Andrade and Estrada - Hispana IDUs

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SUBSTANCE USE & MISUSE

Vol. 38, No. 8, pp. 1133–1158, 2003

GENDER, CULTURE, AND SUBSTANCE USE

Are Hispana IDUs Tecatas?:

Reconsidering Gender and Culture in

Hispana Injection Drug Use

Rosi Andrade, Ph.D.1,* andAntonio L. Estrada, Ph.D., M.S.P.H.

2

1Services Research Office, Southwest Institute for

Research on Women, Women’s Studies, and 2College of

Social and Behavioral Sciences, Mexican American

Studies & Research Center, University of Arizona,

Tucson, Arizona, USA

ABSTRACT

The roles of gender and culture remain elusive in the discussion of

minority male vs. female Injecting Drug User (IDU) populations. A

case in point is that of Hispano and Hispana IDUs. The commonly

used street term for the Hispano (male) IDU, Tecato, is feminized

*Correspondence: Rosi Andrade, Ph.D., Services Research Office, Southwest

Institute for Research on Women, Women’s Studies, University of Arizona,

Communication 108, 811 S. 6th Ave., Tucson, AZ 85701-2624, USA; Fax:

(520) 670-9075; E-mail: [email protected].

1133

DOI: 10.1081/JA-120017655 1082-6084 (Print); 1532-2491 (Online)

Copyright & 2003 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. www.dekker.com



through the use of the corresponding female noun Tecata. To do so

however, minimizes the intricacies of gender and culture in the male

vs. female roles of Hispano and Hispana IDUs (e.g., daughter/son,

mother/father, partner, citizen). Hispano IDUs are also impacted

by gender and culture in that Hispanos who embrace the Tecato

way of life, must sacrifice and inure the consequences in how

their male roles are minimized (e.g., the absent male figure in

community, home, and family life). This article explores, through

the analysis of qualitative interview data, the demands of gender

and culture as they play themselves out in the lives of Hispana

IDUs. Findings from this study suggest there are important gender

and culture differences between Hispano and Hispana IDUs.

Implications of this study include the need to reexamine the roles

of gender and culture as they cause added pressure to Hispana IDUs

(i.e., in demands to fulfill gender and culture stereotyped roles while

also pursuing an IDU career).

Key Words: IDU; Gender; Culture; Hispanas; Tecato; Tecata.

INTRODUCTION

Ramos et al. (1999) shared findings of their work in an article titled:‘‘Tecatas: An Ethnotheoretical Look at Mexican American FemaleInjecting Drug Users.’’ This work was a significant contribution to thestudy of otherwise insufficiently understood IDU minority and femalecommunities. At the same time, the article opened the doors to expandingour understandings of gender and culture interactions. The present studywas designed to explore the impact of gender and culture upon HispanaIDUs.

Examining the culture of Hispano injection drug use (IDU), Ramoset al. (1999) have found that ‘‘Mexican American IDUs in the UnitedStates call themselves Tecatos. They rarely use such names as ‘junkie,’‘hypo,’ or ‘addict’ to identify themselves,’’ further, their origins are

unknown, but some tecatos in the United States Southwestreport that it was used in Mexico during the 1940s to distin-guish heroin users from opium smokers (Jorquez, 1984; Mooreand Mata, 1981; Ramos, 1989; Ramos, 1995b). Tecatos nowincludes injecting heroin and cocaine users and people who‘‘speedball’’ or use a combination of heroin and cocaine. Thefeminine of tecato is tecata.

1134 Andrade and Estrada



According to Jorquez (1984), the ‘‘tecato subculture has its ownhistory, world view, rituals, code of conduct, beliefs, myths, specializedargot for communication, and useful taxonomies for typing differentkinds of addicts and tecatos.’’ Those characteristics that define theTecato are believed to emanate from ‘‘unique characteristics primarilydue to ethnicity, language, memberships in localized ‘homeboy/pinto’(barrio/prison) gangs and cliques, and membership in the tecato sub-culture’’ (Jorquez, 1984). The Tecato is said to embrace machismo asthe motivation or impetus for drug use. Quintero and Estrada (1998)have found that,

Tecatos have many modes of situating the origins of theirdrug use, including feelings of curiosity and depression, butoften machismo is implicated in the initiation of drug usecareers. For young men, drug use is a means to act outmacho values of risk taking, excess, and outstripping others.The tecato enters drug use in order to demonstrate sociallyvalued toughness and ‘‘craziness’’ (‘‘un buen loco’’) or toshow that he can control a vice where weaker men have failed.

Further, hypermasculine aspects of machismo, ‘‘in its exagger-ated form [includes] fighting, performing daring deeds, seducingwomen, asserting independence from women and bragging aboutescapades’’ (Casavantes, 1976; Quintero and Estrada, 1998), andplay themselves out in street life. To this end, the seminal workof Moore and Mata (1981) on women and heroin use in ChicanoCommunities of East Los Angeles, found that while male Chicanoheroin addicts defined their lifestyle as ‘‘going along with theguys,’’ adhering to group norms, for women it entailed somethingdifferent in the form of ‘‘personal risk-taking.’’

Gil and Vazquez (1996) have written, ‘‘there is another side to thecoin of Machismo, which is equally rigidly enforced and deeply woveninto the fabric of Latino/a life. It is called Marianismo.’’ Marianismo,they explain, ‘‘is about sacred duty, self-sacrifice, and chastity. Aboutdispensing care and pleasure, not receiving them. About living in theshadows, literally and figuratively, of your men—father, boyfriend, hus-band, son—your kids, and your family.’’ The disparity in the roles ofmachismo and Marianismo raises the question: How do multiplicities ofgender-stereotyped roles figure in?

Gender and Culture in Hispana IDU 1135



THEORETICAL AND

METHODOLOGICAL ORIENTATION

A Phenomenological Approach to Gender and Culture

Phenomenology has been discussed as a human science, with a ‘‘dis-tinctive philosophy, theory, andmethod for studying theworld of everydaylife’’ (Anderson, 1991). It is the search for meaning of the life worldthrough everyday lived experience. The life world is commonly used inphenomenology to refer to the lived experience of the individual throughthe life course. Phenomenology is transcendental as it relates to experi-ence as determined by the mind’s makeup, and as it remains strictlydescriptive. Given these features, we have chosen to appropriate phenom-enology for the analysis of data.

