Language and communication barriers for health delivery to a minority group.

Abstract The present paper is a first attempt to conceptualize some of the language and communication barriers existing between health providers and an audience of consumers, mostly composed of impoverished Mexican Americans. The paper provides theoretical explanation for the communication gap in terms of the “dependency- dignidad ” and the “cosmology of destiny” paradoxes. Situational examples also look at the stages of medical intervention in terms of Mexican-American perceptions, family relations, norms, and social structure.