LHS+ Medical Student History and Heritage of the U.S. Southwest Region

This chapter highlights the unique experiences with access to health care and medical education by LHS+ identified individuals in the U.S. Southwest Region. Since the annexation of the southwest regions’ constitutive states, LHS+ individuals, primarily of Mexican heritage, have endured unique forms of marginalization and discrimination that led to disparities in illness, injuries and deaths in comparison to White individuals. As LHS+ individuals entered the physician workforce, despite academic success, they often faced unique roadblocks in seeking employment. The Chicano movements in the 1960s, in particular students’ demands for educational equity in high schools and colleges in Texas, served as inspiration for medical students to seek similar equity within Southwest medical schools. Over several decades, LHS+ medical students and physicians were able to grow local medical student groups and organize on the regional and national level to ensure LHS+ student specific issues were met.