Social workers are met with the least humane aspects of humanity. Fighting to protect the rights of children, women, people with disabilities, people of different races and religions, the LGBTQ+ community, truly exposes the ugly underbelly of human behavior. And in no other profession are politics, society and culture quite so inseparable. Equality should be a concern of everyone on this planet. However, human rights violations are more common in some countries than others.
By only studying social services in the context of one culture, I was doing myself a disservice. I was developing a very limited perspective on an inherently global field. Therefore I figured an international internship would bring necessary diversity to the education and professional experience I was already receiving. As I began exploring internship opportunities abroad, I was especially drawn to Latin America for two reasons: I already spoke intermediate Spanish and many Spanish-speaking countries have a negative reputation for breeding “machismo.”
What better place to advocate for equality than in a region that is frequently stereotyped as sexist? Of course, not all stereotypes are accurate, nor are they representative of everyone that makes up a culture, but they