NLRC Staff

My first experience in applied research occurred in North County San Diego. In 1999, I collaborated with Dr. Bonnie Bade on the first state-wide health needs assessment of agricultural workers. While in the field I came to understand the complex factors that impact the relationship between agricultural workers and local health care agencies. In particular, I noticed a disconnect between the community and local agencies. The experience was fundamental to my dissertation work which examines the relationship of Oaxacan indigenous transnational communities with clinical health care systems. The work is an ethnography of the Mixtec transnational community of Ixpantepec Nieves, Mexico. The research has taken me from North County San Diego to the Mixteca Baja region of Oaxaca.

I have been actively collaborating with local community clinics, working on projects in Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services, HIV/AIDS, breast cancer, agricultural worker mental health, and male reproductive health.  I am currently organizing a “Oaxacan Community Workshop” that will educate local health care, social service, and government agencies about the large and growing Oaxacan indigenous immigrants in San Diego County.  Already the event has gained local, state-wide and even international attention.  The workshop will prove to be an important first step in creating a dialogue between the Oaxacan community and local agencies.

Working at the National Latino Research Center has provided an ideal opportunity to continue doing applied research in North County while contributing to the well-being of the region’s Latino communities.  I recently completed a border health research project for The California Endowment.  The research examined the most pressing needs agencies face in addressing health in the border region.

I see my research as “applied public health” anthropology.  I try to combine methods from medical and applied anthropology as a way to seek out, as James Baldwin states, “the questions that have been hidden by the answers.” In addition to my applied work I have been actively involved with local Oaxacan organizations.  Working with these organizations has strengthened my understanding of issues faced by Oaxacan indigenous communities and has provided me the opportunity to give back to the community that has given me so much.