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When Jim Quesada talks about his work as an anthropologist, he doesn't speak about anonymous, faceless individuals. He talks about people like Daniel.
Daniel, who was then 10 years old, and his family were the focus of Quesada's research nearly a decade ago. Living in a squatter's settlement in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, the family symbolized the human face of the Contra War of the 1980s.
By becoming close to Daniel and his family and by living in rural Nicaragua for nearly two years, Quesada was able to examine the effects of "structural violence" as a result of the revolution: the unstable family life, the poor living conditions and the uncertain futures.
As Quesada, an associate professor of anthropology, begins to write a book based on his research on the aftermath of the Sandinista's loss of political power, Daniel still remains a part of the story. After talking with his family recently, Quesada found that Daniel, now 19, sells contraband, such as used household appliances, to make ends meet.
Daniel is an example of how Quesada attempts to show - in vivid detail - the human side of anthropology.
In the aftermath of political turmoil in Nicaragua and uneven economic growth in Latin America, nearly half of all residents in the country still survive on less than $1 a day. "Structural violence can be seen in high infant mortality rates, morbidity, rates of depression, substance abuse, domestic violence and on and on," said Quesada, a medical anthropologist by training.
Quesada, whose mother is Nicaraguan and father is Nicaraguan American, has made five visits to Nicaragua over the last decade for research on his upcoming book The Violence of Shattered Dreams: Nicaragua at the Beginning of the 21st Century.
"Jim is on the cutting edge of research on Nicaragua and its people," said Gary Pahl, chair of the Anthropology Department. "He is a very energetic faculty member who throws 100 percent of himself into his work; he just submerges himself in his work."
But Quesada's work also brings him closer to home. He is finishing up research as a co-principal investigator on an $800,000 study from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to examine HIV risk among homeless heroin users in San Francisco.
After spending many nights with heroin users in homeless encampments and alleyways in San Francisco, Quesada still sees the human side of his subjects. "Because we care about the people that we studied, we wanted to help them as well. We made sure that services were available so they could get tested every six months," he said. "I think it is important to realize that we are studying and working with real people and we should try to do what we can for them."
Quesada, who lives in Pacifica with his family and coaches a youth soccer team, operates in much the same manner whether he is studying day laborers or gang members in the Mission. "I don't believe that we can do our work in an ivory tower and I don't believe you can fully explain the world without getting close to the people whose world you have invaded as a social scientist," he said.
After graduating from Sonoma State with a degree in psychology, Quesada joined Children's Hospital in San Francisco as a mental health worker in its adult day treatment program. He later became assistant director of the Thunderseed Mental Health Program at Children's Hospital.
"My work in San Francisco with mental health programs led me to wonder how culture and events around us affect our mental health. I was more involved with crisis intervention but I wanted to look at how events in a cultural and political context bring us to that point," said Quesada, who earned his master's degree in cultural anthropology from SFSU and his doctorate in medical anthropology jointly awarded from UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley. He joined the SFSU faculty in 1994.
Now Quesada is embarking another project closer to campus and related to his work in Central America. He was instrumental in securing the right from the Committee for Health Rights in the Americas to house the committee's archive of literature, studies and delegation reports at SFSU. Quesada is searching for a site on campus to house the collection. He said the collection is especially valuable because it contains human and health rights literature from Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala during the turbulent times of the 1980s and 1990s.
"This is very exciting because we were chosen over some big names, such as the San Francisco Public Library and UC Berkeley's Bancroft Library," Quesada said. "I think this is an honor that San Francisco State can be quite proud about."
- Ted DeAdwyler
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