The knowledge generated from a phenomenological approach is notthat of formal intellect alone, but an understanding (Verstehen) of themeanings of lived experience (Bollnow, 1974; Van Manen, 1990). Thelink between this knowledge and the results, for example, cannot betruncated. It is inappropriate to ask for a conclusion or a summary ofthis knowledge for, to take poetry as an analogy, ‘‘to summarize a poemwould destroy the result because the poem itself is the result’’ (VanManen,1990). To take the knowledge of the women in this article and subject itto forms of scientific rationality would in Van Manen’s words, ‘‘congealthe living meaning out of human living, until life has become unrecog-nized to itself.’’ Van Manen (1990) has aptly written that the phenomen-ological research approach allows for ‘‘a fuller grasp of what it means tobe in the world as a man, a woman, a child, taking into account thesociocultural and the historical traditions that have given meaning toour ways of being in the world.’’ In the present case it entails askingwhat it means to be an Hispana Injecting Drug User in a gender andculture sense.

Unlike human nature, which we explain, Dilthey (1976) has claimedthat ‘‘human life we must understand.’’ As researchers we must under-stand that the act of researching is itself deliberate. It is the principle of‘‘intentionality’’ of one’s acts in attaching oneself (the self ) to theworld, as a participant (Van Manen, 1990). In this article we areattempting to understand, not explain the lived experience of fiveHispana (Mexican American, Mexican American/Anglo, and NativeAmerican/Hispanic Females) Injecting Drug Users from a large cityin the southwestern United States.

The engagement of participants in this study followed a numberof avenues. First, the project offered HIV/AIDS prevention services




to all who came through its doors. Second, ancillary support services suchas condoms, bleach kits, hygiene kits, and food boxes were offered as partof a walk-in service. And third, 18 participants were invited to participatein a study of IDU couples. Our five study participants along with theirpartners were among the cohort that participated in extensive individualinterviews (forming IDU Couples).

Gender and Culture in Practice

Lived Identities

EthnicityCultural identification remains complicated, especially when one is

asked to self-identify. What are the options available? Which identitydoes the individual prefer or ascribe to? When asked to self-identifytheir race or ethnicity, the responses of the five women informing thisarticle included:

‘‘Um, ‘mixed’ because, well, you know, my mother’s Mexican andthat’s the culture I was raised in, even though I’m so white. That’s what Irelate to.’’

‘‘‘Hispanic,’ born in California, raised in Nogales, then moved to- - - -.’’

‘‘Hispanic’’‘‘‘Native American’ [enrolled in the tribe, but also identifying as

Hispanic]’’

Similarly, Andrade and Le Denmat (1999) have found it difficult tocall themselves wholly Latinas or Chicanas, much less Hispanic, because‘‘neither term fully encompasses who we are as individuals, and at timesthese labels have placed us at odds with our cultural backgrounds.’’ Howthen should we describe ethnicity or race? ‘‘Hispanic,’’ while commonlyused, emerges from bureaucratic language to circumscribe a population.However, for purposes of this article, we will use the term Hispana, whichspeaks to distant historic origins, without tying one down to particularsocioeconomic, political, or ethnic tethers, because of the influence ofgender and culture practices.

We concur with Estrada and Quintero (1999) that ‘‘‘culture’ hasproven to be an indispensable conceptual means to distance and subor-dinate marginalized social groups. At the same time, the concept of cul-ture allows for the construction of culturally homogeneous groups ofpeople from sets of individuals who are, in fact, socially diverse’’ as we




find in the present case. Further, marginalization of individuals in societyis insidious, as it not only robs the individual of legitimate participationin majority culture, it also chips away at the stabilizing influence ofculture as a protective factor. A case in point is evidenced in the academicperformance of Hispano students as compared with more recentimmigrant Hispano students. Whereas the thrust of sociopolitical move-ments in the United States is that acculturation is essential to success,acculturation is not a predictor of success for Mexican-American stu-dents. Higher school dropout rates are closely linked to higher levels ofacculturation. The less acculturated the individual, the greater theviability of cultural protective factors (such as significance of the familyand adherence to norms and practices vested in the health and well-beingof the family) and the potential for academic and future success. Asindicated by a SAMHSA report (1998) on the prevalence of substanceuse among racial and ethnic subgroups in the United States from 1991 to1993:

Data from the Hispanic Health and Nutrition ExaminationSurvey (HHANES), a national probability sample ofHispanicsaged 12 to 74 conducted during 1982 through 1984, suggestedpatterns of substance use may differ significantly among majorHispanic subgroups. Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricanswere more like to be past or present drug users than CubanAmericans—for example, 42% of Mexican Americans and43% of Puerto Ricans, but only 20% of Cuban Americans,reported having ever used marijuana in their lifetimes.HHANES suggested that substance use may be higheramong Hispanics who are relatively assimilated intoAmerican society: Hispanics who preferred to be interviewedin English were two to three times as likely ever to have useddrugs as Hispanics who preferred to be interviewed in Spanish.Among Hispanics who had ever used marijuana, MexicanAmericans were inferred to have begun use at earlier agesthan Puerto Ricans. A possible explanation is a higher rate ofschool dropout among Mexican American adolescents thanamong Puerto Rican adolescents.

Hispana IDUs

In the introduction to this article we discussed the origins and rami-fications of the term Tecato. Already in that discussion there was the




suggestion that the female noun of the Tecato, the Tecata, woulddiffer considerably. This article explores the notion or experience ofequality implied for the Tecata, through gender and culture, in askingthe question: What gender and culture stereotyped roles do HispanaIDUs fulfill in pursuing a drug career? More appropriately restated,as we reflect on the earlier comment by Quintero and Estrada (1998),we ask: What does drug use mean to Hispanas, if it is not to act outmacho values or to demonstrate socially valued toughness?

To delve into this question we must acknowledge ingrained culturalmores. In exploring the life experiences of five Hispana IDUs, datacollected included extensive interviews and baseline information gener-ated from questionnaire protocols. Names of participants have beenchanged to maintain confidentiality. Identification of a pseudonym,age, length of injection drug use and age at which begun, the numberof times served for incarcerations, and number of children born weregathered for each of the women, and are included in Table 1. While thefocus of this article is on IDU, other forms of substance use havepreceded injection drug use in all cases, with ‘‘substance abuse’’ gen-erally beginning in adolescence. There is one exception in this groupof one Hispana whose substance abuse began in early childhood.Injection drug-use histories range in length from one to 20 years.All five women are currently active IDUs. Some, however, are attempt-ing to reduce the strength of the heroin dose and number of dailyinjections.

