Latinxs in Chicago: Managing Health Inequities with Community Centers

Abstract

This article explores how community spaces (especially community centers) serve as sites of engaging medical pluralism. Two predominantly Latinx areas of Chicago are highlighted to help understand how underserved communities experience health inequities while managing metabolic conditions. This article identifies the significance of community centers, broadly defined, that function as physical forms of resilience and social justice for communities that have historically been underserved. Based on ethnographic research carried out between 2015 and 2017 in northwest and southwest Chicago with Latinx communities, this article examines the ways in which community centers address the needs of residents confronting chronic health inequities associated with metabolic conditions (diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol).