Hola, amorcitos!
When I was growing up, mámi y pápi didn’t really talk to me. It’s not uncommon. If you are Latino or Latina, ya sabes. We weren’t explained a lot of different things that happened in life. When I was finally at the age of being a young woman, mi hermana me lo tenía que explicar. Yo pensé que me estaba muriendo when I got the female visit for the first time.
Cuando tenía que ver con sexo o tener hijos, también hablé con mi hermana, Rosita. There are things they don’t tell you because, either they don’t know or they don’t want to talk about it. Pero, ¿porqué no?
There is a disconnect when it comes to communications with our parents, ¿no que no? Hay cosas de que no quieren hablar porque no había nadie que les podía explicar. A lot of the times, since there isn’t someone to explain or due to a lack of understanding, the conversation doesn’t happen about various health issues in our community. This includes our health history, social health and general family health.
Due to the lack of resources, or the lack of knowledge of those resources, a large chunk of our community doesn’t know how to ask those questions or even know where to begin. Asi era mi mamá. She didn’t know enough to explain it to us because no one explained it to her. She also didn’t know that she could ask questions, plus she didn’t know how. “De eso no se habla,” me decía mámi.
Pues, ahora esto cae en las piernas de nosotros que podemos encontrar respuestas rápidamente. We have to be the ones to bring these discussions to the table. It is our responsibility to ask health questions for our betterment and in return, tell our mámis y pápis that it’s ok to go to the doctor, tell them how we feel and expect for them to understand our hardships. Es el año 2013, amigos! Y así son las cosas.
Los enfermeros saben que tenemos problemas and they know they shouldn’t judge us, especially if they’re meant to help us.
We also have to dig for our health history. A lot of the times this is difficult because our family members sometimes don’t know what our grandparents died of or if there were any other illnesses in the family. Since many illnesses are hereditary, like cancer, gall bladder issues, diabetes, heart conditions and many more, debemos de buscar esa información para protejernos más y saber lo que puede pasar en nuestra vida.
Have the conversations with your parents. Learn from them. Actualmente, esto ayuda muchísimo en siertas áreas de nuestra salud. Con saber nuestra historia, tenemos más orgullo en nuestra familia. Nos podemos conectar más con nuestros padres e hijos just by having conversations with them. By learning and interacting, you build connections, keep traditions and keep culture alive. More interaction with older familia, como nuestras abuelas y abuelitos, keeps them young and alert. Les ayuda mucho la mente cuando hablamos con ellos, cuando los visitamos y cuando ellos saben que todavía pensamos en ellos.
Along with caring for yourself, look out for your family, both young and old. Pass on what you didn’t know that you know now and express your care and openness to speaking with younger generations who need you.
Los Latinos, estamos arraigados en nuestra familia. Yo sé que para mi, sin mi familia, mis padres, mis hermanos, mis sobrinos, no me hubiera cuidado tanto. Ademas, I am helping them live a healthier life because I don’t want them to have the problems I do and worry about things that I worry about.
I have to pass it back and pay it forward, amigos. Espero que se sientan igual.
Hasta la próxima, amorcitos!
Cuídate con todo el corazón,
Tía Betty
Editor’s Note: Tía Betty is a bilingual diabetes blogger who will be contributing regularly to LatinoDr.org. We welcome her insights, stories and culture regarding health to our site.