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A Clear Message Regarding Colorectal Cancer: Prevention is Key

Communities Work Together Towards Colorectal Cancer Prevention

LA-Artist Project Highlights Work of LA’s Chicano Artists

Championing Hispanic Higher Education Success

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A Clear Message Regarding Colorectal Cancer: Prevention is Key

Denver, Colorado. (ConCienciaNews) - It is not a coincidence that most health conditions that disproportionately affect the Latino community in the United States are the result of the lack of prevention, including language barriers, lack of health insurance and access to basic information, there are many reasons why Hispanics do not undergo screening testing in time.

In the case of colorectal cancer, the situation becomes especially critical. Screening tests are aimed at senior populations, where there is a particular resistance among male Hispanics.
“Many times [the lack of prevention] is due to cultural factors, especially in men,” said Rodolfo Cardenas, journalist and spokesperson of the campaign Cancer affects all us, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “They often say ‘I do not need such things’.”

Such ‘things’ refer in particular to the three different types of screening tests for colorectal cancer, from which the most popular is perhaps the colonoscopy, which consists in the exploration of the intestines.

However, Cardenas believes that his credibility as a journalist in Denver community and personal experience may have a positive impact on Hispanic men. Born in Tachira, in Western Venezuela, Cardenas has lived the same experiences of many immigrants who come with temporary plans, but eventually decide to stay.

“I would love to change their minds and teach them that prevention is very important,” Cardenas said. “I am also a man, I am a Latino, I live in the U.S. and I am at that age in which we all must undergo testing and take care of ourselves. If I do this, why others cannot do it as well?
Although he has been very lucky since no one in his family has suffered from the disease, Cardenas has closely seen the effects of cancer on very of his closest friends.

“All these situations really touched me, ‘if I can do something, I will do it,’ and here is the opportunity, fortunately,” he said.

He is not trying to overcome the taboos in Latino community regarding cancer and colonoscopy, a test he underwent, Cardenas’s message goes beyond and covers future generations.

“We must do it for ourselves and our family’s well-being. I want to take care of myself because of my children. My father did it for me - although I was already a grown-up and independent man when my father died-; I still miss him every day.

This is a gift he wants to pass on to future generations.

“Although my two sons are grown up now, I feel they need me more every day,” Cardenas said. “I take care of myself for my family, so take care for yours,” he concluded.
To access information and resources of the campaign El Cancer nos Afecta a Todos, call the Acceso Hispano help line at 1-800-473-3003

Source: ConCienciaNews

Communities Work Together Towards Colorectal Cancer Prevention

Denver, Colorado. (ConCienciaNews) – For Luis Barrera, communications director at Avanza supermarkets in Denver, to offer good products to Hispanic families is as important as providing them with tools that contribute to their well-being and that of their communities.

That’s why, this month, Barrera is lending space at the Denver supermarket for three volunteers to set up a table with computers and internet access. The goal? To inform and educate Avanza’s consumers in Denver about colorectal cancer risks and how to prevent them.

This initiative is part of El Cancer nos Afecta a Todos, a campaign funded by the CDC, which has the goal to prevent colorectal cancer, the third most commonly diagnosed type of cancer among Hispanics.

From teaching them how to use the internet to accessing cancer-related information and where to go to obtain health resources and get a colonoscopy, health Promotoras are working directly with adults 50 and older throughout Denver Latino communities.

“People have been excited about this because the information is first-hand,” Barrera said. “The response has been great because people are always worried about their health.”

This is a concern that, according to Barrera, businesses should neither ignore, nor underestimate. As a Mexican immigrant committed to social causes, Barrera understands that making business should also go hand-to-hand with social responsibility.

“It’s not just about setting up a store and that’s it,” he said. “It’s also about interacting with the consumers and being part of their community.”

Barrera has been part of such initiatives even before his arrival in the United States seven years ago. In his native Mexico, he helped create projects that contributed to higher accessibility of cancer medications, the construction of a hospital and general assistance for kids with leukemia.

Once in the United States, Latino immigrants develop risk factors that make them more vulnerable to certain diseases, such as cancer. According to the CDC, 41 percent of Mexican American adults between 50 and 83 years old admitted in a 2003 study to never having any sort of colorectal cancer detection test; just a few of them admitted having some sort of accurate knowledge of the disease; and 41 percent said they had had discussed detection with their doctors at some point.

Although general barriers that lead to the abovementioned situation include lack of information, lack of health insurance and language barriers, Latinos are also underrepresented among the medical communities through clinical trials; regardless of being the fastest-growing segment of the US population.

The medical community suggests over and over that a change in eating habits and a sedentary lifestyle may play a detrimental role in Hispanics’ propensity to cancer.  For this reason, besides adopting a healthy diet and exercising regularly, the CDC urges adults 50 and older –or those with a family medical history of colorectal cancer—to get tested for colorectal cancer.

Doing so can save many lives.

For information and resources regarding the El Cancer nos Afecta a Todos campaign, call our helpline at 1-800-473-3003

LA-Artist Project Highlights Work of LA’s Chicano Artists

The newly launched LA-Artist Documentary Project is dedicated to people working creatively in and around Los Angeles. This ongoing, collaborative project aims to document LA’s artistic diversity by producing a range of informative films alongside an online archive of ArtCards that bring voice to the city’s varied and eclectic creative framework.

LA-Artist Executive Producer Sofia Rose Smith has made a unique point to cover Chicano artists working in greater Los Angeles.

Read her portrait of painter Raphael Matias, pictured left, by clicking here.

Also, make sure to check out Director Oliver Shipley’s film that inspired the initiation of the LA-Artist project. “Murals of Boyle Heights”, below, chronicles community members’ perspectives of what murals mean to the past, present, and future of the historic East Los Angeles neighborhood of Boyle Heights.

Championing Hispanic Higher Education Success

October 31, 2009

to

November 2, 2009

HACU’s 23rd annual conference.  For more info visit HACU’s webpage.