Translating Latin American/Us Latina Frameworks and Methods in Gender and Health Equity: Linking Women's Health Education and Participatory Social Change

Abstract

This article applies transdisciplinary approaches to critical health education for gender equity by analyzing textual and political strategies translating/culturally adapting the U.S. feminist health text, Our Bodies Ourselves (OBOS), for Latin American/Caribbean and U.S. Latina women. The resulting text, Nuestros Cuerpos, Nuestras Vidas (NCNV), was revised at multiple levels to reflect different cultural/sociopolitical assumptions connecting individual knowledge, community-based and transnational activist organizations, and strategic social change. Translation/cultural adaptation decisions were designed to ensure that gender-equitable health promotion education crossed cultural borders, conveying personal knowledge and motivating individual actions while also inspiring participation in partnerships for change. Transdisciplinary approaches integrating critical ecosystemic frameworks and participatory methods can help design health promotion education mobilizing engaged, gender-equitable health citizenship supporting both personal and societal change.