Angie is 33 years of age. Angie has two daughters in elementaryschool. The girls live with Angie’s mother. Angie and her partner,though, do live nearby. Angie’s partner is a 42-year-old Hispano whosuffers from diabetes and a broken back. Angie suffers from chronic backpain and headaches. Angie began injecting heroin at age 32 and has beenan IDU for one year.

Table 1. Hispana IDUs in study.

Name Age IDU, from age? Incarceration, how often? Children

Angie 33 1 year, from age 32 N/A 2

Celia 38 17 years, from age 21 Yes, one time 2þa

Christy 39 20 years, from age 19 Yes, one time None

Ellen 40 15 years, from age 25 Yes, three times None

Tanya 26 11⁄2 years, from age 24 N/A 2

aCelia was pregnant at the time.




Tanya is 26 years of age and the mother of two daughters, bothraised and under the care of Tanya’s former mother-in-law. Tanya hasbeen an IDU for a year and a half, since age 24. Tanya’s partner is a35-year-old Hispano, also the brother of Angie’s partner. These couples,however, maintain their heroin use apart from one another as couples.Tanya suffers from an untreated hyperthyroid condition.

Celia is 38 years of age. Celia has two grown children, though onewas not yet 18 years of age. Celia’s mother raised both children. At thetime of the interviews Celia was pregnant with her partner’s child.Celia has been an IDU for 17 years. She began the use of injectedheroin at age 21. Celia suffers from untreated cancer, diagnosed whileshe was incarcerated but left untreated. Celia’s partner is a 41-year-oldHispano.

Christy is 39 years of age and has no children. Christy has been anIDU for 20 years. She was initiated into injecting heroin at age 19. Whiledrug use and IDU were in her environment (e.g., circle of family andfriends) when growing up, the IDU was not talked about and kept secret.Christy’s partner is a 35-year-old Hispano. Christy and her partner metwhile both were living on the streets. During this time Christy resorted toprostitution as a means of income.

Ellen is 40 years of age and has no children. Ellen has been anIDU for 15 years, since age 25, though she has been using drugsand alcohol from a very young age. Ellen suffers from Hepatitis B, aninoperable tumor, and arthritis. Ellen’s partner is a 38-year-oldCaucasian male.

Sociocultural Lessons

There are a number of implicit gender and culture lessons taughtearly and throughout Hispanas’ upbringings. For purposes of thisarticle, there are two lessons of particular significance to the discussionof gender and culture. In daily practice those lessons are phrased as: ‘‘loque no se cuenta’’ [what is not told] and, ‘‘el ¿que diran?’’ [what will theysay?]

Further, these lessons are taught through example and the repetitionof expectations and guidelines. Self-sacrifice is the undercurrent runningthrough these experiences. Hispanas, especially, are taught that they mustconsider others (fathers first, then mothers, partners, children, andsociety) before themselves (Gil and Vanzquez, 1996). Consequently,despite economic and geographical differences, Hispanas raised underthe rigid scope of these norms tend to share these commonalities.




Lo que no se cuenta [What is not told]In Hispano households, the reputation of the family is held as sacro-

sanct. All must be done to protect the reputation of the family from thepotential gossip borne out of publicly airing out problems and conflicts,which is a sign of weakness. However, that is not to say that becausethere is a dictate not to mention or share problems or conflicts there isdenial of the problem. Quite the contrary, matters are privately dealtwith, but not spoken about in public nor are open for others to discuss.In her own way, Ellen offers insight into how these gender and cultureconstraints played themselves out in childhood.

Ellen: One time, when I was being molested by this man downthe street for a couple of years. Between the time I was threeand the time I was seven. I had told my brothers toward theend, and this is awful, but they started going, ‘‘Hey, youknow, if you don’t do this for us we’ll tell mom aboutthat,’’ right? So I was getting more and more nervous, and Ithink I had a little nervous breakdown.

By her siblings taking advantage of her vulnerability and her ownsense of culpability, Ellen’s repeated rape is deemed a weakness and in anunanticipated manner falls under ‘‘lo que no se cuenta.’’ Not only doesEllen live in fear of discovery (that her mother will find out about therepeated sexual abuse) but the repeated acts of violence to her alsobecome something that her brothers use as a lever to manipulate Ellenin any number of ways.

Ellen: But finally I snapped, and I went and told her [mother],and she was so great. I was like seven. I was like heavybreathing. I was crying because my brothers were like, dothis, do that, or we’ll tell, and I felt like this was my faultand all this stuff. So. . . um, anyway, so, um, I went to her andI told her and she was so cool. I don’t know how she managedto convey to me that there was something definitely wrongwith that man, but I remember she drew me a little, a little,uh, fallopian tube, and a little uterus and stuff and she drew alittle penis, and I was like, ‘‘Wow. Mom knows what thatlooks like. Cool.’’ You know, duh, seven, and then somethingthat he was a very, very sick man, a bad man. But the bottomline was that, um, nobody was gonna prosecute because [of ]my great grandmother. The shame of it all, [was that] he wasliving on her land. And, um, nobody, we wouldn’t want




anybody to know that I had been touched, so they just toldhim to leave so I guess he’d go molest some other kid in someother neighborhood. It’s not OK.

We note how, despite the revelation to her mother and adult familymembers, the rape is dealt with in terms of damage control to the family,not the ramifications to the child. ‘‘Lo que no se cuenta’’ runs the gamutfrom the innocuous to the extreme, with Ellen’s experience at the extremeend. Again, in this case, while the situation was discretely taken care ofwithin the family, the impact upon Ellen was neglected. The impact of therape and the rape itself were both swept away with the banishment ofthe perpetrator. When asked if drugs played a role in how she dealt withthe stress of her childhood experiences, Ellen responds by saying ‘‘Oh,yeah. I absolutely do. There’s nothing like blowing a cloud or poppingsome pills to chill out on a hard day of molestation, child beating, and notdoing well in school.’’

Like Ellen, Celia recounts the feelings crowding over her as a victimof incest at her brother’s hands.

Celia: I was about 13. Yeah I was [scared of men after that]Then I got like real. . . I was scared to tell anybody about that. Ididn’t have anyone. . . and then I got a boyfriend. . . and then Itold people later, not that long ago, and they said, ‘‘Are yousure? Are you sure?’’ I mean how stupid can I be, you know?And then, um, how come you never said so? I was scared, youknow? I thought I was the one that was gonna get hit, youknow? That’s why I didn’t say nothin’. But he knows. . .

