Counselor in Training Immersive Cultural Experience with the Latin/x Community

Part I: Research

Hispanic/Latin Americans are eclectic, as they are comprised of people from many countries. Hispanics are any people who have ancestry from Spain or Spanish-speaking countries of Latin America (twenty different countries), which includes people from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Central and South America, and other Spanish-speaking regions. “As of 2022, Hispanic people constituted approximately 63.7 million or 19% of the US population representing a 77% growth rate since 1980 (14.5 million)” (Borrell, 2024). Emerging multicultural counselors must take the time to research and learn about the rich history, attributes, and customs of Latin Americans, as the percentage of people within America is rising quickly.

Upon researching and observation, it appears that Hispanic culture values family support, tradition, respect, and adaptability. There also would appear to be an unspoken value of resilience just based on a lot of the history and adversities that many Latin Americans have faced. There are many deeply rooted cultural practices that they carry with them.

Catholicism remains the predominant religion for the majority of Hispanics. Catholicism values things such as the holy eucharist, saints, and the virgin Mary. They recognize advent, Christmas, and the Triduum during Holy Week. One prominent custom for Hispanic girls who turn fifteen, is their coming-of-age celebration, known as their quinceañera celebration. Young girls are clearly valued, as they hold tremendous responsibilities in the building and maintaining the family unit as they emerge into their womanhood. Another holiday, celebrated annually, is El Dia de Los Muertos (the Day of the Dead) around November 1 in order honor and celebrate deceased loved ones. Indeed, the fashion in which they honor their deceased loved ones is truly admirable.

As far as inter-group characteristics, Mexicans appear to be more reserved with their temperaments and conservative with their expressions, whereas Puerto Ricans tend to be more gregarious, expressive, and affectionate. These characteristic differences are extenuated later during the interview experience portion of his paper. One source highlights the following pertaining to inter-group differences and education and health insurance, “Within the US Hispanic population, Mexican Americans are younger, less educated, and less likely to have health insurance than Puerto Ricans and Cubans” (Borrell, 2024). The reasons for these inter-group differences likely vary but much of it could have to do with immigration statuses.

The reasons for immigration vary, depending on the country. “...large numbers of Latinx people did not migrate to the U.S. until the 1970s, although some were recruited to work in orchards of the U.S., starting in the 1940s. Puerto Rican women, who are citizens of the United States, migrated earlier” (Spalter-Roth, 2021). The two largest inter-groups of Hispanics consist of Mexicans and Puerto Ricans (Hays, 2022). The Mexican population is the “most concentrated in California, Texas and Arizona…” as these “...states were part of Mexico prior to the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848” (Hays, 2022). It would seem that the U.S. has quite a gritty history on how it acquired the land for the fifty states that we know today.

In 2017, the event of hurricane Maria devastated the island of Dominica and Puerto Rico and many deaths occurred after the damage of the storm, which led to concerns about disaster response for this territory (Hays, 2022). After natural disasters strike and devastate, it does lead one to wonder how the impacts migration or immigration trends.

The third largest population of Latinos/as/x are from Cuba and El Salvador and most of these immigrants come to the states due to political reasons such as Fidel Castro’s communist regime in 1959 (Hays 2022). Though there are numerous reasons for immigration, economic and political reasons seem to be high on the list. One major key attribute of the Latin/x population is that many of their parents or grandparents were immigrants or non-U.S. born (Hays, 2022). People who experience similar life experiences, such as immigration, has a way of binding people together in support of their community and culture, even though there may be some inter-group differences.

It appears that there is less research on the other Latin/x groups who have immigrated to the U.S., but this will likely change as the numbers of people continue to increase and political pressures rise in other countries. “Immigration patterns for Latinos/as/x of non-Cuban, non-Mexican, or non-Puerto Rican descent are much more difficult to characterize but have been growing in recent years” (Hays, 2022). In a way, it seems degrading to lump so many different inter-groups into one category as Latin/as/x. However, for the most part, it appears that the Latin/x community, though there are inter-group differences, the uniting factors are immigration, similar language (Spanish) and many other similar cultural practices.

