AMONG THOSE NOT COUNTED: MEXICANS AND THEIR HEALTH IN SAN FRANCISCO, 1915-1930 (CALIFORNIA).
Contributors: University of California, San Francisco.
Published: 1994
Number of pages: 338
Subjects: Health Sciences, Public Health.; Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies.; Health Sciences, Nursing.; History, United States.
Description: The Mexican community in San Francisco ranked third in size behind Los Angeles and San Diego in 1920 and 1930. No historical research, however, has examined the early twentieth century Mexican community in San Francisco. Therefore, this study brings the Mexican population of San Francisco and their health into view through the retrieval and analysis of documents in more than a dozen locations and from more than twenty-five collections of minutes, correspondence, administrative records such as patient registers, death records, and a Spanish-language San Francisco newspaper.

People from Mexico or of Mexican parentage represented one to two percent of the city's entire population between 1915 and 1930. They lived in a geographically disbursed residential pattern in several areas of the city and represented their diversity in multiple social organizations, while also struggling economically to establish their own system of care.

Previously unanalyzed data from patient registers and death records indicate the Mexican population in San Francisco suffered excessive deaths during early infancy, and from tuberculosis and pneumonia. This mortality pattern corresponded in kind, but not in magnitude, to statewide data about Mexicans. In San Francisco, however, the mortality pattern of Mexicans resembled another non dominant population in the city--the Chinese, and differed from that of the general population.

Social and health agencies in the city did not use nationality, race, age, and geographic area to discern health problems and plan services despite recommendations otherwise. Services depended on selected individual behavior-focused strategies in the areas of education and early detection while neglecting culture and language, and subduing the prominence of the living and working conditions associated with the causes of death among Mexicans. Except for some Mexican physicians and other Spanish-speaking providers, few resources attended to these factors specifically.

This social history reveals processes and dynamics affecting the health of non dominant populations. Even if they are not large in number, non dominant populations need to be included in systems of measurement. Additionally, to be effective, health resources must consider the population's social, cultural, political and economic environment.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-01, Section: B, page: 0196.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO, 1994.

School code: 0034.