“Where Are Our Stories?”: On Men’s Mental Health and the Latino Literary Gap

Growing up, conversations about mental health weren’t exactly common in Latino households—especially among men. There was always a silent expectation to push through, tough it out, and never show weakness. As I got older and began exploring my own emotional landscape, I realized just how much silence had shaped my identity—and how much it had stifled my healing.

In recent years, there's been growing awareness about mental health, especially during Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month. Social media, podcasts, and therapy memes have opened doors, but when I went looking for deeper, culturally resonant stories—books written by Latino men, for Latino men—I hit a wall.

Where are our stories?

I searched for nonfiction accounts, memoirs, or even fiction that explored themes of anxiety, depression, grief, trauma, and healing through a Latino lens. The few that exist are powerful, but they’re too few and far between. The absence isn’t because these stories don’t exist—they do. I’ve seen them in my own family. I’ve heard them from friends, from men who carry the weight of migration, poverty, abandonment, and survival. We live with generational wounds passed down like heirlooms—but those stories are rarely found on shelves.

As someone who works with books and mental wellness, I’ve come to understand this gap as both a crisis and a call. Our community deserves more narratives that reflect our experiences. Representation in mental health literature isn’t just about seeing ourselves—it’s about believing that healing is possible for us too.

A Call to Action

To the Latino professionals in the mental health field—therapists, counselors, social workers, researchers, and advocates: your voices are desperately needed. Your clinical insight and lived experiences can help bridge the cultural disconnect so many Latino men feel when seeking support.

Consider writing. Whether it’s a memoir, a guidebook, an anthology, or even a bilingual children’s story that addresses emotional awareness—it matters. You don’t need to have all the answers; you just need to be willing to start the conversation.

To the writers: tell our stories. To the readers: demand our stories. And to those of us navigating this journey: know that healing doesn’t make you weak—it makes you whole.

Let’s build the bookshelf we needed growing up.

If you're a Latino mental health professional interested in writing or collaborating on a project, let’s connect. Let’s fill this gap together—for our fathers, our sons, and all the other Latino men in our lives.