Life, Death, and In-Between on the U.S.-Mexico Border

Asi es la vida

Martha Oehmke Loustaunau, Mary Sánchez-Bane, Martha Oehmke Loustaunau, Mary Sánchez-Bane

• Publisher: Praeger
• Year: 1999
• Print ISBN: 9780897895699
• eBook ISBN: 9780313390470
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

Loustaunau and Sánchez-Bane combine their many years of association and collaboration dealing with health issues in the U.S.-Mexico border area, to bring together a series of chapters illustrating that así es la vida, that's life, need not indicate a fatalistic acceptance that poverty, sickness, misery, and misfortune must be taken in stride. The authors of the chapters have researched, studied, worked with, or have been borderlanders themselves. The chapters focus on the impact of the social structure, and on the power and determination of people to change their conditions for the better, increasing their choices and enlarging their worlds. They look beyond political and economic barriers to find the spark in the human spirit that must be identified and nurtured to produce a better life for the benefit of peoples and nations on both sides of the border, and to nourish the third culture as a bridge between nations. The authors note the dangers and pitfalls along the way, and the need for more realistic policies and programs to empower people to define their own problems, and to participate in fashioning the solutions.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Tables
• Foreword
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1. Demographic Factors Affecting the U.S.-Mexico Border Health Status
• 2. The Border Colonias and the Problem of Communication: Applying Anthropology for Outreach
• 3. Life Histories of Four Chicano Heroin Injecting Drug Users in Laredo,Texas
• 4. Dangerous Relationships: Effects of Early Exposure to Violence in Women’s Lives on the Border
• 5. The Difference a Line Makes: Women’s Lives in Douglas, Arizona, and Agua Prieta, Sonora
• 6. Creating a Future for Hispanic Mothers and Daughters on the U.S.-Mexico Border
• 7. Living with HIV/AIDS in a Rural Border County: Women’s Service Delivery Needs
• 8. Community-Based Health Promotion and Community Health Advisors: Prevention Works When They Do It
• 9. Rural Health on the Border and New Mexico’s Models for Care, Community Empowerment, and Cooperation
• 10. The Medical Care Systems in Mexico and the United States: Convergence or Deterioration? The View from the Border
• 11. The Sunland Park/Camino Real Partnership: Landfill Politics in a Border Community
• 12. Community-University Partnerships Addressing Environmental Issues along the U.S.-Mexico Border
• Afterword
• Internet Border Sources
• Index
• About the Editors and Contributors