This article examines the idea of empowerment through food preparation and applies it to a specific context-that of the life of immigrant Mexican women from two South Texas settlement areas, or colonias. Based on ethnographic data gathered through participant observation by bilingual research teams of promotoras and formally educated health professionals embedded with participant families, we analyze the living situations of low-income Mexican women in the South Texas colonias, particularly their food procurement, storage, and preparation practices for their families. We acknowledge the existence of hegemonic gendered, economic, and racialized structures of domination that surround the women's role in food preparation. However, we also recognize food preparation as the domain in which otherwise oppressed and marginalized women, living a life of isolation filled with severe problems and uncertainties, exercise some degree of power and control within their lives and the well-being of their family members. Included are implications for further research on communal empowerment." Though [Nacha] didn't know how to read or write, when it came to cooking she knew everything there was to know" (Esquivel).
Family communication about health is critical for the dissemination of information that may improve health management of all family members. Communication about health issues, attitudes, and behaviors in families is associated with life expectancy as well as quality of life for family members. This study addresses family communication about health by examining individual roles for family health communication and factors related to these roles, among families of three different racial/ethnic groups: Caucasians, Latinos, and Pacific Islanders. Data were collected from 60 participants recruited as 30 family dyads, 10 from each group, through qualitative semistructured interviews. Interviews were conducted with each participant separately and then together in a dyadic interview. Two coders independently coded interview transcripts using NVivo 11. Results identified the family health communication roles of collector, disseminator, health educator, and researcher. We also identified several factors related to these roles using the lens of family systems theory—the presence of chronic conditions in the family, previous experience, medical education, and family hierarchy. Findings demonstrate many similarities and relatively few differences in the family health communication roles and the related factors among the families of different race/ethnicity. Conclusions highlight implications for future research and intervention development.
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