“We always heal like this”: Illness management and identity expression in Latin American migrants in Spain

The following article seeks to explore and analyze the use of lay and traditional medicines among Latin migrants in Spain, and the way in which these forms of treatment are accompanied by identity discourses and collective representations. The narratives and descriptions presented in this text are the result of ethnographic research on transnational health/illness/care processes, therapeutic itineraries and the overseas reproduction of folk practices from Latin America. In a pluralistic scenario loaded with barriers and structural difficulties, actions of self-care and home-based remedies facilitate problem solving, but also seem to act as a form of affiliation, resistance, negotiation of marginalized identities and an adjustment to people's new social space.