This presentation describes a community-based study on how Mexican women in Merced County use metaphors in their breast cancer survivorship narratives. Metaphors are central to how experiences are conceptualized and can reveal how cultural values are expressed. In our interviews with breast cancer survivors, we explore how Latina’s cultural beliefs influence how the disease is represented, including the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. Unlike war metaphors, common in English, as in “my battle against cancer,” these women use metaphors more connected to spirituality, as in “God walked me through this.” Participants attribute agency to God instead of themselves in their cancer treatment and outcome using these metaphors. We contend that familiarity with these cultural differences is vital to understanding the disease from a patient's perspective, thus working toward effective healthcare communication and creating an inclusive environment.

Dalia Magaña (Ph.D., Spanish Linguistics University of California, Davis) is an Associate Professor of Spanish Linguistics at the University of California, Merced. Her research focuses on improving healthcare communication with Spanish speakers and developing intentional language pedagogy. Her studies, published in journals including, Applied Linguistics, Discourse & Communication, Health Communication, raise awareness about the role of interpersonal language in improving healthcare communication with local communities of Spanish speakers. Her first book, “Building Confianza: Empowering Latinx Patients Through Transcultural Interactions” (2021), argues that effective doctor–patient communication in Spanish requires practitioners who have transcultural knowledge of Latinos’ values and sociolinguistic awareness of their language use.