Tina Loarte-Rodriguez had a vision to uplift and empower Latina nurses by sharing their untold stories.
Her dream came to life with the launch of “Latinas in Nursing” — a collection of the journeys of 15 Latina nurses in different specialties.
The book harnesses stories of adversity and triumph from numerous Hispanic women with backgrounds ranging from doctoral researchers to students and clinically practicing nurses.
The unique journeys within the 184-page book act as a mirror for some readers who share the similar experiences. For others, it opens a window into the perspective of a Latina in STEM, Loarte-Rodriguez says.
With 17 years of nursing experience, Loarte-Rodriguez experienced the highs and lows of the field. But when the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020, she felt “morally injured and mentally exhausted.” While she utilized her community for a sense of comfort and support, she still felt this “big void.”
“I have a great affinity for reading; it really transcends me to safe spaces and places of innovation and optimism. I stood up late one night looking for books about Latina nurses or Latinos in nursing or anything regarding people who look like me and nursing and I didn’t find anything,” she said. “And that is where the dream of creating ‘Latinas in Nursing’ began.”
After deciding to pursue the book concept nearly three years ago, Loarte-Rodriguez spent 2021 researching publishers and connecting with potential Latina contributors from the nursing profession. Once she secured a contract with a Chicago-based and Latina-owned publisher, she then focused her efforts on handpicking 15 local to national contributing authors.
After meeting Kim Kim, a diabetes educator and a student in a doctoral nursing program, who was the president of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses Chapter at the time, the two quickly became friends with Loarte-Rodriguez asking Kim to be the first Latina nurse to contribute her journey to the book.
“I am a Cuban-American nurse and I wanted to share my unique journey where there have been times where I have felt very out of place or not very confident in my own field,” Kim said. “Alongside my own, the stories in this book are really inspiring and show the hardships and allow us to not be isolated.”
In her section of the book, Kim shares a memory of when she was 3 and recalls seeing the patron saint of Cuba from her crib when it was “before the world told me who I was, this was where I was from,” she said.
Kim also recalls the time when her arm was sore from administering 500 vaccines to Hispanic community members when the vaccine first rolled out, but how her heart swelled up from being able to educate and comfort her community who were wary of the vaccine during the pandemic, she says. Kim said she feels proud to be included in the book and that she has been able to empower others and raise awareness. “We can’t erase our roots.”
Several authors courageously detailed their mental health experiences, embracing vulnerability, which Loarte-Rodriguez said is often taboo in her culture. Loarte-Rodriguez was also deliberate with visually representing diversity in Hispanic culture by featuring a darker skinned Latina nurse on the cover. Her intent was to capture the richness within Latina culture and reflect that in the book.
“One of the key pieces to achieve this for me was ensuring that the book cover represented Afro-Latinas and darker skinned Latinas in a lab coat,” she said.
While honoring the past, highlighting the present and outlining necessary change for the future, the book aims to simultaneously give voice to various Latinas in the nursing profession. Kim said that she is happy that this can be a remedy for people.
“The book has a sense of inspiration and energy. Anytime I was feeling discouraged or having a bad day, I look at either the cover of the book or read the contributing authors’ stories and it just reinvigorates me and makes me know that I’m not alone,” Loarte-Rodriguez said.