Fear of reprisal from perpetrators of incest and rape as well as whatfamily members might say or do to the victim have served to victimizeyoung females further, and is a recurrent theme in the narratives sharedin this article.

El ¿que diran? [What will they say?]Along with ‘‘lo que no se cuenta’’ is the ever looming ‘‘what will they

say?’’ Worse than spilling a family’s secrets or airing out their differencesis the consequence of what others will have to say. As a result, Hispanasespecially (males have other concerns in establishing reputations) areforced to hold any potential weakness in silence, as we have gatheredfrom the paragraphs above. ‘‘El ¿que diran?’’ is about the avoidance of apox on the reputation of the individual and consequently the family.




Ellen offers here an example of how she negotiates a drug career whilealso participating in family and other activities.

Ellen: Yeah, but, um, strangely, there are people I socializewith and whose company I enjoy, but for the most part theydon’t know what I do. Un-huh [negative]. No. And, uh,[friend] is the only friend who I use with. Because most every-body knows I used to have trouble with drugs, but I think theyfigure I can’t possibly be using now because I do so much, youknow? I go to plays, and, you know, I paint. I make things. Ijust need dope to do it. That’s all. Mhmm [affirmative].

Angie, on the other hand, describes her efforts to elude ‘‘el ¿quediran?’’ with respect to her injection drug use, as she and her partnerutilize the services of the local needle exchange and consider participatingin an IDU research project. Angie’s narrative begins in response to thequestion: Why did you start this program?

Angie: Because he [partner] brought me here. I mean, and hetalked to Paco [interventionist] one of those times he went tothe needle exchange, and he came out with a little card with thetime on it and all that, 12:30. At first I didn’t wanna come and Ikept telling him, ‘‘What if we run into somebody that I know?’’You know, what if someone sees us there? They’re gonnaknow right away that I’m using. And, you know, just likethat, and we went back and forth [talking]. And then wemade the appointment, and ‘‘I don’t think so, I don’t thinkso’’. And we didn’t come. So Paco called again, so we setanother appointment up, and I told him, ‘‘You know what?OK, we’ll go. Let’s go.’’

The irony inherent in the decision not to be seen and become thesubject of ‘‘el ¿que diran?’’ is in direct conflict to any harm reductionpractices promoted in this and other HIV prevention communities. Justas the events above were held in silence over extended periods of time,both interfere with the potential for HIV prevention and intervention ortreatment.

Even 26-year-old Tanya negotiates these same roles to keep on theright side of tradition. As Tanya explains:

Tanya: No. I, I, I had my kids and I was working at the time.The house I was living in was a crackhouse, OK? They were




selling drugs out there. They would say, ‘‘leave your kids here’’while I went to work, and I wouldn’t leave my kids there. SoI’d take ‘em. . . Yeah. And they’re not gonna care about mykids, you know what I mean? So what I would do is I would goto work. No, what I would do is I, I would come home towatch them. At that time my mom was living in a motel. Shelived in a motel for almost a year and a half, OK, with herboyfriend. And I’d leave ‘em there. I’d get off work at 11 from36th and 4th to the motel on 29th and the freeway. You knowwhat I mean? They would want me to go over there and pickthem up, walk all the way home to go drop them off again at 6,7 in the morning to go to work at 8. It was way too much.

The area noted by Tanya is well known for high-crime and drugs.During this period Tanya’s socioecological environment revolved arounddrugs. Tanya negotiated between that, working, and caring for her chil-dren. When negotiation was no longer feasible, Tanya eventually left herdaughters with their paternal grandmother. Interestingly, however,Tanya pushes the limits further by implicating her family as responsiblefor her decision to relinquish custody of her children to her formermother-in-law, which in itself carries greater negative connotation.

Tanya: My dad wouldn’t help me. My sister won’t take ‘em.She wouldn’t take ‘em, and, you know what I mean? I was, mydad was telling me, ‘‘just give them to her [former mother-in-law]. Let her take care of them.’’ You know what I mean? Butnow they’re all on me because I did give them to her. Youknow what I mean? I don’t regret it because I know at thetime it was the best thing for them, but I regret it because ofthe way they treat me now. Because, you know, she [formermother-in-law] follows me like I’m gonna take ‘em or some-thing. And I tell her, you know what I mean? Cuz when I leftfor the first time, when I left the dad I told her. She told me,‘‘just don’t take my baby girl.’’ And I told her, ‘‘when I leavemy kids I told you the same thing. And I would expect thatfrom you.’’ Cuz she, for a long time she only wanted one of mydaughters because she was getting her other granddaughtermoved out. And she wanted, um, they were going to move herfrom a three-bedroom to a two-bedroom cuz it’s a HUD[Housing and Urban Development] home. So with mydaughter on the list she would stay with the three-bedroom.‘‘I’ll give you the money. You can keep her just let me have




her,’’ you know.And I’d be like, ‘‘no, why?’’ So, you know, thatwas probably the best thing, and I only gave her temporarycustody.

Though she has given custody of her children to her mother-in-law, note that the motive Tanya gives was her children’s best interest.Further, she places equal blame for her decision on her family as wellas on herself. But she has only signed off on temporary custody. Aswe see, there is negotiation in maintaining gender and culture pre-scribed roles for Hispanas, with the idea that at some point some ofthose roles can be temporarily suspended (in good standing) with theintent of returning to them at a later point. Angie and Tanya negotiatethese dictates to preserve their gender and culture roles. In their owncreative manner, each has fashioned the negotiation to alter thedemands of those roles.

The dictates of ‘‘lo que no se cuenta’’ and ‘‘el ¿que diran?’’ mediatethe motivation and actions of Hispanas in general and Hispana IDUs inparticular, as each negotiates to fulfill gender- and culture-role expecta-tions. The Hispana IDU also must comply with these principles even inthe context of the deviant behavior of injection drug use, in: 1) keepingthe injection drug use secret, and 2) keeping up gender and culture expec-tations in the role of daughter, partner, mother, and citizen.

Secrecy

In the following sections we elaborate on elements of secrecy andfamilial expectations through Hispana IDUs’ narratives. In addition tothese elements, however, themes such as self-medication, both for physi-cal and emotional ills, emerge.

