Latin American culture is characterized by the contact of heterogeneous cultural traditions and inter-civilizational interaction. The civilization of Latin America began to form as a result of the collision of three genetically different cultures: Iberian, Indian, and African, which led to its borderline character, characterized by heterogeneity, symbiosis, inversion of various elements, and a high level of archaic elements. Since the clashing cultures were qualitatively different from each other, interaction in different parts of the continent had several levels, which can be traced today in the cultures of different countries of the region, thereby explaining their diversity (De la Fuente & Andrews, 2018). Alien traditions, values, and norms that participated in the formation of culture integrated and merged. The approach to healthcare reflects the essential characteristics of the culture in which it exists. Afro-Latin attitude towards health is characterized by the prevailing of the traditional healing practices over official medicine due to cultural, economic, and social barriers.
In the first half of the XVI century, conquistadors, Spanish officials, and many other colonists came to the New World. As a result, Iberian men cohabitated and sometimes married Indian women. From the second half of the XVI century, Africans, who were brought to America as slaves, took an active part in the process of miscegenation, interracial mixing of the population of the New World (De la Fuente & Andrews, 2018). They were imported to almost all European colonies in the Western Hemisphere. Therefore, a huge racially mixed and heterogeneous in its composition population was formed in Latin America. In Brazil, the process of racial mixing covered almost all strata of slave society and was so intense that even the term “Brazilian race” appeared, meaning a mixture of a black and a white race with an admixture of an Indian (De la Fuente & Andrews, 2018). Thus, Africans who belonged to different tribes, mixed in Latin America not only with each other but with the Iberian populations in the process of more than three centuries of miscegenation. This contributed to the emergence of a special group of Afro-Latin people or Black Hispanics with African roots manifested in culture.
Various factors have influenced the quality of life of Afro-Latin people, including their perspective of health and illness, and their attitude towards healthcare. Several regional studies demonstrate a constant disparity between health indicators for Afro-Latinos and other populations in Latin America. Pan American Health Organization claims that this gap in healthcare results from poverty, cultural differences, and racial discrimination. These factors limit the access of ethnic minorities to healthcare and decrease the quality of provided services. This gap is visible in some Latin American countries by higher HIV rates, homicide, and infant mortality. Afro-Latinos suffer from these problems more than other people in Latin America. For example, the infant mortality rate in the Chocó, an Afro-Colombian region, is the highest in Colombia (Rodríguez-Lainz et al., 2016). Esmeraldas, a region in Ecuador with the majority of the Black Hispanic population, is characterized by the highest suicide rate. In Honduras, inhabited by African descendants, there is a much higher HIV rate than in other regions (Rodríguez-Lainz et al., 2016). This data demonstrates some of the health issues that Afro-Latin people face in Latin America.
The fragmentation of the healthcare system has led to the fact that the Afro-Latin population lacks quality care. The reason for that is not only economic and racial barriers, but also cultural values that influence the attitude toward healthcare (Luquis & Castillo, 2016). This ethnic group prefers healing practices, which is a part of their culture, to official healthcare. Traditional healers are popular throughout Latin America, especially where access to medical professionals is limited. For example, Afro-Caribbean healing practices, such as Santería and Vodou, have developed due to African ancestry (Luquis & Castillo, 2016). The majority of Afro-Latinos consults practitioners of religious teachings with West African roots on the issues related to illnesses.
Alternative medicine methods based on cultural beliefs and practices are widespread and popular among the Black Hispanic population. The philosophical and cultural foundations of alternative medicine create a specific culture that attracts people (Domínguez, 2018). Perhaps, the attractiveness of alternative medicine is explained not by its effectiveness, but by those beliefs and ideas that unite the patient with the culture (Domínguez, 2018). In comparison with Western healthcare, alternative medicine relies on the primacy of natural vitality and spirituality. Thus, religious beliefs, cultural practices, and African ancestry have significantly influenced the idea of Afro-Latin people of health and illness.
Both cultural and socio-economic barriers have resulted in a noticeable disparity in the quality of healthcare for this population. The Afro-Latin population has less health insurance coverage than other ethnic groups in Latin America, as well as a limited number of healthcare providers. Many patients visit doctors only when an emergency occurs (Rodríguez-Lainz et al., 2016). This inequality in the healthcare system must be improved taking into account cultural beliefs and perspectives of health among Afro-Latin people. This may be achieved with the help of the predominance of the Western healthcare system while maintaining the foundations of traditional folk medicine.
Multiculturalism has been a hallmark of Latin American civilization practically from the first decades of its existence. The fusion of the three main cultural traditions, Iberian, Indian and African, gave unexpected results in almost all aspects of life in the new societies of Latin America, including the cultural one. This phenomenon has influenced the formation of a special worldview of Afro-Latin people, who have a specific attitude to health issues due to cultural, social, and economic factors.
References
De la Fuente, A., & Andrews, G. R. (2018). Afro-Latin American studies: An introduction. Cambridge University Press.
Domínguez, J. I. (2018). Race and ethnicity in Latin America. Routledge.
Luquis, R. R., & Castillo, J. A. (2016). Complementary, alternative, and integrative health approaches among Hispanics/Latinos. Complementary, alternative, and integrative health: A multicultural perspective, 207-234.
Rodríguez-Lainz, A., McDonald, M., Penman-Aguilar, A., & Barrett, D. H. (2016). Getting data right—and righteous to improve Hispanic or Latino health. Journal of Healthcare, Science and the Humanities, 6(3), 60-83.