ROCHESTER, N.Y. — At the Memorial Art Gallery’s 31st annual Hispanic Heritage celebration, bright colors, rhythmic beats, and rich traditions filled the halls. Yet amidst the music, dancing and festivities, community leaders urged families to protect the most essential element of those traditions: their health.
Connecting attendees with vital healthcare resources, event organizers brought local wellness organizations directly into the gallery spaces.
“They are all organizations that our community knows,” event guest programmer Rose Mary Villarrubia-Izzo said. “And maybe some new people to the community don’t know. So we bring them here to showcase them as well.”
The urgency behind combining cultural celebration with health outreach follows recent data from the American Heart Association. New reports reveal that cardiovascular disease has officially surpassed cancer as the leading cause of death among Hispanic adults in the United States. AHA says – “Although Hispanic people represent nearly one in five U.S. residents, they remain underrepresented in the research that shapes prevention and treatment strategies for cardiovascular care. Additionally, they face many unique health challenges influenced by language, culture, access to care and social conditions.”
For attendees like local resident Elias Maldonado, participating in the event was about celebrating heritage while protecting every beat of life. Maldonado shared his own experience with the warning signs of cardiovascular disease.
“It was starting to creep on me, and I was feeling the discomfort,” Maldonado said. “And, when it came down to it, I had a 90% clogged artery, and my cardiologist told me.”
For health advocates who have long been fighting cancer in underserved communities, this shift isn’t a cue to step back, but a call for unified action.
“In the Latino community and in the community of people of color, often it is a taboo,” cancer resource advocate Maria Delgado Sutton said. “It’s very important when you have events like this for the community that you be present, because it’s really hard to have a meeting or to have an event and not have someone of the culture at the table.”
Maldonado’s diagnosis mirrors a staggering national trend — a reality that community advocates hope to address by making health education and outreach a cornerstone of local cultural traditions.
“Lo and behold, I came out victorious and, you know, healthy after,” Maldonado said. “But I’ll be honest with you, if you can avoid it. Always do all of your checkups and your doctors to tell you need to do bloodwork and everything. So like that, you don’t have to go through some of these fears that some people, as myself, have gone through in the past.”
The American Heart Association says the organization is working to advance culturally responsive care, support bilingual health education and expand its Hispanic representation in research.
Source: spectrumlocalnews.com
