A few Mondays later, Ana was able to process these memories in a meeting with a group of other immigrant Latina women exploring how traditional remedies can support mental health. From acupuncture to hikes in the forest, they are weaving their own experiences into a growing body of community research. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In January, the group explored the benefits of cold water immersion, a popular practice<\/a> associated with positive mood shifts<\/a>. Testing it themselves, some members ventured to Ocean Beach, holding each other as the cold waves crashed around them. Ana, who couldn\u2019t make it to the beach, tried her own immersion at home, a process that reawakened difficult memories. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It also opened a space for healing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ana and the other women are part of two community research groups: Somos Remedios<\/em>, which explores traditional remedies, and Somos Investigadoras<\/em>, which works to make clinical mental health resources more accessible to monolingual speakers. Both groups grew out of Somos Esenciales<\/em><\/a>, an interdisciplinary project focused on finding solutions to health inequities for San Francisco’s Latino community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe come from Nicaragua, Mexico, Peru, Guatemala, El Salvador,\u201d said Ana, who is a researcher for both Remedios<\/em> and Investigadoras<\/em>. \u201cIt\u2019s multicultural, but we\u2019re very strong. We all want to keep working to gain things for our community, because we\u2019ve gone through many of the same issues, struggling to get medical assistance. We want to get rid of those barriers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For immigrant women in San Francisco: Join Entre Nosotras<\/em> on WhatsApp<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We invite you \u2014 or your mom, your abuela or any mujer in your life \u2014 to join Entre Nosotras<\/em>, a private WhatsApp group created for local, Spanish-speaking immigrant women. This is a welcoming space where you can:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Scan the QR code above, or click here to join Entre Nosotras<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A pandemic struggle that turned into knowledge<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The roots of Somos <\/em>research stretch back to the early months of the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many of the women first met as volunteers at the Mission Food Hub<\/a>. Having lost jobs due to shelter-in-place orders and living in tight confines <\/a>with families or friends, helping others became their refuge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think it saved a lot of us from all of that anxiety and desperation,\u201d said Connie Rivera, a business owner and longtime volunteer. \u201cIt got us out of that world that we were living in, and one way or another we started building community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2021, artist and poet Paul Flores came to the food hub, looking for community members to help him research<\/a> the pandemic\u2019s disproportionate impact on Latinos in San Francisco\u2019s Mission District \u2014 a project that would eventually become Somos Esenciales<\/em>. Several volunteers found a natural fit. Providing hundreds of people with free groceries every day, they were already deeply connected to the struggles they were being asked to investigate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Flores also recruited writer and researcher Adriana Camarena to help him as a facilitator. Together, they received training and funding<\/a> to facilitate folklife-based Participatory Action Research, a collaborative research model in which the people most affected by an issue help shape questions, collect data, and interpret findings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFrom the get-go, we started talking about the levels of stress, the emotional burdens, and really the damage that the pandemic was having on our mental health,\u201d said Camarena. \u201cAs we formed our questions, we went to learn from the community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As Somos Esenciales<\/em> took shape, 15 volunteers surveyed community members in the food hub, at home, and in bustling areas like the 24th Street BART plaza. They gathered stories of job loss, rent burdens, lingering illness \u2014 as well as the deep emotional strain felt amid these concrete hardships. Through art<\/a> performances<\/a> and a research paper<\/a>, they also presented their findings to the community over the following months, catching the eye of local and national organizations<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Weaving a community\u2019s story of recovery<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n After the first Somos Esenciales<\/em> project wrapped up at the end of 2022, the group received funding from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) for two ongoing spinoff research projects. Both are led by members of the original team, with a few new additions, and all researchers are compensated for their time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2023, Somos Remedios<\/em> began by investigating the enduring side effects of long COVID and lack of medical treatment options.<\/a> Many researchers were personally affected \u2014 some experienced recurring migraines, while others suffered from mental illnesses like increased anxiety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMany people we interviewed told us that what the doctors prescribed them wasn\u2019t helping them,\u201d said Rosario Orteg\u00f3n, a researcher from Mexico who lost her sense of smell after COVID. \u201cSo what they would do is traditional remedies, also to treat mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This year, the Remedios<\/em> team is exploring these ancestral practices as a way to improve their emotional wellbeing\u2014 from cold plunges to herbal remedies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, Somos Investigadoras<\/em> has been collaborating with UCSF psychologists since 2024. Initially, they focused on how to make mental health resources more accessible to Latino communities, where legal status and language barriers create significant hurdles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe were able to realize that talking about mental health is still something that is very stigmatized,\u201d said Magaly, a community researcher involved in both projects. \u201cAs we went to the street and talked to our community, we also learnt that it\u2019s hard to find help when you need it, because many people are on waitlists.