About SOL DE VIDA
SOL DE VIDA's mission is to empower and equip the Latino community and create equity in wellness through language services and increased access to resources.
Elizabeth Quillo
SOL DE VIDA Business Owner
Elizabeth is a nationally certified medical interpreter for Spanish. In studies, she earned a Bachelors of Science in Cross-cultural Sociology with an emphasis in Latin America and Public Health Nutrition from the University of Minnesota and graduated Summa Cum Laude. She attended graduate school at Cornell University in International Community Nutrition and completed extensive research in Peru. She has been interpreting since 1999 during which time improving equity through language services has become her passion. While working for the University of Minnesota Extension, she increased food security in her area and provided nutrition education to many families. The WAVE Saludos Welcome Center in Long Prairie was co-founded by Elizabeth and her friend of many years, Luan Thomas-Brunkhorst. This center serves as a hub for newcomers in our area and to ensure the immigrant community members and all have equitable access to services in order to flourish in all areas of life.
Elizabeth's Story
I have been interpreting in the Long Prairie area since the fall of 1999 when we moved here. At that time, many people from Minchoacan, Mexico began to join our community. I was the first Spanish interpreter at the clinic for emergencies and births and took my young children with me at first and worked on a volunteer basis. My midwife spread the word that I lived just 2 blocks from the hospital and was a medical missionary kid from Ecuador where I grew up in the eastern rainforest.
I had assisted my father, the only surgeon there in the missionary hospital, since I was 8 years old. I had learned Spanish fluently as well as the medical terminology due to my upbringing. My work as an interpreter became a passion of mine along with my career as a nutritionist. As the community expanded with more and more coming from Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and more recently Haiti as well as other countries, my work expanded to the point where there was the need to start my own interpreting and translating business. Co-founding the WAVE Saludos Welcome Center along with the local chamber director and close friend, Luan Thomas-Brunkhorst, provided a landing place for those needing to connect to vital resources with bilingual advocates. Both of these endeavors, SOL DE VIDA and WAVE Saludos, have been vehicles from which to empower the community to flourish through equitable access to resources and healthcare leading to increased well-being and a sense of welcoming and belonging. I feel that if I may help to open up these doors through language, what a wonderful privilege that would be! I am eternally grateful to my amazing team of interpreters, my wonderful and faithful friend Lu, and my parents, John and Mary, who have provided my inspiration, faith, and education and modeling to have the honor to do this work.
SOL DE VIDA Interpreter Highlight
Grisia is one of SOL DE VIDA's valued team members and professionally trained interpreters. Elizabeth is proud and honored that she was able to interpret for Grisia's mother during her birth. It has been an inspiring experience to watch Grisia grow into an amazing human being who has contributed so much to the community through her skills and training in psychology and counseling, as well as her experience interpreting. She has also provided cultural competency training at Central Lakes College in order to provide one of our partners with the skills necessary to begin partnering with us in this area. I am so blessed and honored to have Grisia on our team and to sing her praises as she has chosen to use her experience and education to work hard to give back to her beloved community.
Thanks to those who have helped us in this endeavor!