Ellen: But you know I had hepatitis I got from my brotherwhen I was 15. No, not from a needle. I can’t—He had B, butyou know, he was a little inappropriate for our relationship. Itmight have been sexual. I can’t remember. Most of my, um,growing up is just erased. You know, I mean, I’m disassocia-tive anyway. But I just have great chunks of my life, especiallygrowing up, that I just don’t remember. We grew up ridinghorses. We did all the normal things except doing it high, Iguess. I thought that was what everybody was supposed to be.I mean it just, I knew mom wasn’t supposed to know becauseshe doesn’t drink. She doesn’t take acid. My stepfather didn’t




drink. I mean they had liquor for guests, but we were justalways high.

Further, for Ellen, the previous thrill of heroin use has become anecessary part of her daily routine.

Ellen: [Later] I did do methadone, but I tried that, but I canfeel it eating away at my bones, and that’s probably becauseI’ve got an obsessive-compulsive thing but it makes my boneshurt more, and I have arthritis, and, um, you know. Withoutheroin I would just roll up in a ball. I mean I could do it, if Ihad a substitute for pain control I could do without heroin.[Methadone] It does [make it worse] in the long run. After amonth or two it does. And then it takes so long to kick metha-done. It takes a very long time. So, I went a month and halfkicking methadone and I finally went back [to heroin].

Celia also shares a similar approach to her heroin use, ‘‘Yeah, I useheroin to get well.’’ In addition, Celia’s untreated cervical cancer, diag-nosed 6 years prior when she was incarcerated was left untreated.Presently Celia reports, ‘‘Well, it’s getting really bad now. Yeah, I’vebeen in really bad pain. Nothing [helps]. Just the drugs [heroin, etc.,].It helps.’’ As we learn from Celia, she is also pregnant and has theadditional burden of negotiating prenatal care along with the untreatedprogression of her disease. However, Tanya and Christy, like Celia, haveno insurance or medical care coverage.

Christy offers insight into the influences of her community on herinitiation into drug use, and later as she hid IDU from her family.

Christy: Um, let’s see, it was part of my environment, myneighbors and the people I was hanging out with at homeand things like that. [My parents] Because I used to livewith them that whole time we [partner and I] were injectingand stuff and using and they didn’t know. They had neverseen me. Well, I used to hide it from them all the time. Ihid it from them for the whole ten years [before telling them].

Familial Expectations

Gender roles play an important function in the lives of Hispanas.These roles serve as gatekeepers and milestones throughout each




woman’s life course by way of imposed acquiescence to social and famil-ial practices. Negotiation is required to stay in line with gender- andculture-dictated norms. Yet there is also room to expand and pushbeyond limitations while seeking out other pursuits. The followingtypology chart (Table 2) serves to outline some of those norms in thelife of Hispanas.

In line with our typology, Moore and Mata cite Waldorf (1973) indiscussing the sex role context and related stigma experienced by femaleaddicts, in noting that unlike male addicts,

Women do not bounce back as easily after their addiction asdo men, and society does not accept them back as readilybecause it does not allow them to ‘‘sin.’’ When they do, theyfeel the stigma so strongly that it is still felt long after awoman changes her life, which suggests that perhaps societydoes not allow women the redemption after sin that it allowsmen... The ‘‘normal’’ woman’s burden is light comparedto that of the woman addict who is usually at once awoman [wife, mother, daughter], an addict, a prostitute,a convict, and in some instances, a lesbian. (Moore andMata, 1981; Fullilove, Lown, and Fullilove, 1992; Griffinet al., 1989)’’

Elsewhere, in work with Black women crack users, Fullilove, Lown,and Fullilove (1992) find similar discrimination against drug-involvedwomen, as they explain that ‘‘The degradation of women withinthe crack culture has led to the development of stereotypes and labels,including such derogatory terms as ‘crack ‘ho’ (crack whore) and itsequivalent, ‘skeezer.’ This type of stigmatization expresses group disap-proval for behavior that fails to meet culturally defined standards forwomen.’’

Further, with respect to this specific population, Fullilove, Lown,and Fullilove (1992) add that,

The intense stigmatization of women within the crackculture appears to be part of a complex pattern of abusethat may include: a history of sexual or physical abuse duringthe childhood of the woman user; sexual and physical abusein the context of current crack use; degradation and victi-mization through participation in sex-for-drugs exchanges[more common in crack use]; and public, as well asprivate castigation for failure in maternal roles.




Table

2.

HispanaID

Us’gender

andculture

roles. Partner

Citizen

Daughter

Gooddaughter/

virgin/obedient

Mother

Womanashearth

andhome/nurturing

Secondary

to

malessubmissive/

passive

Passingon

cultural/religious

traditions/customs

When

fulfilled:Theresult

isinclusion

through

keeping

traditions

of

‘‘lo

que

no

secu

enta’’

and

el¿q

ue

diran?’’

alive

Keeping

IDU

secret;

Maintaining

sexual

life

secret;

Respecting

the

house—

never

using

orbringing

problemsthere

Maintaining

a‘‘home’’

and

cookingforfamily/partner;

Peripherallyinvolved

infamily

events;

Maintaining

contact

with

children

Submissiveto

male

part-

ner—

yet

also

caring,

nurturingto

him

;

Also

submissiveand

sec-

ondary

indruguse

Havingchildren;

Sendingchildrento

parents;

Keeping

intouch

with

important

life

events

(e.g.,baptism

al,commu-

nion,quinceanera,gra-

duation)

inthe

life

of

children

When

not

fulfilled:

Marginality

andexclu-

sionbecometheconse-

quence

of

breaking

with

tradition

or

cul-

turaltraditions

IDU

nolonger

secret,care-

less

aboutdruguse

and

sexualpartners;

Familyshunsthedaughter;

Both

(family

&daughter)

are

‘‘disgraced’’

Unable

tomaintain

a‘‘stable’’

homeenvironment;

Tiesto

childrensevered,relin-

quishes

custodyofchildren;

Loses

contact

with

children

andfamily

Malesno

longer

find

her

attractiveasapartner

asshenolonger

fulfills

gender

rolesviewed

as

desirable;

shebecomes

‘‘a

nobody’’

Has

not

maintained

the

culturalties

Loss

of

self-esteem,

no

value,

she

becomes

nameless;

Individuals

and

society

shun

her

(i.e.,

‘‘Idon’t

know

her,’’yet

weknow

her

wellenough

totalk

abouther)




Hispana IDUs find themselves at a crossroads with each of thegender- and culture-dictated roles proposed as the essence of what aHispana should become, or at least what roles she is expected tocomply with in order to fulfill that obligation. The vignettesthroughout this article allow us to explore the lives of HispanaIDUs vis-a-vis gender and culture roles ascribed to them, as well asHispana IDUs’ efforts to negotiate within the parameters of thoseroles.