As far as historical oppression for people of Latin/x decent, “Over 60 years since the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement, where the collective struggle for quality and antiracist bilingual language pedagogy began, heritage language classrooms…” (Avilés, 2022). Immigrants have a tremendous number of factors to adjust to when they come to the U.S. but most obvious adjustment is that most Americans do not speak Spanish, which can obviously cause communication barriers and misunderstandings, which can lead to racism conflict. “Spanish Heritage Language (SHL) was established as a distinct subfield of Spanish language education in the 1970s and 1980s, as a result of the struggle for bilingual education in the civil rights era” (Avilés, 2022). The education system has come a long way as high schools and colleges have foreign language requirements, however historically the language barriers have been ongoing struggles, which has led to a lot of the historical oppression of many of those in the Latin/x community.

Sadly, regarding more current oppression, “...Nearly 40% of Latinos reported experiencing discrimination in 2017 (Pew Research Center, 202j)” (Hays 2022). The combination of acculturation stress, unemployment, underemployment, victimization, and other types of personal stressors, Latin Americans face a tremendous number of obstacles. Adolescents also face a tremendous number of stressors in the school setting. “Research has demonstrated that Latinx immigrant youth experience discrimination primarily in the school context, with peers and teachers as the common perpetrators of discriminatory language…” (Torres, 2022). With the increase of social media usage, the peer-to-peer cyberbullying can become debilitating for young adolescents who already have a tremendous number of things they are trying to process in life. “Latinx adolescents also experience interpersonal discrimination or vicarious discrimination in online settings (e.g., reading an offensive post, including text messages and social media” (Torres, 2022). Back before the rise of social media, bullying ceased when young adolescents got home from school, but now the bullying for many young adolescents does not stop when they get home because they are so immersed in trending apps and social media platforms. “The prevalence of depression among the US Hispanic population is estimated to be 27% [1]. Response to treatment is slow, and relapse rates are high” (Sanchez, 2021). The constant struggle with oppression and acculturation likely account for these depression rates, on top of family and employment struggles.

Grassroots interventions for alcohol use disorders in the Mexican immigrant community:

A narrative literature review. Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse by Victor Garciaa, Emily Lamberta, Katherine Foxb, Daniel Heckerta, and Nahomy Hidalgo Pinchia

In summary of the article, the work focuses on the Mexican immigrant population in grassroots options for treatment of alcoholism and other mental health issues as means of providing effective public health. There appear to be some counseling treatment approaches for the Latin/x community that are confirmed as being effective. With a strong value for family and community support, family or group counseling would logically make sense to be an effective treatment method. “Moreover, the grassroots interventions are not delivered in clinical settings but in familiar places in the immigrants’ communities, such as in their neighborhoods and churches, and are delivered by priests, traditional healers, and the immigrants themselves” (Garcia, 2022). It is brilliant to have community resources that are in neighborhoods where there are heavier immigrant populations. With many people in the Latin/x community who value strong religious ties, it follows logically that the approach of providing support groups would be strategic. These support groups, if connected to Spanish speaking churches, or in the neighborhoods of where there is more of a familiar feel, would be crucial. This approach makes more sense, as opposed to more institutionalized appearing establishments. For example, if there is a high percentage of Latins/as/x who have drug and alcohol addiction issues, then having bilingual Alcoholics Anonymous support groups in neighborhoods would likely be powerful resources as a grassroot intervention tactic that doesn’t feel quite as intimidating.

Culturally adapted CBT (CA-CBT) for Latino women with treatment-resistant PTSD: A pilot study comparing CA-CBT to applied muscle relaxation by Devon E. Hinton, Stefan G. Hofmann, Edwin Rivera, Michael W. Otto, Mark H. Pollack

In summary of the article, it consists of treatment work with Latino women specifically with the CBT therapy method that involved 14 weekly sessions in order to treat PTSD specifically who had been treatment-resistant with the use of other therapy approaches. Two other treatment approaches for the Latin/x population appears to be the cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and also the narrative therapy are two therapies that have been reported to be highly effective for treating the cultural population (Hays, 2022). Many immigrants suffer from PTSD at various levels and have complex traumas that make it difficult for emotional regulation. CBT is highly empowerment based. A lot of Latin Americans likely feel powerless at times, as they feel the constant pressures of acculturation. CBT focuses on helping the client work toward becoming their own therapist of sorts as they work to change negative thought patterns and see them transformed into more constructive thought patterns. “In this study of female Caribbean-Latino patients with PTSD, both CA-CBT and AMR were efficacious on multiple dimensions of psychopathology. As indicated by effect sizes, in both treatment conditions patients improved on all measures, including PTSD severity, anxiety, specific Latino idioms of distress, and emotion regulation ability” (Hinton, 2011). It is exciting to see this research, as CBT one of the main treatment approaches to the field of licensed mental health counseling. Further, there appears to a bright future ahead for the continued effectiveness in using CPT for the Latin/x population group.

