The Pastoral Clinic: Addiction and Dispossession along the Rio Grande

Cultural relativism is an anthropological principle emphasizing that a culture should not be measured by how it compares to other existing cultures. Instead, cultural relativism teaches that cultures should be examined within their own contexts and that researchers should maintain respect for diversity while actively seeking to eliminate personal bias.

Garcia uses the term descansos repeatedly in the work. This Spanish word means “resting place,” but it has a nuanced meaning. For some, the term refers to roadside crosses that mark the spot where a loved one died in a car accident. For others, descansos describe any marker of loss, and they hold spiritual significance for the Latinx community in New Mexico. Descansos appear in The Pastoral Clinic as informal memorials for people who died of overdoses.

When researchers operate from an insider point of view, this is called an emic perspective. Researchers adopt this approach to gain a more comprehensive and personal insight into people’s experiences and thoughts. Garcia adopts an emic perspective when she takes a job at the Nuevo Día clinic, and her lens is also emic because she grew up in the region.

In contrast to the emic perspective, the etic perspective describes an outsider’s point of view of a culture. Etic perspectives use approaches to research that emphasize categorization and generalization. These broad understandings of a culture may be applied to many different cultures at one time.

Ethnography is a qualitative method of research in social sciences that dives deeply into the culture of a particular group or community. The researcher accomplishes this by becoming fully immersed in the culture to observe and interact with subjects. Autoethnography is a subset of ethnography in which the researcher incorporates self-reflection and personal narration to report on their work.

Garcia refers repeatedly to the land grants of New Mexico and the subsequent stripping of those grants from Hispanic communities. During the Spanish Colonial Period, the Spanish government issued land grants to encourage the region’s development. They utilized two types of grants: individual grants for families and communal grants for common lands for farming. When Mexico became independent in the 19th century, further grants were offered to continue development. After the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, New Mexico became a US territory. The treaty offered a commitment to protect existing land grants. However, repeated legal challenges resulted in land grants being stripped. By 1930, the 2 million acres once allotted for communal land grants had declined to 300,000. Garcia argues that the grief over this land dispossession, a type of generational trauma, contributes to the prevalence of heroin addiction.

The term “pastoral” evokes an idyllic rural landscape, often associated with the care of livestock such as sheep. Pastoral approaches to the arts often emphasize the romantic qualities of a landscape. Garcia explains that the pastoral qualities of the Española Valley and New Mexico have been thoroughly explored in art and literature while ignoring the complexity of the history of the land.

Garcia uses the term “patient-prisoner” to describe the unique experiences of individuals who endure the drug court system. Their mandatory participation in this system leaves them in a type of institutional limbo, occupying the role of both patient and prisoner. At the clinic, they undergo therapy and medical treatment and are encouraged to reflect on their pasts. However, these patients recognize that what faces them outside the clinic is not a chance for transformational change. Instead, they will return to the same home and community that supported their drug use in the first place or face prison, where drug culture is rampant and recovery is not a priority.

The term “qualitative” describes a type of research that involves the subjective interpretation of human experiences and behaviors. This differs from quantitative research, which focuses on the use of numerical data sets. Qualitative research utilizes rich descriptions and contextual understanding to explore topics.

Phenomenology is a philosophical and qualitative research approach to understanding humans’ individual experiences as they perceive them. Originally developed by philosopher Edmund Husserl, phenomenology is interested in uncovering how people interpret and understand their own experiences.

This colloquial Spanish term describes an individual who has an addiction to heroin and/or other hard drugs. While the word carries heavy social stigma and can often be used derogatorily, Garcia explores the cultural implications of the word and how it is used among individuals where heroin use is highly prevalent. She notes that the noun is masculine and that there is no feminine form, perpetuating the idea that addiction only affects men.