UIW Welcomes Community to Learn About Latin Cultures and Spiritualities

As part of the continuing celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, Dr. Arturo Chavez, vice president of Mission & Ministry and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), has been hosting a three-part lecture series titled "Exploring Latina(o) Cultures and Spiritualities." The series aims to explore the rich tapestry of Latin cultures and spiritual beliefs and welcomes the UIW community to join in this discovery.

All three presentations in the series intend to collectively explore topics such as praying with ancestors, Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) traditions, Curanderismo (Spiritual Healing) practices, the veneration of Our Lady of Guadalupe and religion, race and gender intersections within the Latin experience.

The series' second installment was hosted on Wednesday, Oct. 2 in the Mabee Library auditorium and specifically focused on cultural practices and beliefs related to sickness and healing.

"We looked at the practice of curanderismo and how it provides so many Latin communities with remedies, rituals and counseling for physical, emotional and spiritual healing," shared Chavez. "This is essential because Hispanic populations make up 18% of the uninsured nationally and 28% in Texas."

Chavez explained that the reason behind choosing this subject was in part related to UIW's nursing, health professions and medical curriculum offerings. As a representative of the University's DEI efforts, he hopes to encourage aspiring healthcare students to adopt a sense of intercultural competence so that they can meet patients where they are and provide effective care.

"You can't separate the body from the mind or the emotions," noted Chavez. "It's all one. So, if we're not including all those dimensions of what it means to be human, then we're maybe putting a band aid on the symptom that we're seeing. Real healing aims to heal the whole person. Whether you believe or not, these were the ways that our ancestors handed on to our abuelitas, our abuelitos, and they got passed on to us."

UIW students and community members came up to share their own experiences and exposure to curanderismo, and the presence it has had within their families and culture.

"My mother played the role of our healer, often performing these spiritual cleansings and remedying us from 'susto,' a concept in our culture describing the state of fright due to traumatic experiences. Even today, we instinctively seek out to her, asking her to help, to do the practice that she learned from her mother and my grandmother learned from generations before, creating a lineage of healing. It is an honor I look forward to inheriting one day when I have children of my own, carrying this legacy of care," shared one student.

Chavez hopes that through this presentation and community discussion, attendees were able to learn more about underrepresented communities and feel called to be agents of social change so that all communities and their health care practices can be seen.

Click here to register for the next and final installment of the series on Wednesday, Oct. 9.

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