The Multicultural Social Justice Counseling Competency II. Client Worldview is the most relevant in the context of the counseling treatment types of group therapy or support groups and CBT as an effective treatment for the Latin/x cultural group. While a multicultural counselor is growing professionally by having diverse clients, he or she has the ability to always be learning about the cultural customs of the clients that are being served, whether they are individuals or groups. It seems more and more apparent that group facilitated counseling is the wisest route to take with Latin Americans because it can help build up their community, instead of making them feel insecure or skeptical about being swayed away from any of their cultural practices through the method of individual counseling, especially if the counselor is not within a minority cultural group. The second apparent MSJCC in this context is the IV. Counseling and Advocacy Interventions specially letter D as it focuses on community building and building up the values of marginalized people groups. Anything counselors can do to build up and celebrate the Latin/x culture and facilitate community support is foundational for the practice of growing as a multicultural and social-justice-seeking-competent-counselor!

Part II: Immersive Events

On Saturday, April 26th, at 10 a.m. in the morning I attended a funeral for a Latin (Mexican) man, who, sadly, was murdered. The funeral service was around two hours long. The service was located at a protestant Christian Spanish church in Dade City, Florida. From my understanding, he had been struggling with drug addiction for quite some time. To protect his identity, I will call him Juan. Juan was thirty-three years old and left behind several children with different mothers. The entirety of the funeral service was translated from Spanish to English. I would estimate that there were over two-hundred people there. Many of the extended family members and friends wore t-shirts that had a photo of Juan on the front with the date of his birth and the date of his death. Many of the family members spoke about Juan in a very positive light and even one of his young children got up to speak about him.

The second event that I attended was a baby baptism service at a Spanish Catholic church in Dade City, Florida. Please note, that this was a different church than the funeral service that I attended in the first event. The date of this event was on Saturday, June 14th at 9 a.m. and this event lasted around two hours. The entire service was in Spanish and not translated into English, so I could only understand a few words here and there as I do not speak or understand Spanish. There were about ten different children who were baptized. The one that I met was one and a half years old and I will call him Diego to protect his identity. I learned that his mother is a single parent with three children. Diego is the youngest of the three children. Interestingly enough, it was the “God parents,” or legal aunt and uncle of Diego who initiated the baby baptism. The father of the child was not present even though the aunt and uncle were related on the paternal side of Diego. The grandmother of Diego on Diego’s mother’s side was not present as she does not identify as a Catholic but as a protestant instead and was opposed to the baby baptism to begin with.

The first key element of what I learned from these two experiences was how intermingled the Latin/x families appear to be. There are many children that are born out of wedlock, however, despite that, the children are well-cared for and loved by lots of extended family members, which was great to observe. It seems that it is highly common for Latin/x women to be caretaking several children who have different fathers. This particular aspect is highly different from the upbringing that I experienced. It appears that many of the fathers of families are not present in their children's lives.

The second key element of what I learned from these two events is that the Latin/x population are extremely inclusive and want to invite and include their extended family members to events, even though there may be some awkwardness with ex-spouses or ex-relationships.

The third element that I observed through several conversations after the baptism, during the extensive photo shoot that they did, is that the Latin/x population appear to be very trusting with sharing childcare responsibilities. The gender roles appear to be fairly traditional, however, I did notice that several of the Latin/x fathers who were present did show affection toward their children. The grandparents are highly active in participating in caring for children during the summer and it seems common for several extra children to be at any given house in the evenings. In other words, there appears to be a lot of fluidity with child care on the day to day with the Latin/x population. This observation traces back to their strong family ties and trust within their cultural group.

