Anisa Navarro

Anth. 215
Due: 2.5.22
Written Assignment #2: Two people: same event, different story
Anna is a 19-year-old college student. She’s always been at the top of her class, and
never got in any trouble of sorts with the law, or school administration. One day, she noticed she
was feeling more tired than usual. She was drained, her head was hurting, and was stumbling on
her words quite a few times. This lasted a few weeks, until it was more than just an off day, but
an off life. She decided to make an appointment with the nearest doctor, and they gladly took her
private insurance, and she didn’t have any difficulties finding a clinic a block away from her
apartment. Once Anna went to the doctor’s appointment, she shared her lifestyle, and how these
symptoms came out of the blue, and were invading her everyday life. The doctors took her
complaints seriously, and run multiple blood work tests, and even brain scans, to make sure
everything was okay, as out of nowhere these symptoms occurred. Since the doctors listened to
her, paid attention, and even had all the right instruments to take a CAT scan, and blood work
drawn, Anna was able to find out that a tumor was starting to grow in her brain. The small tumor
was what was causing the migraines, slurred words, and drained feeling she had for weeks.
Guadalupe is also a 19-year-old college student, who’s always been at the top of her
class, and has never done anything to get herself in trouble, with the law or school
administration. One day (just like Anna), she noticed that she was having constant migraines,
and that she was stumbling on her words quite a few times. She was extremely drained and could
barely make it through the day. Guadalupe waited to go to the doctors, because she thought it
was just the change to colder weather. She also didn’t have the money to go to the doctors, so
she wanted to continue working for an extra month or so to make sure she could cover the
expenses of transportation, or medical fees. Guadalupe waited almost 2 months, before her
symptoms got worst, and she started having seizures. At this point she couldn’t continue waiting,
because her grades had started to slip, and she couldn’t risk losing her scholarship for school.
Guadalupe called the nearest clinic and asked if she could make an appointment. They asked for
her insurance, and then denied her, as they don’t take state insurance, and the fee to only be
briefly consulted was too expensive. This same conversation occurred five more times, as she
kept on getting denied. Finally, she was able to find a clinic that accepted her state insurance, but
she had to wait a few more weeks for availability. Almost an extra month passes by when
Guadalupe has her doctor’s appointment. At this point, because she had been struggling for
almost 4 months with constant migraines, lack of sleep, occasional seizures, and slurred speech,
she looked extremely ill. When the doctor was asking for her symptoms, and she explained, he
immediately cut her off and asked her many times if she was doing any drugs. Each time she
denied, as she’s never done any drugs before. The doctor saw Guadalupe, as a brown skinned
woman, with dark under eyes, slurred speech, and immediately made up his mind, that
Guadalupe was nothing more than a drug addict, even when she explained that she was the top of
her class, manager of her work, and all-around well-kept person. Guadalupe’s story ended there,
and as a month after, she died of a seizure. The doctors were then able to see that she also had a
tumor in her brain, but because it had gone untreated it had continued to grow.
The shocking truth between Anna’s and Guadalupe’s story, is the fact that it is a reality
for many people. The difference in their treatment from medical professionals, and how their
health was taken care of, is due to the structural inequalities. Professor Marieke van Eijk
describes social inequalities as what lies at the center of people’s health burdens and unequal
access to help. This can be a range of access to healthcare, putting food on the table, and even
affording medication as was Guadalupe’s case. (Week 5, video 1). The structural inequalities
that played out between the story of Guadalupe and Anna, is that despite living the same
lifestyle, they both had different financial burdens, different access to insurance, type of clinics,
and compassion and understanding held by the doctor. For Anna, she was privileged, in that she
was able to choose the closest clinic, and get an appointment within a day, due to the funding,
surplus of doctors, and that they took private insurances. Her doctors, saw her as affluent, and
did not socially profile her as a drug user, so they looked at other explanations that could cause
her symptoms. For Guadalupe, she faced inequalities based on financial burden, lack of available
doctors or clinics that accepted her insurance, and because the doctor’s clinic racially profiled
her, based on looks, they saw her as nothing more than a drug user, and never thought to look at
other explanations. Duke explains this well on his paper focusing on neocolonialism, he states,
“structural vulnerability is by and large a product of one’s position within a hierarchical social
order, which, in turn, leaves one differentially vulnerable to structural violence and other forms
of violence” (Duke 2017). Because Anna and Guadalupe, although technically in the same spot
(in college, top of their class), there was many barriers stopping them from being in the same
hierarchal level, with Guadalupe facing social, financial, and racial burdens preventing her from
ever really being on the same level of Anna. Although Guadalupe’s citizen status was never
touched on her visit, this quote in Duke’s article perfectly sums up what occurred, “...historical
and structural conditions that leave particular immigrant populations vulnerable to poor health
and excluded from appropriate health care,” (Duke 2017). If Guadalupe was possibly a few a few
shades lighter, and was able to get help right away, there would be a chance that her doctors
would have taken her complaints of symptoms more serious.
The main issue that constantly occurs that allows this to continue to happen whether it’s
with a Ben and a Jorge, or anyone else, is that the inequalities that surround our everyday lives,
and create academic burdens, financial burdens, food insecurity burdens, transfer over to
healthcare and multiply, as all these burdens create a health risk, and create a blockage that
allows someone to get correct, immediate, and compassionate care by a provider, who listens to
their patient rather than rush to diagnose based on racial biases.

References:

Duke, Michael R. “Neocolonialism and Health Care Access among Marshall Islanders in the
United States.” Medical Anthropology Quarterly, vol. 31, no. 3, 2017, pp. 422–439.,
https://doi.org/10.1111/maq.12376.
Van Eijk, Marieke. “Week 5: Part 1 - Structural Inequalities.” Anthropology 215. Feb. 2022,
University of Washington.