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n While Magaly and the other community researchers surveyed people around the Mission District, UCSF psychologists returned to the hospital to relay the community\u2019s questions to clinicians on how to access help, said UCSF psychologist Johanna Folk, who co-chairs the committee<\/a> that works with Somos Investigadoras. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn our space, everyone is a teacher,\u201d said Monica Noriega, another UCSF psychologist volunteering with the project. She and Camarena are spearheading Investigadoras<\/em>\u2019 newest project: the long-term effects of immigration trauma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finding solace through folklife<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As the researchers dig into their community\u2019s struggles, they inevitably confront their own histories with migration. But together, they say, they are finding strength \u2014 and healing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEach session is very impactful,\u201d said Glenda Hogdson, a participant in both Remedios<\/em> and Investigadoras<\/em>. \u201cDespite the fact that this is a project that we\u2019re working on, it\u2019s also in the moment, our therapy. \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Each small group of researchers meets biweekly for six sessions. They start by sharing personal stories before segueing into a question or idea to investigate. Remedios<\/em> currently has eight community researchers, including Flores and Camarena, while Investigadoras<\/em> has seven, in addition to five UCSF psychologists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For Hogdson, who immigrated to San Francisco in 2022, the group has become like family. Building a new life in the city was overwhelming, she said, but talking about her experiences with other researchers helped her through her depression. Being part of Somos<\/em>, she said, also encouraged her to persist in finding a therapist, because she knew she had to keep insisting to get help. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Rivera, who is part of Somos Investigadoras<\/em>, also says she values the way participants are able to open up to each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEven though it\u2019s private and confidential, I think we all know a lot about each other’s lives,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s beautiful because you become more vulnerable, you understand someone else more, and they understand you too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Building a stronger future<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For Orteg\u00f3n, the most meaningful part of being a researcher has been sharing their findings with the broader community. In 2024, the Remedios<\/em> team created a \u201cLong COVID lottery<\/a>,\u201d a board game illustrating the range of symptoms people might experience after infection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As they passed out the cards at pop-ups throughout the year, Orteg\u00f3n said she was impacted by the number of people who resonated with the lottery. Some people she talked to told her this was the first time they realized that the medical conditions they now faced were a result of a prior infection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMany people would say that it seemed like we were talking about them,\u201d Orteg\u00f3n said. \u201cThat they had been going through similar things since getting COVID.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the Investigadoras\u2019<\/em> side, the group recently crafted a pamphlet<\/a> listing mental health resources available for Spanish speakers, which they plan to distribute across San Francisco. They\u2019re also collaborating with El Tecolote<\/em> to create a bilingual video series<\/a> sharing the mental health journeys that individual researchers have experienced, to destigmatize the idea of seeking help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Driven by what they\u2019ve heard from their community, some members are moving towards deeper interventions. Flores said Somos Esenciales is training some researchers to be full-time mental health advocates<\/a>, starting with English and technology courses. Roberto Hern\u00e1ndez, who heads Cultura y Arte Nativa de las Am\u00e9ricas,<\/a> a <\/a>nonprofit that now oversees Somos Esenciales, said the group is working to create a community wellness center where people can access mental health resources with fewer barriers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At the heart of it all, the mission remains simple: making sure that immigrants are better equipped to care for their mental well-being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c<\/strong>I think what\u2019s important is that all the information, all that we do, gets to the community,\u201d said Magaly. \u201cThat\u2019s the point, right? That as many people in this community can use these resources, or whatever it is we can give from all that we\u2019ve learned.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Acci\u00f3n Latina, the arts and media nonprofit that publishes<\/em> El Tecolote, also serves as <\/em>the fiscal sponsor of <\/em>Somos Investigadoras and<\/em> Somos Remedios.<\/p>\n\n\n This project was supported by the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism, and is part of \u201cHealing California\u201d, a yearlong reporting Ethnic Media Collaborative venture with print, online and broadcast outlets across California.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Immigrant women are combining traditional remedies and grassroots research to strengthen mental health care and heal their community from within.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88936,"featured_media":65423,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"large","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"coauthors":[25250],"class_list":["post-65414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eltecolote.org\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/04142025-SOMOSMENTALHEALTH-ET-PU-07-1.jpg?quality=89&ssl=1\")
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