Newsletter: May 2004
The Promotora Model of Community-Based, Health Research and Intervention in a Binational Community in SE Idaho: Did We Say Salsa Aerobics Works?
Liz Cartwright RN PhD, Diana Schow, MA, Deborah Mitchell, (Idaho State U)
As medical anthropologists, we focus on describing the logic of how cultures work, especially with respect to health beliefs and practices. The Idaho State University (ISU), Hispanic Health Projects, Salsa Aerobics program is a good example of how anthropological knowledge can be used to create promotora (lay health promoter/educator) programs that are effective in carrying out community-based health education and research projects in a culturally sensitive manner.
Over the last fifteen months of implementing our Salsa Aerobics program, we have learned how easily cultural differences can lead to misunderstandings that can jeopardize even the most seemingly benign of community interventions. This is true even though it has been our commitment to incorporate a multitude of perspectives regarding how to do work with underserved communities. We intentionally developed the Salsa Aerobics program in direct response to the desires of the communities in SE Idaho in which we conducted hundreds of ethnographic interviews and surveys. We also created systems of communication between the Spanish speaking and non-Spanish speaking individuals working in the communities by bringing together women farmworkers and ISU students and faculty to work jointly on the Salsa Aerobics, other health education programs and community-partnered research projects.
Success at Salsa Aerobics was overwhelming: 20 or 30 farmworker women showed up for each class and everyone was having a great time. The only problem was that the women brought their young children with them because they could not afford to pay for childcare and so really needed to bring the kids with them to the aerobics and dance classes. We resolved the problem by finding volunteers and ISU students to engage the kids in healthy activities while their moms exercise nearby.
During this “collaborative process” our very dedicated Aerobics and Fitness Instructor, Deborah Mitchell, discovered that classes did not, and consistently would not, start on time or finish after a full hour of exercise. This was partly because those attending the classes felt it was unacceptable to begin class until everyone had arrived. One of our promotoras, Silvia Herrera, pointed out that the women wait for everyone to arrive as a sign of respect and courtesy—something lacking in the daily lives of many of these women.
Before and after Salsa Aerobics, these women talk with each other and the promotoras about health concerns, self-esteem issues, problems with their adolescent children and situations of domestic violence and abuse, as well as about fashion and the next quinceanera. This time is so important to the women that they have asked to begin a women’s group with funding from the WIN the Rockies Foundation.
Wait! What about our 60 minutes of exercise? Some days it happens and some days it doesn’t. But this is for sure: lots of people are attending, exercising, having fun, feeling better, losing weight and awakening themselves to movement, health and self-identity—on their own terms.
It is our belief that long-term success will come from honestly reflecting upon the process of developing, maintaining, and negotiating strong cross cultural communication on a day-to-day basis between the Spanish-speaking Hispanic community and the English speaking Anglo community—something missing from many anthropological endeavors of shorter duration that are undertaken further from home.
The Salsa Aerobics program recently received a “First Women of Fitness” award from the RYKÄ Women’s Sports Foundation for enhancing women’s lives through fitness and giving back to the community through the power of athletics.
To all those individuals and organizations that support the Salsa Aerobics and the Hispanic Health Projects, mil gracias.
Council on Anthropology and Reproduction Call for Papers
Christa Craven, PhD (Mary Washington College)
The Council on Anthropology and Reproduction (CAR) is pleased to announce its third annual Edited Collection Competition and its fourth annual Student Paper Award Competition. Letters of nomination for the CAR Edited Collection prize are due by May 15, 2004 to : Maggie MacDonald, Department of Anthropology, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3 or maggie@yorku.ca.
Submissions for the Graduate Student Paper Award must be made in hard copy and must be postmarked no later than June 1, 2004. Please address submissions to: Susan Erikson, Director, Global Health Affairs, School for International Studies, University of Denver, 2201 South Gaylord Street, Denver, Colorado 80208 or serikson@du.edu.
Look for complete details on the awards and submission requirements on the SMA Website: http://www.medanthro.net/
Please send your comments, contributions, news and announcements to
the SMA Contributing Editors Nancy Vuckovic (nancy.vuckovic@kpchr.org)
or Janelle Taylor (jstaylor@u.washington.edu).