ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the body of knowledge and experiences of Latinos—which people label the Latino discourse—and its significance in tracing the contours of a probable health policy process within a multicultural society with an "emergent majority." The realm of health policy is, ultimately, the realm of values, ethics, and moral choice. Health policy is—perhaps of all policy areas—the most visibly linked to societal values, for the provision or denial of health services greatly determines who shall live and who shall die. Given the number of the emergent majority population, one must question whether the assimilationist assumption provides an adequate base for policymaking in a diversified population. A major theme in the Mexican and Latin American discourse has been health and health policy. Health policy issues were among the first tackled by Spain's vice-regal government. The Spanish Catholic discourse, introduced into Mexico via the conquest, resonated quite well with this perspective on death.
