Colonization’s Impact on the Health of the Latinx Community

From the doctor’s office to the comments sections on social media platforms and even in scientific research, conversations about what impacts Latinx health are usually overly simplistic. They focus narrowly on the foods we eat and our body size while missing systemic factors stemming from historical scars that still impact our community today: colonization. Colonization not only introduced new foods and cooking methods from Africa, Asia, and Europe into Latin America, but it also attempted to erase Indigenous foods and cultural identity, and create a social and economic hierarchy that placed European food, culture, and bodies at the top, centering whiteness. Europeans and their descendants were and still are afforded power and privilege. This imbalance has impacted our physical, mental, and spiritual health for generations, which in part, explains why our community has higher rates of chronic disease.  

The Flawed Focus on Food

It’s no secret that when first diagnosed with conditions like diabetes, hypertension, or high cholesterol, we are recommended to cut out our cultural foods—rice, beans, plantains, and tortillas—ask any Latinx who’s ever been to the doctor. Our cultural foods are often disregarded as greasy, too starchy, or “bad for you,” as if health wasn’t an amorphous and multifactorial concept that looks different for everyone. This perspective isn’t just flawed because our cultural foods are, in fact, nutritious, but also because it solely places a burden on the individual when as much as 80 percent of factors that determine our health outcomes may be out of our control. 

Social determinants of health, the conditions in which we are born, grow, play, live, and work, play a significant role in our health outcomes, and unsurprisingly, Latinxs are disproportionately impacted by adverse social determinants. 

How Social Determinants Play a Role

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, social determinants of health fall into five categories: economic stability, education, healthcare access and quality, neighborhood and environment, and social and community context. While Latinxs in the U.S. are diverse and can identify with any race, we generally face limited access to quality, culturally responsive healthcare, lower socioeconomic status, higher rates of food insecurity (1 in 5!), and increased mental stress or immigration challenges.

The effects of colonization and the Transatlantic Slave Trade are evident in the structural inequities impacting the Latinx community. Colonization established systems focused on whiteness, dehumanizing Indigenous and Black people and restricting their access to resources. Consequently, Black Latinxs experience anti-Black racism within both Latinx and broader communities, negatively affecting social and community context.

Colonization also attempted to erase Indigenous cultures and healing practices, leading to a dominance of Western treatment methods and culturally unresponsive care in healthcare research. Traditional remedies, used by our ancestors for centuries, are often ignored due to a lack of understanding and willingness to learn.

Latinxs with mixed ancestry may experience these issues differently based on their cultural identity and socialization within various groups in the U.S. Those with more proximity to whiteness may gain more safety, access, and privilege, sometimes leading them to distance themselves from their cultural roots to obtain these advantages. 

This attempted erasure has led so many of us to feel shame and guilt around eating our cultural foods; so much so, that some of us may have sworn cultural foods off entirely, assimilating to American culture. The same can be said about our bodies— having a body that doesn’t align with the standards of “American beauty” can lead us to want to change our bodies at all costs in order to fit in with the status quo, such as engaging in chronic dieting which may even lead to disordered eating and eating disorders.

Built Environment

The effects of colonization are still evident in how our built environment affects Latinx communities. Our communities are often in areas with higher air pollution, fewer green spaces, underfunded schools and medical facilities, and lower property values. These factors significantly impact Latinx health. Pollution contributes to chronic inflammation and diseases. Unsafe, poorly lit, or hot environments with limited shade discourage physical activity, which affects health outcomes. Low property values hinder wealth building, particularly for immigrants or first-generation individuals. Additionally, Latinxs face higher rates of occupational hazards, including workplace injuries, exposure to toxins, extreme temperatures, and long hours.

Intergenerational Trauma

One underrecognized impact of colonization on Latinxs is the intergenerational and historical trauma we’ve inherited from the exploitation, violent oppression, and forced displacement experienced by our ancestors. The centuries of chronic stress experienced by our ancestors may have even changed our gene expression. The forced starvation and disruption of traditional food systems so many of our ancestors experienced may have even impacted our risk of developing chronic diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease. 

Healthcare Barriers

Finding a provider who speaks our language and understands our culture is challenging, and even when we do, we face systemic shortcomings in a healthcare system designed for European descendants.

The system’s focus on weight and BMI often leads providers to blame body size for chronic conditions, overlooking critical factors like food security, chronic stress, mental health, and access to resources. Body mass index, or BMI, is a screening tool used to estimate health risk based on a person’s weight and height— it does not account for racial or ethnic differences, sex differences, muscle mass, or even age, leaving a lot of important factors that might actually tell us something about our health unaccounted for. The BMI puts people in “normal”, “overweight”, and “obese” categories, which pathologizes our bodies unnecessarily and perpetuates the weight stigma that is so prevalent in our society today.

It automatically assumes that people in large bodies are sick, when we know that there are perfectly health larger bodied people, just like there are people in smaller bodies who have chronic conditions, like diabetes and high blood pressure. It might lead providers to write us off based on our body size without even getting curious about the social determinants experienced that may be impacting our health. BMI, created in the 1800s by a European man for European men, was never intended to assess individual health and remains an outdated, Eurocentric tool that perpetuates systemic inequities. The “thin ideal” ingrained in our society and healthcare system reinforces a divide between Anglo-Europeans and others, particularly Black and Indigenous people.

Many Latinxs are uninsured or underinsured, leading to late diagnoses, more complications, costly treatments, and poorer health outcomes. Research on chronic diseases has historically focused on white men, leading to results that may not apply to Latinx communities. Biases in research often go unchecked, resulting in biased findings that can influence best practices and treatment protocols, further impacting health outcomes.

Collective Healing

Despite the health barriers Latinxs face due to colonization, healing is possible. A critical step in reclaiming our health is reclaiming and embracing our cultural heritage, ancestral foods, languages, and practices. Including our cultural foods as part of our daily eating experience, whenever possible, can be a way of doing this. 

Addressing the stigma around mental health in our community is also vital for healing our intergenerational trauma. By shedding this stigma and voicing our experiences, we can better address the impacts of colonization.

Building a community of shared identity can also be healing and build resilience. Healing can and must happen collectively and individually to begin addressing the impact of colonization in our community. We must unpack our own biases and beliefs around race, color, and identity. Then, we can collectively advocate for systemic change to address the impact of colonization on our community. 

Diana Mesa is a bilingual registered dietitian and certified diabetes care and education specialist providing culturally inclusive care and content in Miami, Florida. En La Mesa Nutrition is her virtual private practice serving over 27 states.