Thursday, April 7, 2011
Short Response for Apr/7th
In the text Leading The Way, Carol Mendez talks about how being a victim of domestic violence has had a huge impact on making her become an activist in helping and educating the public about immigrant inequality in health care. I was really interested in this chapter because I am actually doing an independent study in the SOAN department about the inequalities immigrants face in the health care system. I felt that Carol Mendez’s story was really inspirational, especially how she grew up living with her two-year old cousin who was diagnosed with meningitis due to tuberculosis which made her realize at such a young age the need for bilingual physicians. For her and many other immigrants there is a struggle between being an activist and also dealing with the fear of being deported. Activism is key when dealing with these issues because it educates our communities about health risk factors, modes of prevention and the importance of early screening. Mendez was able to survive as an undocumented student, go to medical school and able to live in this country under what she feels is her American dream.
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After discussing in class today (4/12) about the Crenshaw article regarding race and rape, this post seemed particularly relevant. I thought it was really interesting how you brought up your work with SOAN regarding how immigrants faced an even more oppressive scenario when faced with domestic violence. I think it is so important to realize that problems of rape and other domestic violence pervades every race, class, and culture. While I think it is important to look violence which may occur within our own demographic, it cannot be stressed strongly enough to look at those who may be in lower socio-economic realms. For these women, escaping this violence is often times MUCH harder. They are tied by economic restrictions, cultural stigmas, and the fear of one’s undocumented status would be released. I really enjoyed Mendez’s article and thought you did a great job of opening up her words and applying it to activism and the necessity of being active members of the society, especially as women who may or man not have been personally effected by such issues.
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