I like to give back!”

Flórez Huertas and our Office of Racial Equity and Belonging recently brought together more than 100 community members for the SFMTA’s recent Latine Heritage Month cable car ride.

Building trust face-to-face

That sense of gratitude drives Flórez Huertas to show up in person whenever possible. 

“My work is really focused on community engagement,” Flórez Huertas said. “I’m always out in the community, meeting one-on-one with community leaders, presenting to community groups and going to events.”

During some presentations, Flórez Huertas tells people about the range of services we offer at the SFMTA and whom to contact for information and support. In other cases, she discusses street safety or transit projects and welcomes people’s feedback.

Then, she opens the floor to questions. “In every presentation, there are always people who need help with something,” Flórez Huertas said.

Flórez Huertas has helped small business owners request changes to their loading zones or general parking so they can better support customers. And she’s helped many people enroll in Muni’s discount fare programs, especially through our Fares for Our Future campaign. For that effort alone, Flórez Huertas has helped people sign up for free and discount Muni programs at more than 15 events.

“It makes me feel so good being that middle person – between the community and the agency – to find solutions for people.”

Reaching out across channels

When a message is valuable for all Spanish speakers in the city, Flórez Huertas makes sure to share it far and wide.

She translates content for the agency’s social channels and webpages. She records Spanish audio messages that you can hear on Muni vehicles across the city. And she works with the media.

“I staff interviews on TV and radio, and I’m always working to build more relationships to get out the information in Spanish people need.” 

Besides meeting with local organizations, Flórez Huertas also advises our project teams. 

Making our messages culturally relevant

Flórez Huertas certainly translates a lot of material. But she also works with our project teams to ensure that material is culturally relevant for Spanish speakers.

“Sometimes that means making things more visual,” Flórez Huertas said. “I’ll recommend using pictures along with translated text to make things easy for people who do not know English.”

In this area, Flórez Huertas has supported projects ranging from fare compliance materials to pop-ups and a bus tour for the 29 Sunset Improvement Project.

“It’s really about keeping an ear on what’s going on at the agency that people should know about,” Flórez Huertas said. “I try to figure out how to answer questions that community members and organizations might bring up to us.”

Providing access to critical services

Above all, Flórez Huertas is glad to help people navigate a service as critical as affordable transit.

“Not everybody has access to buying a vehicle, and not everybody has access to parking,” Flórez Huertas said. “Affordable transit is so important for people because transit is a basic need. We need to be able to get to places like school and work. But also our favorite places, too, like the bakery or to go dancing!”

Flórez Huertas hopes her outreach work, especially on Muni’s fare programs, will help people avoid tough choices. “When people can get affordable fares, they don’t have to choose between ‘Should I buy breakfast, or should I pay for my fare?’” Flórez Huertas explained. “That’s a big deal.”

No matter the issue at hand, Flórez Huertas is grateful that she’s in a position to help people solve problems.

“I love being that point of contact for folks so that they know there’s someone who cares about them, that we as an agency care about them and want to do our best to provide the services they need.”