It’s Time for Us Puerto Rican Women to Stop Sugar-Coating Our Mental Health with Resilience
Like many of our hermanas caribeñas and otras Latinas around the globe, Puerto Rican women wear the term resilience as a badge of honor. We’re taught at a young age to avoid complaining because la vida is unfair and we ‘best get used to it.’ While many might agree that being tough in the face of adversity is an attribute worth fostering, it’s important to center our mental health as we go through our lives being super-mujer! No matter what role we’re busy executing — as entrepreneur, community activist, family caregiver, mother, or any other capacity (or all of the above simultaneously) — Puerto Rican women’s plates are overflowing with responsibilities. When you add living in a country with great economic instability — one where we are still experiencing the aftermath of September 2017’s devastating Hurricane María — the continuous struggle against the patriarchy where femicides seem to be normalized, post-trauma from the January 2020 earthquakes in the southwestern region and recovering from a post Covid-19 pandemic era, it’s clear what I’m talking about. Oh, and let’s not forget our oppressive colonial status. To be clear: none of the above is noted as an excuse (especially since women all over the globe deal with daily adversity). Rather, it’s for the context of what life is like for femmes on the archipelago of Borikén. So, what happens to the mental and emotional health of Boricua women who are busy being Superwomen?Bernice Fuentes Cirino, a 14-year veteran mental health professional facilitating community outreach in the northeast region of Puerto Rico, shares what she’s gleaned from both her personal and professional life, she reminds us: Women dedicate their lives and attention to others — as mothers, daughters, sisters, etc. — often at the cost of their personal…
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