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This article explores how community spaces (especially community centers) serve as sites of engaging medical pluralism. Two predominantly Latinx areas of Chicago are highlighted to help understand how underserved communities experience health inequities while managing metabolic conditions. This article identifies the significance of community centers, broadly defined, that function as physical forms of resilience and social justice for communities that have historically been underserved. Based on ethnographic research carried out between 2015 and 2017 in northwest and southwest Chicago with Latinx communities, this article examines the ways in which community centers address the needs of residents confronting chronic health inequities associated with metabolic conditions (diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol).
Key words: community centers, medical pluralism, Latinxs, health justice, United States
This article traces the ways in which community spaces in two predominantly Latinx1 areas of Chicago can be used to understand how underserved communities experience health inequities as they attempt to manage their metabolic conditions. While metabolic conditions are "manageable," the disconnect between biomedical diagnosis, treatment, and lived experiences led me to the research question: how do Chicago Latinxs with diabetes, high blood pressure, and/or high cholesterol manage their well-being and engage agentive strategies (health actions) in the face of challenges to their well-being? This research provides a comparison of two different predominately Latinx areas of northwest (NW) and southwest (SW) Chicago. More specifically, this article highlights two non-clinical community centers: the Humboldt Park Community Center (HPHC) and Chicago Public Schools (CPS), to document Latinxs' enactments of medical pluralism. The HPHC is located on the NW side of Chicago, and CPS are located throughout the city.
Study Location and Population
Chicago is the third largest city in the United States, with a population of over 2.6 million people living in 227 square miles (United States Census Bureau 2019a). This study is based within two areas of Chicago, identified here as NW Chicago (including Avondale, Hermosa, Humboldt Park, Logan Square, and West Town); and SW Chicago (including Brighton Park, Chicago Law, Gage Park, West Eldson, and West Lawn). Both these areas were similar in geographic size, covering twelve to thirteen square miles each.
Latinxs account for almost 30 percent of Chicago's population (United States Census Bureau 2019b), with the following breakdown by national...