As Angie explains with respect to her two daughters, ages nine andseven, ‘‘They’re fine. They live with my mom right now.’’ Though shehas relegated the daughters to her mother’s care, and they live inseparate households, Angie continues to comply with expectationsinherent in the role as a mother. An example of Angie’s work infulfilling the pseudo-mother role, involves conversations with herdaughters.

Angie: Yeah, well, I talk to them a lot. I tell them they’vegotta be real careful and this and that. I talk to them inwhatever way they can understand. They’re young. I’vealways told them that ‘‘any problem you have, no matterhow bad it is, or how good it is or whatever,’’ you know.‘‘Whatever, come talk to me, whatever the problem is. I’mnot gonna get mad at you. I’m not gonna hit you or nothinglike that. I just want you to come to me when you have aproblem, whatever it is.’’ And, yeah, they kind of understandthat. My oldest one, Monday, Friday, Friday night she camehome with a certificate of student of the month. So that mademe really happy.

Future Goals

These Hispana IDUs do hold hopes for the future, once the IDU iscontrolled or overcome. For example, Ellen reflects on the past as shecontemplates the role of motherhood in the future.

Ellen: [My parents] They looked the other way, yeah. I meanmy brother is the father of my stepsister’s baby that got putup for adoption, but now he’d never cop to it. I mean, it’s likethey’re not blood relatives. . . my stepsister. . . she nevercopped to it. It would be like, um, the Brady kids, you




know? And so now that she didn’t tell because she didn’t wantmy brother to be killed by my stepfather who was practicallykilling him everyday anyway. So, um, but the baby was put upfor adoption against. . . [my stepsister] didn’t want to put himfor adoption. So that’s how, because I don’t have children,because we all. . . I wanted to have children since I was three,but I’m not gonna do it unless I’m completely stable and I’vehad enough emotional intervention, I think, I know Iwouldn’t be abusive but, um, if I’m still abusing myself it’snot proper.

Christy also holds out hope for motherhood in the future.

Christy: A year from now? Umm, hopefully in some kind ofjob or even as a student. Five years from now? I’d like to havea family and stuff. I care about myself more. Just by all thethings that have happened to me. Not caring about myself,not taking care of myself. All the risks I take. [The verybottom was] Just being on the edge of nothing. Not havinga place to go [being homeless]. Not having no money [havingto prostitute]. Just being strung out again and just tired of it.I’m tired of going back to that. It’s not getting us nowhereexcept backwards. I mean we need to turn around. I know wecan do it, it’s just we have to do it.

The connection between mother and children withstands geographi-cal and temporal separations, as Celia conveys in her goals for the future,

Celia: To get off of it [drug use] and start working and find aplace. [Though cut off from kids, now 19 and 17 years of age]They probably would [live with me]. They probably would. Ifthey see that I kicked. Yeah, because they can be fun to bewith, I mean even now, when I’m using and everything. Butsometimes they get mad. . . Yeah, when I’m using a lot theydon’t come by as much.

With the birth of her child, Celia anticipates even greater connectionto the family: ‘‘I think it would [change things]. Like [things betweens us]with my first son, too. And never mind my grandma. She’s gonna be agreat grandma now. They’re all happy.’’ Intergenerational bonds arestrong and have, as Celia suggests, the ability of regenerating whereother links have been severed.




DISCUSSION

The impulse for Hispanas to use injection drugs surfaces as a pointworthy of comment in their negotiation of multiple roles and obligations.Another telling finding with respect to Hispana IDUs is made in Mooreand Mata’s (1981) study of Chicana heroin addicts in relation to genderroles and drug usage, as they explain, ‘‘though most of the respondents[N¼ 97] were not currently using heroin, most report that heroin wastheir favorite drug, especially because they feel able to handle normaldaily responsibilities while using.’’ In our own work, we find repeatedreferences by Hispanas on the use of drugs as a means of dealing withemotional upheaval and pain. In this respect we recall Ellen’s poignantstatement, ‘‘There’s nothing like blowing a cloud or popping some pills tochill out on a hard day of molestation, child beating, and not doing wellin school.’’

Unlike the Tecato, who boasts of conquests and shrugging theresponsibilities to family and partner in ‘‘asserting independence fromwomen (Quintero and Estrada, 1998; Casavantes, 1976).’’ The HispanaIDU must maintain roles of mother, partner, daughter, and citizenwhile managing a drug career. The feminine noun Tecata does notincorporate the essence of its masculine counterpart. The interchange-able use of the female noun is therefore misleading, denoting equalityamongst its male and female protagonists. Women referred to asTecatas are in a category removed from the Hispana IDUs presentedin this article. Tecatas are women no longer managing the gender andculture expectations while pursuing a drug career. Angie describes oneHispana IDU who has fallen into this category. As Angie speaks wenotice the distance placed between these Hispana IDUs. From Angie’sdescription, the woman loses any personal characteristics as she fallsvictim to the serious repercussions of injection drug use, among otherthings.

Angie: Well, I don’t really know her, but she’s um, how doyou explain it? His [partner’s] brother’s ex-wife [laughs], youknow? his niece and nephew’s mom. She got infected withHIV. She was real bad into drugs. I don’t really know her,you know, but I seen her once in a while, you know, like that.Yeah. She’s still around. Well, she was left for dead for awhile, so. . . Yeah. Some guy came and beat her up. Theypicked her up from the street, and then they beat her upand I guess she had money or something like that. Theybeat her up and everything and they took the money from




her. She even lost one of her eyes. They took out one ofher eyes.

Without charging any woman as less worthy of compassion orunderstanding, we suggest a change from the use of the term Tecata,unless speaking strictly to the feminine equivalent of the masculine defi-nition, to Hispana IDUs. Even then, the use of this female noun onlydescribes the extreme consequences of ‘‘heavy’’ addiction and the vio-lence and abuse that accompany it. The key difference between Tecatasand other Hispana IDUs is their inability to comply with gender andculture mores. With respect to the above nameless Hispana IDU, whomight be appropriately called a Tecata, she has become invisible, owningno name, nor family. She has lost custody of her children. Hermother-in-law raised this nameless woman’s son and daughter. Herformer husband, a career prisoner and Tecato, refers to her as a‘‘nobody, a junkie.’’ Her life is an open book, as she has failed to keepher injection drug use secondary to gender and culture demands.Everyone knows her story and speaks of her failures. She has broughtshame to her family and those who knew her, and has consequently losther position as daughter, partner, mother, and citizen; even the local IDUcommunity has pushed her to the margins.

