![]() For many, their immigration and documentation status prevents them from accessing insurance through the Affordable Care Act. The immigrants themselves comprise a vulnerable population, who lack English skills and, while usually employed, many work in low-paying, contingent jobs providing no health insurance. Termed “New Settlement” areas, these states face challenges in changing health care services to accommodate these new residents. These new Hispanic residents have moved into the Southeast in greater intensity and into a wider variety of areas (rural, small town, suburban and urban) than in any other area of the US. ![]() An area that formerly had few individuals of Hispanic heritage now has states such as North Carolina whose Hispanic population increased from less than 80,000 in 1990 to over 800,000 in 2010. The past 20 years has witnessed a rapid increase in the Latino population in the southeastern US, across areas bounded by Arkansas in the west, North Carolina to the east, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south. These sobadores appear to meet both structural and cultural needs for healthcare in the immigrant Latino population. This focused ethnography draws from in-depth, semi-structured interviews conducted with six sobadores from Mexico practicing in North Carolina. The paper also describes who sobadores treat and sobadores’ understanding of where their treatment fits into patients’ pursuit of relief from symptoms. Goals were to describe sobadores practicing in North Carolina, including their background, conditions treated, and their understanding of the pathophysiology of their patients’ conditions and how their treatments work. ![]() This study focuses on sobadores, healers who use manipulative therapy. Little is known about the use of such healers in New Settlement areas. Latino immigrants to the New Settlement area of the southeastern United States face structural and cultural obstacles to accessing the conventional health care system, and come from areas with long traditions of medical treatments from healers without professional training or licensure. ![]()
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