Part III: Interview

For my interview experience, I chose to interview an early thirty-year-old woman who has three young children. To protect her identity, I will call her Sophia. I learned that Sophia’s mother is Puerto Rican and her deceased father was Mexican. One of the questions that I asked her was how Mexican culture is different from Puerto Rican culture since she carries a bit of both within her personal heritage. Her response was, “Puerto Rican culture tends to be more outgoing compared to Mexican culture, which I feel is a bit more reserved. As Puerto Ricans, we’re naturally friendly. We greet each other with hugs and kisses, while Mexicans often prefer a handshake.” After speaking with her, it would seem that she gravitates to be warmer and more affectionate like Puerto Rican tendencies as she described.

She talked about the differences between Mexican and Puerto Rican cuisine. “The food is very different. Puerto Rican cuisine has strong Caribbean influences, while Mexican food leans heavily on spice and bold flavors. Both are rich and full of seasoning, but Puerto Ricans, of course, use sazón for everything!”

She spoke about the differences between Mexican and Puerto Rican music. “Music is also different. Puerto Rican music sounds are filled with salsa, bachata and merengue, while Mexican music embraces cumbias, rancheras, and zapateado. But regardless of the differences, they still share a lot of similarities.”

Sophia expounded on the language differences which I found noteworthy. “Even the language itself varies. Growing up, I had to navigate both Puerto Rican and Mexican Spanish, which made communication challenging, not to mention learning English on top of that! I think that’s why I still sometimes struggle with language and expressing myself.”

Sophia is indeed one inspirational young woman! She told me that she grew up with two sisters in a very strict, religious household. She was the oldest child in her family. Her family was not Catholic but Protestant and her father was a pastor of a local Protestant church. Sophia was even able to preach herself, interestingly enough, but then she talked about how her father was very critical of her and she stopped preaching and went into a rebellious phase of her life as a teenager and early twenties from what she described.

In high school she went to an alternative high school but then transitioned back to a public high school and graduated high school. After she graduated from high school, Sophia attended a local state college, where she earned an associate in science degree in legal assisting. The reason for her decision to do this type of degree was because she wanted a quicker access point into a job and career. She is juggling working a full-time job, raising three young children who are all under the age of ten. On top of all that, she is currently working on pursuing a bachelor’s degree in supervision and management with a concentration in organizational administration.

The college classes she takes are in the online format as this is more convenient for her to maintain with everything else that she is striving to balance in life. Sophia is dreaming of going to law school after she finishes her undergraduate degree. She currently works at a local courthouse doing legal assisting work where she works with several attorneys. It appears that the twelve different attorneys that she works with have been very encouraging and supportive of her future career advancements and goals. She was married for around nine years but then separated and divorced, as her husband, who was of Mexican decent, fell into severe drug addiction issues.

I, respectfully, asked Sophia if she had experienced any discrimination in the workplace and she responded with telling me about a time when she was pregnant with her third child and one of the attorneys that she worked with would make rude comments to her about her coming from Mexico. The attorney apparently had explained to Sophia that she had a cleaning lady who was, also, Mexican but how her kids called her nana. This attorney would yell at Sophia in front of clients. It appears that Sophia was discriminated against due to experiencing a high-risk pregnancy as well. Sophia told me that she did speak up about the discrimination with her supervisor who did take action that required the attorney to work remotely but that it didn’t last long. Eventually, Sophia chose to step down from her position.

On top of work discrimination, Sophia’s partner at the time, who was the father of her soon-to-be-born child, left her and her other two young children. She said, “For a man to leave me with his child at six months pregnant and high risk… He hurt me but what was worse he hurt my babies! Did I want revenge? One hundred percent. The kids had to watch him live right next door to us literally right next door and not even acknowledge the kids after acting like he was their dad!” Sophia was clearly distressed thinking about her experiences but she described how despite the humiliation and family difficulties that she relied on her relationship with God to get her through life. She stated that she felt like despite all the discrimination and hardships that she felt like she got closer to God in more recent years.

