Mental Health, Religion & Culture: The Lived Experiences of Latina/o Youth
Each year, Springtide offers a BIPOC Fellowship to a social scientist of color (either in training or early career) to learn more about our work studying people under age 25. This year, we’ve had the privilege of working with Dr. Kitzia Moreno-Garza, a clinical psychologist who focuses on children and adolescents and specializes in how mental health intersects with cultural phenomena, including religion. Below are excerpts from a conversation with members of our Springtide Ambassadors Program (SAP) about their Latina/o identity, mental health, and spiritual/religious identity.
For our focus on Latina/o young people for Mental Health Awareness Month, we asked young Latina/o people about how mental health, Latinidad, and religion/spirituality show up in their lives.
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What does being Latino mean to you?
When I first saw this question, I hate to admit that I was kind of stumped because there’s not really much to it…it’s like I’m Latina, that’s who I am. … I didn’t necessarily know how to feel about what the meaning behind it was because although the Latina/Latino/Latinx community offers so much inclusivity … the issue is the fact that, especially here in the US, … Western society has used this as an excuse to generalize the experiences of those who reside in the Latino community.
I do identify as Latina, but I feel like I have more passion identifying as a Chicana because I feel like that’s more representative of my own culture, my own experiences, my own passions and interests, and basically everything that I stand for. So genuinely my own meaning and my own interpretation of being Latina/Latino/Latinx is honestly a battle because it’s trying to grapple with the fact that this community is incredibly inclusive to those who reside in it. But outside of it, people don’t necessarily see the differences that all of us experience.
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What does mental health mean to you?
I definitely think that [the] mind-body connection especially is a very important part of mental health because, for example, take an anxiety attack—if you are having an anxiety attack, it’s your brain picking up on these things that are happening in your body and then it’s like, oh shoot, I’m going to have a panic attack. And it just makes your body have more symptoms and it completely makes it worse and worse. So that really, for me, symbolizes how connected our mind is to our body. And I think good mental health comes with having good social connections, having a good support system.
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How would you describe your religious or spiritual identity?
I am Catholic. I call myself a proud Catholic. However, my spirituality doesn’t go hand in hand with Catholicism. I am blessed to have members of my own family as a part of a community of persons who…don’t follow Catholicism. And I know it sounds counterintuitive to say I’m blessed to have someone who is anti-Catholic … they’re very critical of the Catholic Church. And I find that to be imperative for my own well-being … because it challenges my own beliefs, and I don’t find that to be wrong to challenge my belief.
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Do you think your cultural identity, religious/spiritual identity, and mental health are intertwined, or not really?
Yeah, so I personally think that they’re all intertwined. I think for me, my spirituality aids a lot in my mental health. For one, when I am sort of feeling down, of course I’m able to pray. At the same time, I find a lot of solace in the Bible—more specifically because when I feel like I am in agony or going through something really horrible mentally, it’s very easy to believe that it doesn’t matter, that we’re being too sensitive. When in reality, if you read the Bible, we find a lot of instances of mental illness as well as holy people struggling with mental difficulties. … When I’m going through mental turmoil, that’s something that very much brings me a lot of solace. … You have the prophet Elijah who was in a depressive episode where he prayed to God and said, “God, take away my life.” And God did not chastise him. He did not reprimand him. Instead, he brought an angel to give him food and allowed him to rest. … For me, my faith has brought me a lot of solace when it comes to my mental health.
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What advice would you give adults about how to care for young people’s mental health?
You just have to listen to what we’re going through. … You have to understand what we’re going through and [by] listening through that understanding, your relationships will be better. Your connections will be more interpersonal, and at the end of the day, everyone’s mental health will progress to be better. But it all starts with listening.
It’s creating an open space because the older generations didn’t have that space. They weren’t creating it. And I feel like assisting us in creating that space and/or creating that space for us, helping us to build a more open dialogue about mental health is really a good way to help.
It’s better to be overcautious, even if you think someone’s being sensitive. I think it’s more important to hear them out … because you just never know what someone might be going through.
Just don’t give up on us. We might be taking one step forward and another step forward, but at the same time we could be taking steps back. That’s important … that understanding that we are still walking, we are still getting our legs moving, we are not stuck in that one spot. Allow us to get to that finish line. And maybe there isn’t a finish line, but at least, at least walk with us on this journey.
Dr. Kitzia Moreno-Garza
Springtide BIPOC Research Fellow
Dr. Kitzia Moreno-Garza
Springtide BIPOC Research Fellow
