USC Fogarty Symposium....Violence & Virginia Tech...and HISTORICAL TRAUMA

Yesterday, some of my classmates attended the USC Fogarty Symposium to listen, document, and write stories about what happened at the conference for a new initiative called the "Global Health Review". Participants at the symposium were international interdisciplinary researchers that are doing really good work in the global health field.

I didn't get a chance to be there for the lectures, but I was able to arrive and stay for a little bit during the poster presentations. What struck me to be very interesting, were the different posters on violence. The first in particular that called my attention was a study conducted by Dr. Ron Avi Astor (et al.). His research was related to school violence (this particular poster was a study done in Israel), and predictors of accessibility (of guns and knives) and past victimization were considered. He found that the issue of accessibility was not as important as the issue of past victimization. The more victimization, the more likely a person is to act violently.

It immediately called my attention because of what happened the day before at Virginia Tech. It was unbelievable that 2 shootings could occur, on a major university campus, killing 32 people and at the end, the gunman killed himself. What happened is so sad, and I really feel for the families and loved ones of those that were affected by this incident.

Since then, we have found out that it was a "loner" student, that had many issues that were noticed in the past by professors and counselors, but nothing substantial was done to help this individual. Although this person did a really really bad thing, I still feel bad for him and how he must of felt. Obviously he went mad, but the pain and feelings that led him to that point must have been unbearable. Lately, I have been feeling crazy, and feeling like I can't focus on whats really important. I started to feel discouraged, and I felt that people noticed my low performance and that I was just not good enough.... these feelings, were nothing compared to what this guy felt.

So many people have been victims of violent acts, but why don't we spend time trying to heal from these things? Why don't we have more programs to help people through these things? Why do we instead, criminalize people, and not help them heal from the things that have led them to act in violent behaviors? Why don't we create safe places for people to deal with these things they have experienced?

Another poster that called my attention was the research done by Chelsea Cooper and Aubrey Pirosko on "Child Soldiers and the impact of war on mental health in Sri-Lanka and other conflict and post-conflict countries." This was interesting to me, because it reminded me of what my people went through in the civil war that happened in the 80's in El Salvador. I have heard of stories of child soldiers partaking in this deadly war. With their findings, they recommended these things for successful child soldier recovery and reintegration:

1. Family reunification
2. Mental Health therapy
3. community reconciliation
4. teaching life skills.

I think this is important for any soldier coming back from war. With this let me make a quick comment about the soldiers that are coming back home from the current war. It is critical and necessary that we improve the services provided to these soldiers.

I left the symposium thinking about violence a lot. And I also left thinking about some comments that I had made to Dr. Avi Astor. I mentioned to him, that I was interested in studying historical trauma but as it relates to the Chicano/Latino community. I felt it was somewhat related to this issue of victimization, because its like a cycle. When I described historical trauma he understood what I was talking about, but he said that that is something that people at museums study. Hmmm, I thought. That's interesting. I mentioned to him that it has been written in the literature that communities, such as the Native American and African American communities, need to heal from historical trauma because it relates to issues in the community such as substance abuse, depression, self-destructive behavior, suicidal thoughts and gestures, anxiety, low self-esteem, anger, and difficulty recognizing and expressing emotions. But the literature lacks any perspective of how this is related to the Chicano/Latino experience.

Historical trauma is a concept that was developed mainly by Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart, a research associate professor in the Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Denver. She describes historical trauma as a "cumulative emotional and psychological wounding over the lifespan and across generations, emanating from massive group trauma experiences (2003)."

When I consider what the Chicano/Latino community has endured over the past more than 500 years, it is very clear to me that historical trauma is present. One doesn't think about this community immediately. Many find it easier to understand this concept among American Indians, African Americans and Jewish community, but not for Latinos or the 'mestizo' population from Latin America. I think this link hasn't been made as commonly as it has in the other mentioned communities because even in the Chicano/Latino community, there is a disconnection that is very commonly made from being an 'indian' or how I like to describe, being indigenous. I know a lot of people, even in my own family, will call someone 'indian' in a derogatory way, and will look down upon someone that is Indian. This is because of the colonization and constant suppression of indigenous communities. Many people were killed for being indigenous, so it is not hard to believe why many wanted to not be identified as indian.

This is something that I feel very strongly about. I identify as being a descendant of a strong indigenous community. When I started to identify in this way, I did this because I found my roots in my culture, and realized how beautiful and intelligent my people were. For so long, I have to admit, I felt my people were not as 'educated' as others, and I think I had this perspective because I saw the disparities that existed in the educational system between communities of color. But the indigenous communities that flourished in the Americas were intelligent scientist, astronomers, healers, architects, mathematicians, artist and just amazing creative beings! I didn't learn this till I was in college and I started reading about it on my own. So I can understand why many other Chicano/Latinos don't identify with these roots. For me, it was extremely difficult to be open about identifying this way, being born in El Salvador. If you look at the Salvadorean census, only 1% of the population is indigenous, 9% is white, and 90% is mestizo. I believe the number of indigenous people is so low, because many are reluctant to identify as indigenous. Many of the indigenous practices and ways, have been incorporated into daily Latino ways of life. This has been noted in the book "Mexico Profundo: Reclaiming a Civilization" by Guillermo Bonfil Batalla (translated by Philip A. Dennis). He explains that there is a sense of ambiguous identity among Mexicans, which I think could be applied across many people in Latin America.

So putting both of these things together, historical trauma and the re-claiming of indigenous identity... In El Salvador, in 1932, there was a mass genocide of Nahua-Pipil indigenous peoples, known as La Matanza. It is estimated that over 30,000 indigenous peoples were killed. During this time, the government, led by President Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez (who assumed power after a coup), would put out articles in the newspaper stating that anyone dressed like an indian, or spoke like an indian, would be killed (because they were believed to be communist). So at this time, many, many Salvadorean indigenous peoples decided that they needed to deny their indian identity for the sake of survival. My grandfather tells me stories of my great-grandmother deciding to not speak Nahuatl (language spoken at that time) and stop wearing her traditional skirts. La Matanza changed the census make up of El Salvador, but the individuals are the same people, except they had to be careful of how they looked, spoke and what they called themselves. I believe this has caused a lot of pain, for many Salvadorans. Then later, with the war in the 80's, I think the Salvadorean community has endured a lot a lot of trauma.

So after leaving the conference, I left with all of these thoughts. What I kept referring back to was what Dr. Astor mentioned to me. That those that would be interested in this topic are those that work at museums. I can see why he says this, for example like the individuals at the Museum of Tolerance. But I got a sense from his comment that he felt these were the only people that would be interested in such a concept. I completely disagree with that. I wanted to talk to him more about it, but another one of his colleagues (someone much older than me) came to him, so he started talking to him instead. I think that as health professionals, we need to keep in mind the historical traumas that different communities have experienced, because it may be an indication of why communities experience similar experiences and may help us or guide us in ways to heal communities. I left feeling with a strong desire to continue with my goals of applying to a PhD program. I want to investigate the concept of historical trauma among the Chicano/Latino community further....among so many other topics that I want to look into!! In the current project I am working on now, we have included a historical trauma measure in our survey among American Indian youth. But this construct is really new. We still don't know exactly how to measure historical trauma, because its a difficult concept to grasp. I feel privileged that I am taking part in this study because we are going to contribute to the literature on historical trauma, and will help further its understanding.

I know I went all over the place with this blog, but I just felt like it was all related...

If you are interested in watching a movie that depicts the children involved in the Salvadorean war, rent the movie "Voces Innocentes" or "Innocent Voices" by Luis Mandoki. It was a hard movie for me to watch... but a very good movie.