A Close- Up Look At People Who Matter : Latino Foster Parents Help Children Heal

At first, the little girl ate as if she never expected to eat again.

“She had a lot of problems,” Martin Barboza said. “It was sad to see that kid.”

Through that toddler, just under 2 years old at the time, Martin and Mabel Barboza--a young North Hollywood couple--learned about the tragic realities faced by many foster children. The girl, who could not even walk yet, already had a lot of emotional troubles.

The Barbozas were honored recently by Penny Lane, also known as the National Foundation for the Treatment of the Emotionally Handicapped, in North Hills, as Foster Parents of the Year. They are the kind of foster parents that Penny Lane is trying to recruit in an effort to boost the numbers of Latino foster families in the San Fernando Valley.

“We didn’t realize all the horrible things in their lives,” Martin Barboza said of the children. “Their lives are really hard.”

Martin and Mabel Barboza are from Lima, Peru, where they met while studying industrial engineering in college there. After marrying, they moved to the United States eight years ago and learned through a family member about Penny Lane, which helps emotionally troubled children who have been physically or sexually abused.

“With those kids, there is something missing,” said Mabel Barboza in Spanish. “They need love.”

It took about three months before the Barbozas started seeing improvements in that 2-year-old, their first foster child. She is now 4, going to school and still living with the Barbozas. They also have a child of their own who is 2 1/2 and have been foster parents to several other children.

“For us, it’s been an adventure,” said Martin, who works in payroll maintenance for the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Penny Lane began its campaign to recruit Latino foster parents four months ago at the request of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, said Ivelise Markowits, the founder and executive director of Penny Lane. Through newspaper ads and public service announcements, the agency has recruited nearly 40 foster families, with nine of them certified so far. Another 30 are currently taking a 10-week training course.

“We should place children with people of their own culture whenever possible,” Markowits said. “In the Valley, there are more Hispanic kids in the system than any other kind.”

Placing a Latino child with a non-Latino foster family can worsen the problems faced by the child, who is forced to deal with a strange environment, said Alfonso Garcia, head of the Latino Family Preservation Project for the Department of Children and Family Services.

Then there’s the language barrier. Children often revert to their native language when under stress, Garcia said. “It’s intensifying the trauma.”

Of the 8,000 foster homes in Los Angeles County, he said, only 400 are Spanish-speaking. About half the foster children in the 8,000 homes speak Spanish, Garcia said. “We need children to be placed in homes where their lifestyles would not be disrupted.”

Assemblywoman Martha Escutia (D-Huntington Park) helped Penny Lane with its public service announcements. “This is one way to reach the Latino community, which to me is linguistically isolated,” Escutia said.

Foster parents must be fingerprinted and checked for a child-abuse record, and the home must be checked to ensure it is clean, safe and appropriate for a foster child, Markowits said. Then the parents can bring the child home.

But, Martin Barboza said, it can be difficult when foster children return home or are placed elsewhere. “It’s especially hard when you fall in love with these kids.”

“The happiest time is when you see that little smile,” Mabel Barboza said.

To become a foster parent, call (800) 287-9444, or call Penny Lane at (818) 892-3423.

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