Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Poor Families in America's Health Care Crisis
- 1 The Unrealized Hope of Welfare Reform: Implications for Health Care
- 2 The Health Care Welfare State in America
- 3 The Tattered Health Care Safety Net for Poor Americans
- 4 State Differences in Health Care Policies and Coverage
- 5 Work and Health Insurance: A Tenuous Tie for the Working Poor
- 6 Confronting the System: Minority Group Identity and Powerlessness
- 7 The Nonexistent Safety Net for Parents
- 8 Health Care for All Americans
- References
- Index
4 - State Differences in Health Care Policies and Coverage
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Poor Families in America's Health Care Crisis
- 1 The Unrealized Hope of Welfare Reform: Implications for Health Care
- 2 The Health Care Welfare State in America
- 3 The Tattered Health Care Safety Net for Poor Americans
- 4 State Differences in Health Care Policies and Coverage
- 5 Work and Health Insurance: A Tenuous Tie for the Working Poor
- 6 Confronting the System: Minority Group Identity and Powerlessness
- 7 The Nonexistent Safety Net for Parents
- 8 Health Care for All Americans
- References
- Index
Summary
San Antonio
San Antonio is a very “Mexican” city. Over half of its population is Hispanic, 70 percent of whom are of Mexican origin (Guzmán 2001). Like many other cities in the American Southwest, it sprawls over an immense area, and even in the barrio the presence of many undeveloped areas gives it a feeling of openness. In latitude, the city is North African, and the days are long even in winter. The climate is temperate to hot, and when the rare snow falls, children younger than five or six are usually seeing it for the first time. The city's tourism industry, which is an important source of its income, capitalizes upon its visible Mexican heritage. The city's Mexican heritage can be seen in popular tourist sites such as the Alamo, cultural museums, native marketplaces, and theme parks that focus on Texas history.
Until Texas claimed its independence in the early nineteenth century, it was part of Mexico. The Alamo, an old Spanish mission that occupies a prominent place in the center of town, is known to all Americans as a legend that serves as the shrine of Texas liberty for the Anglo population. For many Mexican-origin Americans, however, it represents something quite different. For them the Mexican victory at the Alamo was short-lived and represents the beginning of an ultimate defeat and the start of a period during which the Mexican population was relegated to the rank of second-class citizens.
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- Poor Families in America's Health Care Crisis , pp. 77 - 100Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006