Fernanda Garcia is a criminal justice and sociology major at Sacramento State who has faced several mental health challenges while growing up in a Hispanic household.
Prior to attending Sac State, Garcia attended Sonoma State University, a predominantly white school.
“I really went through it because I didn’t feel like I fit in,” Garcia said.
When she would mention to her mom that she hated Sonoma State and how she was feeling depressed and unsure, her mother’s response was “suck it up and get through it,” Garcia said.
For many Hispanic and Latinx students, the ideology that mental health should not be prioritized is instilled from a young age. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), because of this stigma, many Latino households grow up hearing that only “crazy people” receive professional help for mental health issues.
In 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported suicide was the seventh leading cause of death among the Hispanic community. Read more here by Itzel Espinoza.