Colonialism and Latine Health

How does the past live under the skin? To address present-day Latine health disparities, we must look back to examine the forces that shaped them. This course offers a deep dive into the historical legacy of colonization in Latin America, exploring themes of resistance, resilience, and the current state of Latine well-being in the U.S.

Indigenous health and well-being efforts have long applied a historical trauma lens to understand and explain disparities. Utilizing this framework, this class examines the history of Latin American colonization and state-sponsored violence and their lasting effects on Latine health. Critical Race Theory, emancipatory and liberatory perspectives, and an anti-colonial lens serve as the central theoretical foundations for this course.

The curriculum begins by exploring European colonization from a Latin American perspective, centering both invasion and resistance. We will then review the current state of health disparities for Latine groups in the U.S., focusing on within- and across-group nuances, and specifically investigate how historical events become embodied. Finally, the course explores storytelling, counter-storytelling, and narrative approaches to community intervention. Ultimately, this course helps students develop a deep understanding of colonization as a foundation for conceptualizing transformative pathways for community and cultural well-being.

Course Organization

1. Course foundations: Critical race theory, Historical trauma Emancipatory, liberatory approach

2. History: Colonization, historical trauma, and Latin America

3. History: Colonization, historical trauma, and Latin America

4. Resistance

5. Health Disparities: Latine health paradox

6. Health Disparities: Discrimination and health

7. Health Disparities

8. Resistance and healing: Narrative and Storytelling

9. Resistance and healing: Narrative and Storytelling

10. Presentations and pa’lante