Perspectives of Wellness Among Indigenous Immigrants From Latin America

Abstract

Indigenous people from Latin America face unique challenges that differ from those experienced by mestizos or white Latinos. However, they also possess important characteristics, strengths, intersections, and cultural backgrounds that have been historically underrepresented, misrepresented, and overlooked in research, demographic classifications, and clinical settings. As a result, their worldviews and conceptualization of mental health are not adequately addressed and understood. This paper explores the concept of emotional wellness that indigenous immigrants from Latin America have, hoping that the information may shed light on how to offer better services through a decolonial process. This paper proposes a decolonial alternative based on scholarly articles. Hence, it considers the need for social justice and multicultural perspectives of emotional wellness as it questions Western parameters of treatment, illness, and normality.