— the story of the Cruz-Morales family is indicative of wider trends within the medical and public health professions. Major health disparities exist between white people and people of color, and Latinx communities face unique health challenges and systemic barriers in accessing the health care system.“Part of the difficulty of solving the issue is the lack of comprehensive research on bias against the Latinx community in health care,” according to Dr. Martinez.
But as a wide-reaching diaspora, the Latinx community uses a range of labels to describe its identities, making it particularly difficult to accurately survey this population. There are also wide disparities within the racial and ethinic subgroups of the Latinx community which may not be captured by these racial categories. “It’s referring back to this idea that we're just one monolithic ethnic group, when in fact those differences make a difference,” Dr.