In compelling first-person accounts, Latinas speak freely about dealing
with serious health episodes as patients, family caregivers, or friends.
They show how the complex interweaving of gender, class, and race
impacts the health status of Latinas-and how family, spirituality, and
culture affect the experience of illness.
Here are stories of Latinas living with conditions common to many:
hypertension, breast cancer, obesity, diabetes, depression,
osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, dementia, Parkinson's, lupus, and
hyper/hypothyroidism. By bringing these narratives out from the shadows
of private lives, they demonstrate how such ailments form part of the
larger whole of Latina lives that encompasses family, community, the
medical profession, and society. They show how personal identity and
community intersect to affect the interpretation of illness, compliance
with treatment, and the utilization of allopathic medicine, alternative
therapies, and traditional healing practices. The book also includes a
retrospective analysis of the narratives and a discussion of Latina
health issues and policy recommendations.
These Latina cultural narratives illustrate important aspects of the
social contexts and real-world family relationships crucial to
understanding illness. Speaking from the Body is a trailblazing
collection of personal testimonies that integrates professional and
personal perspectives and shows that our understanding of health remains
incomplete if Latina cultural narratives are not included.