Culture and gender expectations require women to conform to socialmores or at least maintain the appearance of doing so. When womenIDUs break with these unspoken rules, they are thrust into a differentrealm as failures. Hispanas are expected to be resilient while also swal-lowing their pride or suffering in silence. It is what their mothers did, andwhat their mothers before them practiced. While this long-standing tra-dition may be viewed as outdated, it continues to manifest itself inunchallenged beliefs and unspoken practices of ‘‘lo que no se cuenta’’and ‘‘el ¿que diran?’’

Yet, unlike the nameless woman described above, Angie complies withthe dictates of ‘‘lo que no se cuenta’’ and ‘‘el ¿que diran?’’ by maintainingher position in the family and community. She has informally given hertwo children to her mother’s care, without legal intervention, and main-tains a peripheral role as daughter (she has not relinquished control of theability of others to speak ill of her), partner (she fulfills her role asnurturer and caregiver), mother (she is a daily presence in her daughters’lives), and citizen (she maintains a profile as being responsible in hercommunity, where, for example, Angie walks with her daughters to andfrom school and goes over school work or activities with her daughters).

These narrative vignettes move us beyond gender stereotypes toconsider a consciousness more germane to Hispanas IDU as a diverse




population of women sharing common cultural beliefs and practices.While there is a burden and pressure on women to maintain othergender and culture stereotypes, drug-involved women seek to fulfillthose same obligations in order to remain respected members of theirfamilies and communities. Hispanas’ IDU and heroin use have not beenwell understood; at least the intensity and energy generated by HispanaIDUs to keep drug use separate and apart from other aspects of theirlives have not received sufficient notice. If we accept the importance ofthis separation to Hispana IDU populations, then it can be suggestedthat drug-user treatment such as incarceration interferes with Hispanas’gender and culture role obligations as daughter, partner, mother, andcitizen.

According to Andrade and Le Denmat (1999) discussions of whatethics are and should be took the form of endless informal lessonscommonly bestowed in intergenerationally linked traditional households.They conclude that it was in the home where one first learned to act inaccordance with those unspoken rules, of ‘‘lo que se da por entendido,’’and was taught, primarily at the hands of mothers, to maintain thoseethics under the watchful guard of the rest of the world, as they were toldrepeatedly, ‘‘no importa lo que hagan los otros, sabes bien lo que debesque hacer’’ [It does not matter what others do, you know well what youshould do]. These formed the underlying tension between how onethought and what one did—what Andrade and Le Denmat describe asthe constant dilemma of ‘‘what it is to be’’ and ‘‘what it is to exercisefree will.’’

Andrade and Le Denmat (1999) further suggested that it was inchildhood when they were first taught the code of dictates that embracedseveral concepts and lessons over time. Among those lessons there werefour central underlying canons, or tenets, as they called them. They wereas follows:

. ‘‘Be caring and thoughtful to others, kind to the less fortunate andanimals, but do not let others take advantage of you—practiceamor propio, self love so that you respect yourself as a personand, in turn, have others do the same,’’

. ‘‘Be respectful and thankful with others,’’

. ‘‘Do not allow jealousy to guide your thoughts and actions,’’

. ‘‘Be truthful and do not blame others for your own shortcom-ings.’’

In closing, we suggest that drug-use treatment and HIV/AIDS inter-vention programs interested in the recovery of Hispana IDUs consider




the above tenets in the creation of gender and culture sensitive curriculumand pedagogy in treatment options. And, that they become aware ofgender and culture dynamics that influence risk behaviors and injectiondrug use. In doing so they may integrate gender and culture as a meansof making whole Hispana IDUs previously tied down by dictatesof Hispano culture—‘‘lo que no se cuenta’’ and ‘‘el ¿que diran?’’ Whilethese principles attempt to promote self-sustainability and strength,they have taken on negative connotations, allowing silence to serveas the response to violence and abuse, or as in the lives of theseHispana IDUs, substance and alcohol use to serve as coping mechanisms.

While not directly addressed in the context of this article, criticalunresolved issues remain in this area. Gender and culture do matter,and attempts to address addiction and high-risk behaviors alone inwomen are only addressing the consequences of individuals’ actions.Further research is indicated that examines more fully issues of genderand culture in diverse female populations of drug use and addiction.From there implications could be more fully developed to addressconcerns about staff training, feasibility of intervention sites, and thepotential for changing roles of female patients/clients to active agentsfor change (Andrade and Stevens under review).

GLOSSARY

El ¿que diran? [What will they say?]: Hispano cultural dictate.Hispana: As an ethnic/race descriptor speaks to distant historic

origins, without the limitations of socioeconomic, political, or ethnicdescriptors.

Lo que no se cuenta [what is not told]: Hispano cultural dictate.Tecata: female noun of Tecato, gender and culture roles, however,

predetermine that it is not equal or the same as the Tecato.Tecato: originally the term male Mexican or Mexican American

IDUs call themselves.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This study was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse(NIDA) grant #R01#DA10162. Information and viewpoints expressedin this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily representthe viewpoints of NIDA officials.




REFERENCES

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Andrade, R., LeDenmat, H. G. (1999). The formation of a code of ethicsfor Latina/Chicana scholars: the experience of melding personallessons into professional ethics. Frontiers: A Journal of WomenStudies XX (1), 151–160.

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Casavantes, E. J. (1976). El tecato: Social and cultural factorsaffecting drug use among Chicanos. The National Coalitionof Spanish-Speaking Mental Health Organizations: Washington,DC.

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Estrada, A., Quintero, G. A. (1999). Redefining categories of risk andidentity: The appropriation of AIDS prevention information andconstructions of risk. In: Elwood, W. N., ed. Power in the Blood: AHandbook on AIDS, Politics and Communication. Mahwah, NJ:Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp. 133–147.

Fullilove, M. T., Lown, E. A., Fullilove, R. E. (1992). Crack ‘hos andskeezers: traumatic experiences of women crack users. The Journalof Sex Research 2:275–287.

