Latina Survivors Savor a Decade of Living in Technicolor

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In 2004, 26 Latina breast cancer survivors from South Texas shared their stories to inspire hope, comfort, and resiliency in a bilingual booklet called Nuestras Historias.

Today, many of the survivors have new, heart-warming stories to tell about how Latinas can survive cancer and thrive in the workplace, school, home, and family on the 10th anniversary of the booklet, which was produced by Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez of the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio and her Redes En Acción Latino cancer research network funded by the National Cancer Institute.

They vivacious survivors have been living in “technicolor,” you might say.

Indeed, check out a new story, “Latina Survivors Savor a Decade of Living in Technicolor,” on Pages 12-15 of the UT Health Science Center’s Mission Magazine.

The magazine features Julie La Fuente Louviere, Bea Vasquez, Tanya DelValle, and Sylvia Beilstein.

“The fight [against breast cancer] is a hard one, but we are going to fight and not be afraid,” Vasquez said in the magazine. “And if it comes back, we are going to fight with even more power.”

Also visit the Nuestras Historias booklet website, which has new then-and-now photos, write-ups and videos of more than a dozen of the survivors.

“We really want to share these Latinas’ incredible stories,” Ramirez said. “They make it clear that breast cancer isn’t a death sentence; surviving is possible with awareness, screening, and early detection.”