Testimonios of Care

Feminist Latina/x and Chicana/x Perspectives on Caregiving Praxis

Natalia Deeb-Sossa (Editor), Yvette G. Flores (Editor), Angie Chabram (Editor)
Paperback ($35.00), Hardcover ($100.00), Ebook ($35.00) Buy
The first English-language collection of Latina/x caregiving testimonios, this volume gives voice to diverse Chicana/x and Latina/x caregiving experiences. Bringing together thirteen first-person accounts, these testimonios speak to the tragic flaws in our health-care system and the woefully undervalued labor of providing care to family and community.

The book opens with an introductory chapter by the three co-editors, and then is divided into three sections exploring the caregiver voice, community caregiving, and reflections that outline a Caregiver Bill of Rights and present a call to action. Throughout, contributors discuss kinship care, including formal and informal adoptions, community care, caregiving in professional health contexts, and the implicit caregiving inherent in teaching BIPOC students, which largely falls upon faculty of color.

Testimonios of Care gives voice to those who often are voiceless in histories of caregiving and is guided by Chicana and Latina feminist principles, which include solidarity between women of color, empathy, willingness to challenge the patriarchal medical health-care systems, questioning traditional gender roles and idealization of familia, and caring for self while caring for loved ones and community.

Contributors
yvonne hurtado allen
Angie Chabram
Natalia Deeb-Sossa
Yvette G. Flores
Inés Hernández-Ávila
ire’ne lara silva
Josie Méndez-Negrete
Maria R. Palacios
Hector Rivera-Lopez
Maria Angelina Soldatenko
Anita Tijerina Revilla
Mónica Torreiro-Casal
Enriqueta Valdez-Curiel

***
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Angie Chabram, Natalia Deeb-Sossa, and Yvette G. Flores

Part I. The Caregiver Voice
1. Scarred by the Medical Health Care System: Testimonio of Disappointment, Pain, and Transformation
Natalia Deeb-Sossa
2. Perfect Moments: On the Intersection of Being a Chicana with Diabetes and My Brother’s Caregiver
ire’ne lara silva
3. Parenting as a Radical Act of Muxerista Caregiving: Honey and Her Honeybees
Anita Tijerina Revilla
4. Tele-caregiving: A Lifetime of Regenerative Pláticas
Angie Chabram
5. Love Comes My Way
yvonne hurtado allen
6. Walking the Jagged Edges: Negotiating the Pitfalls of Mental Illness
Josie Méndez-Negrete
7. Chronicle of a Caregiver: A False Notion of Autonomy
Enriqueta Valdez-Curiel
8. The Reluctant Caregiver: The Complex Tale of Caring for My Mother-in-
Law
Maria Angelina Soldatenko

Part II. Community Caregiving
9. Trauma and Caregiving: A Survivor and Caregiver Perspective
Yvette G. Flores
10. Caring for Students: An Act of Social Justice in Academia
Mónica Torreiro-Casal and Natalia Deeb-Sossa
11. Radical Self-Care
Maria R. Palacios
12. “Dis-ease” in Academia Is Not a Secret: A Meditation on Caregiving
Inés Hernández-Ávila
13. Hombres Latinos Saludables and Self-Care
Hector Rivera-Lopez
Part III. Reflection
Caregiver Bill of Rights
Reflection: A Call to Action
Angie Chabram, Natalia Deeb-Sossa, and Yvette G. Flores
Contributors
Index

“What a beautiful contribution to humanity. Each and every chapter is an offering—a brave and vulnerable collection to share the gifts and challenges of caregiving. These are a collection of prayers for a better world.”—Rebeca Burciaga, San José State University

“Testimonios of Care is written from a place of radical love and vulnerability. The authors document the important physical and emotional labor of caregiving in Latinx communities, as well as the equally rigorous spiritual work of examining the contradictions and challenges of being a caregiver.”—Irene Lara, San Diego State University
Testimonios of Care
228 Pages 6 x 9
Published: August 2024Paperback ISBN: 9780816553211
Published: August 2024Hardcover ISBN: 9780816553228
Published: August 2024Ebook ISBN: 9780816553235

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