Explores the survival strategies of poor, HIV-positive Puerto Rican women by asking four key questions: Given their limited resources, how did they manage an illness as serious as HIV/AIDS? Did they look for alternatives to conventional medical treatment? Did the challenges they faced deprive them of self-determination, or could they help themselves and each other? What can we learn from these resourceful women?

List of Figures and Tables
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
1. Torn between Structure and Agency
2. Resourceful Women
3. Unpacking Newark's Epidemic
4. Understanding HIV
5. Managing Social Services
6. Working the Clinics
7. Taking Care of Yourself
8. Learning from Resourceful Women
Epilogue: Sorrows and Joys
Reference List
Index
About the Author

SABRINA MARIE CHASE is a medical anthropologist specializing in family medicine and racial and ethnic health care disparities. She is a health care researcher at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.