Silent eulogy. Elective mutism in a six-year-old Hispanic girl

A case of elective mutism in a six-year-old Hispanic girl treated in a public mental health setting is presented. The central feature of the case was the facilitation of a delayed grieving process in a little girl who had witnessed her father's death. The presentation stresses the critical need to integrate the unfolding clinical material with the realities of the stresses of parental distress and resistance. An attempt is made to understand this "resistance" in the context of cultural and social realities, while attending to the possible underlying psychodynamic meaning.