Latina daughters and queer family members contend with institutional and systemic gendered and sexual racism, which has a daily detrimental impact on their mental, behavioral, and physical health outcomes. In light of their intersectional challenges, while simultaneously navigating rigid cultural expectations from within their Latine families/communities, Latina daughters and queer family members may benefit from receiving support in reclaiming their voices, defining values on their own terms, and building lives that honor their intersectional identities and strengths. From a Mujerista perspective, rooted in Latina feminist theology, it is imperative for the field of psychology and mental health practitioners to move away from a deficit lens towards one of empowerment to support Latina daughters and queer family members navigating intersectional discrimination and repressive cultural expectations in their daily lives.
Understanding the Values That Bind
Marianismo describes traditional gender expectations that socialize Latina daughters to uphold the centrality of family, serve as spiritual pillars, and be self-silencing and deferential to the men and elders of the family. These roles carry both protective elements (community connection, moral purpose) and harmful cultural expectations that influence the well-being of Latina daughters. For example, past research has identified the links between higher silencing of the self with depression and greater self-subordination to others with vulnerability to intimate partner violence among Latina women. In addition, pressure to prioritize family over one’s self may lead to neglected health-related behaviors and chronic stress.
Precarious familismo captures what happens when family support becomes conditional. For queer family members, the loyalty and reciprocity promised by familismo often is uncertain upon the disclosure of their sexual and/or gender identities. Some family members in the Latine family system may provide acceptance while others may begin to withdraw financial support, housing, or emotional connection. Also, Latine family members’ religious beliefs may heighten the risk of being rejected, with many queer Latines qualitatively reporting experiences of being called “sinful” or being made to feel like they were betraying their culture/religion for exploring their sexual/gender identities.
These frameworks describe challenges that Latina daughters and queer family members may contend with daily. But supporting them in bolstering their consciousness about intersectional oppression is just the starting point!
Mujerista Clinical Practice: From Survival to Transformation
Mujerista psychology centers healing in voice, culture, spirituality, and social justice. Created by Latina psychologist Lillian Comas-Díaz and inspired by theologian Ada María Isasi-Díaz, this approach recognizes that Latina daughters and queer family members are not damaged by their cultures. They are constrained by a culture of traditional Machismo, patriarchy and cisheterosexism, which serve as systems that clinicians can help daughters and queer family members challenge and resist.
- Help clients reclaim their voices. While supporting Latina daughters and queer family members, it may be validating to normalize that self-silencing isn’t a personal failure. For many, this may be a survival strategy learned in families/communities where speaking up meant heated conversations or further violence. Therapy may create space to practice voicing one’s needs, desires, and boundaries without having to ask for permission to do so. Ask: What would you say if there were no consequences? What words were taken from you? Which ones are you taking back?
- Support clients in defining their own values. Clients often arrive believing they must choose between their culture and their own personal beliefs/desires. This is a false binary created by rigid interpretations of cultural values.
From a mujerista perspective, it may be impactful to support daughters and queer family members in building their own “patrón (blueprint)” exercise: ask clients which values guide their choices and which were imposed? What parts of familismo feel nurturing versus suffocating? Which aspects of spirituality provide meaning versus shame? This discernment lets clients keep what serves them and release what harms them.
For instance, Latina daughters might continue to value the importance of family connection while rejecting the expectation to sacrifice their own educational/professional pursuits for the sake of caregiving for men/elders of the family. Queer family members might honor collectivism by building chosen families while setting boundaries and/or creating distance with those who try to erase their existence.
- Facilitate boundary-setting as an act of self-preservation. Due to their experiences growing up in hypercollectivistic cultures, many Latina daughters and queer family members clients may often experience guilt and/or shame when prioritizing their needs.
It may be empowering to reframe boundaries as protection of their capacity to show up authentically. If a gay Latino son cannot be out to his family, what boundaries can he employ to make family gatherings more tolerable? If a Latina daughter is pressured to move home after graduation, what would staying in her college city allow her to build?
Boundaries might mean creating safety-and-exit plans with certain family members, refusing to discuss specific topics (i.e. sexuality, relationships, career choices) or choosing not to attend events where daughters and queer members know they can face heightened hostility.
- Affirm chosen family as real family. When one’s biological family withdraws support or possesses these rigid, yet unattainable cultural expectations, chosen family may become necessary for many Latina daughters and queer family members. “Chosen families” represent kinship networks that provide acceptance, care, and belonging in the face of tumultuous and/or precarious family relationships.
Help clients identify who comprises their chosen family. Who celebrates their gender expression? Who remembers their pronouns? Who is likely to show up during hard times? Who is likely to support and value their educational/professional goals? These people deserve recognition as real family.
- Connect personal healing to collective liberation. Mujerista practice links individual wellbeing to social justice. Research shows that engaging in social justice action, mentorship, and advocacy has the potential to improve the mental health of various marginalized communities (Castañeda-Sound et al., 2016). It may provide meaning, connection, and a sense of agency. Throughout the course of treatment, it may be liberating to empower Latina daughters and queer family members to identify where they can contribute: such as volunteering at LGBTQ+ centers, mentoring Latina students, participating in pride events, and even advocating for community/policy change.
This work can even happen through interventions in the therapy room. When a Latina daughter is given the safety, tools, and healing therapeutic relationship to practice setting boundaries, she may attain the skills needed to model self-advocacy for her younger siblings. Similarly, when a Latino queer son is able to receive psychoeducation/support in fostering relationships with local LGBTQ+ organizations in his area, he may be able to create new opportunities to mentor/advocate, creating the support he may have never had.
This is la lucha, the struggle. Healing and justice are inseparable.
- Acknowledge that transformation requires grief. Prioritizing one’s authenticity can sometimes result in losing/creating distance in relationships, at least temporarily. Clients may grieve the families they wish they had or the culture that perhaps they may have felt betrayed from. This grief is valid and deserves honoring. Sit with clients in the loss. Do not rush them toward silver linings or into forgiveness of family members/individuals who have made them feel small/invisible. The path to building a life aligned with their values runs through mourning the one they are transforming.
And on the other side of grief is possibility. Clients get to author their stories, surround themselves with people who value them, and live without the exhaustion of hiding. They get to be free, and recognize what they are capable of!
Bottom line:
A mujerista approach affirms that Latina daughters and queer family members do not need to be fixed. They need spaces that honor their voices, values, and full humanity. By shifting therapy from self-silencing and survival toward empowerment, boundary-setting, chosen family, and collective healing, clinicians can support clients in reclaiming agency and living lives that reflect who they are, not who they were expected to be!
