Content area	Sample quotations
Beliefs about cancer causes  Injuries	“Some cancers are due to being hit or accidents that the person suffered years ago, and they get some little tumor, some bitty lump…being hit causes cancer, not every time you're hit, it depends on how you're hit and where, that is causes cancer.” (Female)
Negligence/“falta de cuidado”	“How is cancer developed? A wrong step, you get a bruise, you don't take care of that bruise [‘neglected’], and as it grows. It turns into an infection that takes over that toe, but you neglected that toe, you didn't go to the doctor on time, when your toe is already infected…Negligence. The cancer spread in one single moment.” (Male)
	“It's carelessness, we don't go to the doctor and we don't get checked.” (Male)
Food/diet	“The preservatives they put in food give you cancer.” (Female)
	“Even food, the very things you eat. If you eat a lot you get cancer (laughter)” (Female)
Sun exposure	“Skin cancer started directly from the sun's rays and people who expose themselves to the sun a lot and mainly people with a white complexion.” (Female)
Stress	“And stress I think is one of the causes, the same as nutrition. I think the body should get exercise.” (Female)
Smoking/cigarettes	“Cigarettes can produce cancer. Excessive cigarette smoking. There are many things that can, like the latency of the mother can produce cancer. Excess of work, pesticides, the contamination that is in the air today that is completely contaminated. Yes, that produces cancer too.” (Male)
Other (evil eye, self-care body products, etc)	“There is an evil effect that we Latinos call ‘Mal de Ojo’…what is Mal de Ojo? A person who has negative energy…it's a bad influence, something that you have inside…and that also produces illnesses…my little sister when she was little someone put Mal de Ojo on her, there was no doctor who could find out what was wrong…regrettably, she had to go to a witch doctor.” (Male)
	“And also the lotion you put on and they say that spray also causes cancer. (Group: that too). So many things.” (Female)
Perceptions about screening tests	“Prostate cancer is the main one, that after 40, one has to get check-ups for periodically…then colon.” (Male)
Prostate cancer	“That whole thing with the doctor introducing his finger in my anus, no no, that doesn't work brother, I do not accept that.” (Male)
	“There are different tests that can detect cancer, at least in us men…the safest test is the prostate test.” (Male)
Breast cancer	“You have to [get a mammogram] every year.” (Female)
	“Mammograms are painful, even though I was supposed to go in five months, I haven't gone.” (Female)
	“My wife is very strict regarding [mammograms], she never missed an appointment, …it's very important that she gets it because, as the brother here says, cancer is something that can happen in a matter of minutes.” (Male)
Colorectal cancer	“Colonoscopy, it is recommended for men in their 50s. It is recommended to do it to check that you do not have colon cancer.” (Male)
	“Today they've given me every five years because the last time, the doctor told me there are no polyps and everything's fine, thank God.” (Female)
	“It's very good because it helps you if you have cancer they can detect it early” (Female)
Cervical cancer	“The Pap test should be done approximately every year, that is very important for women.” (Male)
	“But yes, the Pap smear is every year. It detects cancer of the uterus.” (Female)
Religious beliefs that promote health  Staying healthy to serve God	“For me spirituality helps a lot when you've grown up in it and within the church community, because you understand Christ's love for every one of us and taking care of our body to be better able to serve Him… He teaches us to love ourselves more, love our body because it is the temple of God, to stop doing a lot of things like smoking, drinking, lots of things.” (Female)
Body is a temple	“The body is the temple of the holy spirit. We know that, and you have to take care of your body.” (Female)
	“They say God does not inhabit a dirty body. He also does not want that we stay sick to inhabit our bodies. He always wants us to be healthy.” (Male)
Scripture	“The Bible talks about going to the doctor. Last year, I had a small accident…and I saw a passage…it talked about listening to the doctor. Immediately, I said, ‘Lord, give me the patience I need because Your Word says I have to listen to the doctor’ and after that I calmed down.” (Female)
Moderation	“It's a sin and as Catholics we cannot do that…We can't give to our bodies… more than what it needs…let's say, you eat your portion of food you want more…don't practice that. If you don't practice gluttony, you're giving health to your body.” (Male)
	“Everything in the Catholic religion has to be measured, not extravagant or extreme, so drinking a little cup, but not getting drunk.” (Male)
Perceptions about role of God in health	“Faith moves mountains. Faith is what heals us. Faith is what serves us. Faith gives us everything. If we don't have faith in something, we don't have faith in the Lord, we are never going to be cured.” (Female)
Healer of the sick	“We all here could have cancer, but if we have faith in God, God takes it away.” (Male)
Giver of health	“… every day that I wake up, every day, thank you God for my health.” (Male)
Helps to cope with illness	“It is not necessarily due to the faith you have you won't get the disease, however if you get the disease, the difference is that you are going to have comfort and you won't have depression because you are trusting in God and you know that He is there.” (Female)
	“Sometimes it's easier for you when you have God with you despite how serious the illness may be, but at least it gives you like that strength …or the hope that ‘I can get out of this’. I mean, like, even though we don't see Him, it's like an invisible force that's there supporting you.” (Female)
Provides conduits to healing (e.g., doctors)	“As a church, we understand that medical science is something that comes from God too, knowledge that God gives to the doctor is inspired by God. The doctor is an instrument of God. We pray for people but we ‘exhort’ going to the doctor. Do you understand? And we believe that the doctor has knowledge inspired by God to help these people.” (Male)
	“God comes first and you have to trust in Him, but we have to go to the doctors.” (Female)
Role of parish leaders in maintaining and promoting health	“We always, as brothers, visit each other, if a brother is not well, or someone knows that there is a neighbor who is not well, we gather and pray, we pray, and we give them the support that they need to get to, wherever he/she is, let's say the hospital or their doctors, because we pray, we only intercede for God's will, not ours….” (Male)
Prayer	“In those times when we go through when they detect cancer in us, when they detect diabetes in us or any other disease, then we turn to our brothers in the community to pray for us, there is a group that prays.” (Female)
Ministry to sick	“All priests go to houses to visit sick people, a group of us goes too.” (Male)
Strategies for health promotion	“Since we have groups for everything in the church, at most it would be a special group to bring all that information just like you brought it us.” (Female)
Health ministry	“One very important thing that hopefully could be achieved through the groups, through the parishes is to give more information on health, on cancer, on diabetes, in other words, to raise awareness. I'd really like the church to do it.” (Female)
	“All of us are willing to take part. It would be, as they say in English, ‘great’ if they made that committee.” (Female)
Interactive activities	“Let's take an example, a talk on preventing cancer, probably if you bring a projector with a cassette, a video, or a movie, people are going to pay attention and they are going to see for themselves. That is, you have to give people the information [in a way] that will grab their attention.” (Female)
Easy to read print materials	“Communication is very important, you have to treat them with care…and give them the information so it can be explained to them in their homes over time and also read it to them.” (Female)
Free or low-cost programs	“Activities should be free and not require documentation because a lot of people are afraid to go to the doctor because they don't have papers. That's the whole reality.” (Female)