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Nearly one out of five Mexican American children residing in the San Joaquin Valley in 2007 had an asthma attack at some point in their life; a rate much higher than would be expected based on national and international statistics. Compared to other ethnic groups and Latino sub-groups, Mexican-American children reportedly have the lowest rates of pediatric asthma. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Ethnographic research conducted in the San Joaquin Valley identified some underlying problems and suggests otherwise. This interdisciplinary exploratory study combined anthropological and public health methods to examine asthma disparities, social suffering and environmental policy in the San Joaquin Valley; an area known for its agricultural produce, large Mexican migrant farmworker population, extreme poverty, and poor air quality. The San Joaquin Valley is comprised of eight counties; seven of which are rural. By combining in-depth qualitative interviewing with photovoice methods, we hope to explicate how asthma disparities are affecting both US and Mexican born children of Mexican decent, as well as address Valet et al’s assertion that “the rural experience with asthma in the United States is insufficiently studied”. 6 The project both challenges the current pediatric asthma disparities paradigm as described by Gold et al. 7 and contributes to Canino et al’s 3 conceptual framework of pediatric asthma disparities. Many Valley residents believe that their concerns about the relationship between pediatric asthma and environmental stress are being ignored. A great deal of the asthma education and research is currently being targeted to urban communities, ethnic …