Gil, R. M., Vazquez, C. I., (1996). The Maria Paradox: How Latinas canmerge Old World Traditions with New World Self-Esteem. NewYork:The Berkley Publishing Group.

Griffin, M. L., Weiss, R. D., Mirin, S. M., Lange, U. A. (1989). Acomparison of male and female cocaine abusers. Archives ofGeneral Psychiatry 46: 122–126.

Jorquez, J. S. (1984). Heroin use in the barrio: solving the problem ofrelapse or keeping the tecato gusano asleep. American Journal ofDrug Alcohol Abuse 10(1):63–75.

Moore, J. W., Mata, A. (1981). Women and heroin in Chicano commu-nities. Chicano Pinto Research Project, Los Angeles.

Quintero, G. A., Estrada, A. L. (1998). Cultural models of masculinityand drug use: ‘‘Machismo,’’ heroin, and street survival on theU.S.—Mexican border. Contemporary Drug Problems 25:147–168.




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RESUMEN

Los papeles del genero y de la cultura siguen siendo evasivos en ladiscusion sobre usuarios (varon contra hembra) de drogas inyectadas(IDU) dentro de poblaciones minoritarias en los Estados Unidos nortea-mericanos. Un ejemplo es el de IDUs hsipanos e hispanas. el terminocallejero comunmente empleado para el varon IDU hispano, Tecato, esfemenizado con el uso del sustantivo femenino correspondiente: Tecata.Hacer tal sin embargo, minimiza los entresijos del genero y de la culturadentro de los papeles del varon y de la hembra IDU hispano e hispana(por ejemplo: hija/hijo, madre/padre, pareja, cuidadano). Los varonesIDUs hispanos tambien son impactados por el genero y la cultura enterminos de hispanos que abrazan al estilo de la vida del Tecato. Han desacrificar y aguantar las consequencias en como sus papeles de varon sonminimizados (por ejemplo: la ausencia de la figura varonil en la comuni-




dad, hogar, y vida familiar). Este artıculo explora, tras el analisis de losdatos cualitativos basados en entrevistas, las exigencies del genero y de lacultura segun se desarollan en las vidas de IDUs hispanas. Los resultadosdel estudio sugieren que hay varias diferencias importantes entre losIDUs hispano e hispana. Las implicaciones del estudio incluyen la nece-sidad de reexaminar los papeles del genero y de la cultura segun causanpresion adicional a la IDU hispana (es decir, en las demandas parasatisfacer papeles estereotipos del genero y de la cultura mientras quetambien se persigue la carrerra de IDU).

RESUME

Les roles du sexe et de la culture restent difficiles a saisir lorsqu’onaborde le cas des minorites masculines vs feminines. Les populations deconsommateurs de drogues par injection (IDU, ‘‘Injecting Drug Users’’)hispano-americains en sont un exemple. Le terme utilise courammentpour designer les IDU hispano-americains est ‘‘Tecato’’ qui s’accordeau feminin ‘‘Tecata’’. Toutefois, par cette maniere de faire on minimisela complexite des effets du sexe et de la culture concernant les rolesmasculins vs feminins chez les IDU hispano-americains (par exemplefille/fils, mere/pere, partenaire, citoyen). Ceux-ci sont touches, outre parle sexe et la culture, par le mode de vie ‘‘tecato’’. Ils doivent affronter lesconsequences dues au fait que leur roles masculins sont minimises (parexemple l’absence de l’image masculine dans la vie communautaire etfamiliale). Cet article aborde au moyen d’une analyse de donnees quali-tatives, les attentes selon le sexe ou la culture, telles qu’elles se manifestentdans la vie des IDU hispano-americains. Les resultats de cette etudemontrent des differences importantes liees au sexe et a la culture, entreles hommes et femmes.

Les conclusions de cette etude montrent la necessite de reexaminer anouveau les roles du sexe et de la culture sous l’angle de la pressionsupplementaire subie par les IDU hispano-americains (roles stereotypesen fonction du sexe et de la culture tout en poursuivant une carriere enetant IDU).

THE AUTHORS

Rosi Andrade, Ph.D., is a Research Associate with the Services ResearchOffice of the Southwest Institute of Research on women (SIROW) in theDepartment of Women’s Studies, University of Arizona, and holds a




Ph.D. in Reading with a minor in chicana Literature. Her dissertation istitled Children’s Constructive Social Worlds: Existential Lives in theBalance and is based on the experiences of children and communitymembers in the 1.2 square mile barrio town of South Tucson.Dr.Andrade is interested in the social, cultural, and political experiencesof minority populations. She has developed a specialty in expandingliteracy experiences as a tool and means to personal development andsocial support. More recently this work has been carried out thorough aNational Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) funded grant, Empowermentthrough Literacy,’ a social support model for drug-involved women atrisk for HIV. This award was a minority supplement to Dr.Sally Steven’sNIDA funded grant—‘‘Women-Centered HIV Risk Reduction ResearchStudy.’’ Dr.Andrade has also carried out a number of evaluation projectsin the areas of teacher professional development and HIV harm reduc-tion. Dr.Andrade has taught in the College of Education, Department ofLanguage, Reading and Culture.

Antonio L. Estrada, Ph.D., M.S.P.H., is Professor of Public Health andMexican American Studies and Director of the Mexican AmericanStudies & Research Center at the University of Arizona. Dr. Estradareceived his masters and doctorate degrees in Public Health, graduatingfrom the UCLA School of Public Health in 1986. Dr. Estrada’s primaryinterests are in Hispanic and Native American health, focusing on healthpromotion and disease prevention within these populations. Dr. Estradahas numerous publications and presentations in the areas of HIV/AIDSand health, with a coauthored book on Mexican American health pub-lished by the University of Arizona Press. Dr. Estrada is the principalinvestigator of a five-year study, funded by the National Institute onDrug Abuse (NIDA), to develop, implement, and assess a culturallyinnovative HIV/AIDS risk reduction program targeting Mexican-originHispanic drug injectors and their female sexual partners in Tucson (OneTo One Program). Dr. Estrada has also been a principal investigator forseveral other NIDA-funded research studies involving the NationalAIDS Demonstration Research study, the NIDA CooperativeAgreement, a Native American supplement on HIV/AIDS, and anHIV/AIDS risk reduction project on the U.S.-Mexico border. Dr.Estrada also teaches Hispanic health, cultural competency, and socio-cultural epidemiology courses at the University of Arizona College ofPublic Health and College of Medicine.


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