The first general insight that I have after interviewing Sophia is that she truly embodies resiliency despite the harsh family traumatic experiences, workplace mistreatment and job insecurities, and also language acclamation. Not only did she learn English, but she grew up speaking Puerto Rican Spanish and Mexican Spanish since she had parents who came from both Mexico and Puerto Rico. The interview with Sophia truly impressed me with just how resilient one human being from the Latin/x community truly is. The concept of resiliency is a key concept in the field of counseling but it is also a highly relatable concept when connecting the Latin/x community to other minority community groups. When you focus on resiliency, it helps people of all community groups realize that they have a story that should be shared in order to inspire other people to keep pressing on in life despite all hardships along the way.

The second general insight that I have from this interview is that the family dynamics are very much an algorithm of interconnectedness and sensitivities. At first it felt a bit awkward for me to ask questions about the children and dynamics of the extended family, but Sophia seemed comfortable about sharing. It is intriguing how the Latin/x community is able to maintain a strong familial connectedness, even despite the ex-spouses, and/or ex-relationships. I think that many other cultural communities will likely be able to relate to the complicated factors of families being broken and formed back into unique constructs.

The third, and final, general insight that I had from my interview experience with Sophia was that a spiritual foundation is essential. Various cultures have differing religious beliefs, however, encouraging people within all cultural groups to pursue spiritual practices that lead to their own mental and emotional wellness are certainly powerful for the mental health field of work. Or, if there are no clear spiritual leanings, then respectfully encouraging the individual within the given cultural group to explore new experiences would be appropriate.

In conclusion, the Latin/x culture is a diverse culture, full of colorful practices and traditions. Though discrimination has occurred historically, and in current events, the Latin/x community proves tremendously powerful resilience as the research (Part I), immersive events observed (Part II) and the personal interview experience (Part III) that I partook in. The counseling profession has evidently made leaps and bounds in support of this culture, but there are many other opportunities through individual treatment, group support and building community resources for this growing population in America. Delving into this cultural population, was both enriching and enlightening, as I continue to learn the best practices of what it means to be an emerging diverse multicultural counselor who is joining the fight for social justice for all people!

References

Avilés, T., & Harb, A. J. (2022). “It wasn’t just about learning how to speak Spanish”: Engaging Histories of Oppression and Enslavement in Spanish Heritage Language Education. Journal of Latinos and Education, 22(5), 1815–1829. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348431.2022.2051039

Borrell, L. N.,D.D.S.PhD., & Markides, K. S., PhD. (2024). Will the Health Status of the Changing Hispanic Population Remain 'Paradoxical'? American Journal of Public Health, Suppl.Supplement 6, 114, S431-S435. https://go.openathens.net/redirector/liberty.edu?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/will-health-status-changing-hispanic-population/docview/3096566832/se-2

Garcia, V., Lambert, E., Fox, K., Heckert, D., & Pinchi, N. H. (2022). Grassroots interventions for alcohol use disorders in the Mexican immigrant community: A narrative literature review. Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse., 21(3), 773–792. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332640.2020.1803781

Hays, D., & Erford, B. (2022). Developing multicultural counseling competence: A systems approach (4th ed.). Pearson

Hinton, D. E., Hofmann, S. G., Rivera, E., Otto, M. W., & Pollack, M. H. (2011). Culturally adapted CBT (CA-CBT) for Latino women with treatment-resistant PTSD: A pilot study comparing CA-CBT to applied muscle relaxation. Behaviour Research and Therapy., 49(4), 275–280. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2011.01.005

Sanchez K, Eghaneyan BH, Killian MO, Cabassa LJ, Trivedi MH. Depression education fotonovela for engagement of Hispanic patients in treatment: a randomized clinical trial. BMC Psychiatry. 2021 Dec 23;21(1):635. doi: 10.1186/s12888-021-03641-0. Erratum in: BMC Psychiatry. 2023 Apr 19;23(1):269. doi: 10.1186/s12888-023-04737-5. PMID: 34949169; PMCID: PMC8705454.

Spalter-Roth, R. (2021). Obstacles to Sustaining Diversity: Historical Context and Current Experiences of Underrepresented Minority Women and Men in Sociology and Economics. Sustainability, 13(21), 11858. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132111858

Torres, S. A., Sosa, S. S., Flores Toussaint, R. J., Jolie, S., & Bustos, Y. (2022). Systems of Oppression: The Impact of Discrimination on Latinx Immigrant Adolescents’ Well‐Being and Development. Journal of Research on Adolescence., 32(2), 501–517. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12751