My voice

A 29-year-old Hispanic male shares his experiences of discrimination and struggles with healthcare access based on his race, sexuality, and socioeconomic status. He grew up in a crowded household, facing poverty and the absence of his father who was in prison. He encountered daily harassment in high school for being gay and experienced discrimination in the healthcare system. He discusses his Mexican cultural traditions and religious beliefs but has drifted away from them due to discrimination. He highlights the importance of not stereotyping individuals based on appearance or background and emphasizes the need for equal access to quality healthcare for everyone, regardless of race, gender, or ethnicity. Hello, I chose my voice due to them having a different sexual orientation, religion, and race than me, and for the willing to talk and explain things within his culture and about his identity and socioeconomic struggles. Some questions I asked my voice were what was your life like growing up? Did you face any cultural or racial discrimination? If so, were you denied access to healthcare based off your race, sexuality, and were you ever mislabeled or identified based off your stereotypes from being Mexican? And what are some cultural traditions and beliefs you grew up in and what are they now? And what is one thing you wish for healthcare workers to know? I am a 29-year-old Hispanic. I grew up in a crowded household struggling to have food on the table. I have five total siblings. My dad worked full time while my mom worked at home to help feed us kids. My dad got involved with some bad people and started doing some wrong things. Somewhere around the age of 16, he was taken to prison and I haven't seen him since. I struggle trying to help my mom raise my siblings, finish high school, and live with my chronic conditions. I grew up in and out of ERs because of my medical conditions. I received poor quality healthcare as well as some high quality care every now and then. Most of the time, I was discriminated based off the color of my skin or what I decided to identify as a homosexual. Did I face a lot of discrimination? Yes. I faced daily harassment from the people in high school when they found out I was gay. I was insulted, labeled queer, and called many racial slurs. In the healthcare system, I received many unnecessary drug tests based off my skin tone, my race, and the many tattoos that I have on my knuckles, hands, and on the side of my face. Some cultural traditions and religious beliefs that I grew up in. I grew up in a typical Mexican household that was raised in the face of Catholicism. We celebrated many holidays related to our culture such as Dia de los Muertos, which is Day of the Dead. Holy Week and Easter were two main ones that I remember frequently. As I aged and defined my sexuality and my identity, I drifted away from religion, from the constant discrimination from who I was becoming. Some of the home remedies that came with my cultural traditions were simple things such as the x-ray prerog, which my mom would rub all over my chest and my back when I was having excavations of my asthma, and herbal teas, menudo, just the simple things that my mom would try to do to help prevent from having to take me to the ER. I did not have to face the discrimination and poor quality of health I received, and I was labeled basically a frequent plier, or drug-seeking, so I was pushed in the ER and pushed right out. I no longer decided to practice in any of my cultural traditions as well. I just kind of grew out of it. I don't really like to participate in it as much as I did when I was younger. I was asked what are some barriers in daily life struggles. Currently I work two jobs, probably more than 40 hours a week, to help just pay for the bills in my house, my car, electricity, water, your basic necessities, and I also try to help my mom and give back to what she gave to me. I daily face a lot of discrimination and racial profiling due to being a homosexual Hispanic. Some social determinants of health that I was asked that affected me were what I can think of as low socioeconomic status and inadequate access to health care. As Keisha, I learned throughout this project that I have gained a better insight of my own privileges and my own disadvantages that I face, as well as I learned how to examine myself and how I see others who are different socioeconomic backgrounds, different races, different religions than I. And throughout this project, I noticed I gained many feelings of sadness and frustration for those who have to face this on a daily basis, who aren't able to receive adequate health care based on their race and their gender. I, a 29-year-old Hispanic male, was also asked one lesson that I would like to give would be to remind all health care workers and everyone else in general that not all men covered in tattoos or not Hispanic or not homosexual or not are drug addicts or seeking drugs, a part of gangs, or unable to afford their care. Everyone should be given a chance to receive high quality care, no matter their race, gender, or ethnicity.