The University of Arizona Press
April 14, 2026
Chicane Mental Health, Second Edition by Yvette G. Flores offers an intersectional and developmental framework for understanding and addressing the mental health needs of Chicane communities. Drawing on over four decades of clinical and academic experience, Yvette G. Flores addresses the entire lifespan from children and youth to emerging adults, adults, and elders.
This new edition expands on Flores’s influential work by integrating Indigenous healing practices, decolonial theory, and liberatory models of care. It challenges dominant Western paradigms and calls for culturally affirming, community-engaged approaches to mental health. With a focus on issues such as depression, substance use, intimate partner violence, and intergenerational trauma, the book provides practical tools for scholars, clinicians, and students committed to social justice and healing in Chicane and Latine communities. Read an excerpt from the book’s Introduction below.
Since the publication of Chicana and Chicano Mental Health in 2013, we have experienced a global pandemic that disproportionately affected minoritized communities in the United States and globally. In the United States, the pandemic visibilized the health disparities affecting Latine and Chicane communities (Flores 2023; McCormack 2021; OMH 2025b). Moreover, the pandemic also elucidated the resilience of Latine individuals, families, and communities and the protective factors that emerge from cultural practices and strengths (Flores 2023). The last presidential election and the resulting slew of executive orders have resulted in an immediate erosion of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts nationwide in colleges, government offices, libraries, and service delivery systems. Likewise, executive orders targeting immigrants of color have resulted in mass deportations without due process, and an increase in fear among those living in mixed-status families and those threatened with the attack on birthright citizenship (Kuang 2025). The impact of Trump’s new policies will be discussed further in chapter 8, “Mental Health in the Twenty-First Century: Improving Access, Policies, and Service Delivery.”
In the last decade, Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) scholars also have argued for the importance of decolonizing psychology and centering the experiences of minoritized populations (see Adames and Chavez-Dueñas 2017; Bryant-Davis and Comas-Díaz 2016). Their writings also began to promote widely the training of psychologists and the practice of mental health, especially among community practitioners. For Chicane and Latine, such decolonizing includes an acknowledgment of our Indigenous and African roots and the inclusion of spirituality and indigeneity in our healing practices. Likewise, it is critical to recognize the potential impact of historical and intergenerational trauma on BIPOC mental health.
Mainstream scholars and practitioners have embraced new theories that center Latine and Chicane experiences and narratives, for example mujerista and liberation psychologies. The importance of recognizing the indigeneity of Chicane also has influenced the practice of psychology, promoting Indigenous ways of healings for detribalized Mexican-origin individuals and others who identify as Chicane, regardless of Latine background (see Escamilla et al. 2023; Institute of Chicana/o/x Psychology, n.d.).
Furthermore, new developments in neuroscience have demonstrated the impact of childhood adversities on the psychological and physical well-being of adults (Fonzo 2018; Perry et al. 1995; Parra et al. 2016; van der Kolk 2005). Likewise, the long-term impact of racism and all forms of oppression on mental health have been documented, including the impact of intergenerational and historical trauma rooted in colonization, racism, and legacies of oppression (Hardy 2013).
The second edition of Chicane Mental Health expands on the earlier publication, foregrounding advances in neuroscience; the impact of the pandemic on the emotional well-being of adults, youth, and children; and the increased integration of Chicane Indigenous spirituality and ways of healing. The book also provides readers with epidemiological information regarding the major mental health challenges facing these groups: depression, anxiety disorders (including post-traumatic stress disorder), substance abuse, and intimate partner violence. Furthermore, utilizing a life-cycle perspective and intersectionality models, the chapters examine the mental health issues affecting children and adolescents, adults, and elderly Chicane. The book also offers suggestions for healing historical traumas and, using case studies, examines the importance of understanding cultural values, socioeconomic status, and the gender and sexual roles and expectations that Chicane negotiate. Likewise, I argue for the importance of considering the legacies of migration, transculturation, multiculturality, and intergenerational and historical trauma.
Yvette G. Flores is a distinguished emerita professor at University of California, Davis, Department of Chicanx Studies.
