ABSTRACT
Language, and the literacies that it generates and sustains, have long been recognized as critical factors in addressing health disparities in Latino populations in the United States. Spanish for Latino Health is conceived of as an expansive agenda for Medical Spanish that broadens the focus of instruction to include engagement with health/communicative inequities, ethical listening, and translanguaging. The notion of Latinos as a single homogenous group emerged in the 1970s from a constellation of forces that were both imposed upon and emerged out of diverse communities. The theoretical orientation of lived latinidad opens a third window on the intersection of latinidad and Latino health. This orientation brings into focus the perspective of Latinos as they engage with the health system. Deportation and deportability have been key concepts in the production of Mexicans and other Latinos as undesirable and unfit members of the polity.
