Dr. Melissa Fuster speaks with Dr. William Latimer for BronxNet’s Public Health America series

UNC Press author Dr. Melissa Fuster discusses her book Caribeños at the Table: How Migration, Health, and Race Intersect in New York City with Dr. William Latimer on BronxNet’s Public Health America series. She highlights the importance of social determinants of health among diverse communities in the city. Dr. Fuster also discusses her career trajectory, growing up in Puerto Rico and moving to the United States as a student.

Melissa Fuster thinks expansively about the multiple meanings of comida, food, from something as simple as a meal to something as complex as one’s identity. She listens intently to the voices of New York City residents with Cuban, Dominican, or Puerto Rican backgrounds, as well as to those of the nutritionists and health professionals who serve them. She argues with sensitivity that the migrants’ health depends not only on food culture but also on important structural factors that underlie their access to food, employment, and high-quality healthcare.

Melissa Fuster is associate professor of public health nutrition at Tulane University.