Talents, Tears, Stories of Our Identities, and Community Building: Toward Community-Based Ecosystems of Latiné Health Driven by Promotores

Abstract

This essay describes a process for integrating US Latiné communities as drivers of a grassroots vision for healthy Latiné communities and health equity planning that addresses racial injustices. Transforming structural conditions to promote Latiné community health happens alongside creating conditions for community-level self-determination to foster community-based ecosystems of health. Integrating a life course perspective, we describe a vision for community-based ecosystems of Latiné health that is rooted in forging connections and cultivating community; building community power to address structural drivers of health; leveraging the expertise and assets of promotores to reach, engage, and mobilize communities; scaling solutions through policy, system, and environment changes; and grounding research processes in community-driven priorities. Such processes must affirm the expertise of promotores and Latiné communities and recognize the interconnectedness of communities and systems (e.g., food, housing, living wages) to nurture health at local levels. Research can advance the science and evidence-based models that support community-based ecosystems of Latiné health. ( Am J Public Health. 2024;114(S6):S525–S533. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2024.307763 ) [Formula: see text]