ABSTRACT
The realm of health policy is, ultimately, the realm of values, ethics, and moral choice. Even when policy is presented in strictly economic, clinical, or administrative terms, decisions that have to be made are undergirded by notions of desirable and undesirable conditions, the good and the bad, the right and the wrong. All human beings are involved in some form of discourse and its reproductions. This includes Latinos, who are faced with the all-too-human problem of taking meaningful action in the world. In order to better understand the contours of the Latino discourse, it is necessary to change the analytic stance taken vis-à-vis Latinos in society. A major theme in the Mexican and Latin American discourse has been health and health policy. The very definitions of death, life, wellness, illness, causation, and intervention have been the topic of much thought and discussion.
