Right away, I was captured by Garcia’s ethnographic writing; even with limited descriptions, she manages to create vivid imagery that revealed her connection to the work and even made me feel connected to her work myself. In the introduction, she refers to the importance of “writing with care,” and I imagine that this was especially difficult (as she demonstrates with her example of the photographs included in her article about an addicted couple) because of how interconnected the town she worked in is. How do we, as ethnographers, ensure the privacy of our subjects while also preserving the integrity of the work? Garcia’s work seems to highlight just how difficult and unclear this can be.
Her work further calls attention to the role of the ethnographer, and how that role affects one’s research. For instance, Garcia reflects on a conversation she had with a fellow researcher who expressed serious frustration with her inability to create trust with the local community; however, she said that Garcia would be able to build this trust rather easily because she “was one of them” (27). This made me think of my own role in my research. As an outsider, I may be able to bring a new perspective to the subject, but I do find that I must rely more heavily on networking and community connections. I am not an indigenous language speaker from Latin America nor even Latina, and at times, I find that my place as “outsider” does create moments of discomfort and, more than anything, confusion for “subjects.” I would have been interested to hear more of her thoughts on her role as very much an insider (but perhaps an outsider as well in terms of her non-heroin use). Garcia also briefly points out the dichotomy of “observation” and “work” in her ethnographic research. In being asked to work at the Nuevo Día clinic and showing some hesitation, the executive director of the clinic, Andrés, asked “whether I wanted to “observe” or whether I wanted to “work.” I understood this distinction between “observation” and “work” as a call for me to make myself useful, to take on the condition of what I wanted to study—to get my hands dirty” (29). I think this is another interesting point of discussion. Ethnography encourages participatory observation; however, I do find it incredibly difficult to complete both tasks at once. In participating as a worker in the clinic, did the distractions of working long hours and daily work tasks get in the way of her observations? Was she always able to take detailed field notes after her 13 hour graveyard shifts? I think Garcia’s ethnographic work spotlights many interesting challenges as well as assets of ethnography that are clear in just these two chapters alone.