Many might remember Tony Plana from his many acting roles from “Feo” in the film “Born in East L.A.” to playing America Ferrera’s dad in the sitcom “Ugly Betty,” but many might not know his other passion is sharing his wisdom with youth.
The 62-year-old Cuban-American actor attributes all of his success to his education, and he says he wants to pay it forward.
For nearly two decades, Plana has been working hard to create educational programming for schools in underserved middle and high schools in the greater Los Angeles area. His East L.A. Classic Theatre program, which integrates acting within school curriculums have proven successful, because it engages students to become avid learners – it connects them emotionally to the school experience. He says young immigrant children, who have trouble speaking because of fear, to troubled runaways, have found a purpose and have learned to thrive because of being exposed to theater.
“Theater teaches you to collaborate and identify with a group – to create and realize something together,” says Plana. “The wonderful feeling of creating something together and sharing it – it’s very powerful…I started East L.A. Classic Theatre in 1995, because I wanted to become part of the solution…I want to take East L.A. nationally, because [education] is a national problem.”
The experienced father of two and educator of many, says it’s all about connections when it comes to educating youth, and it starts in the home.
“Latino children experience more regression than any other group, because it’s environmental – many are very poor and that’s not conducive to intellectual stimulation,” says Plana, who encourages role-playing with parents in school curriculums. “It’s important to educate the parents about this problem.”
He says he’s also created a program through East L.A. called “Creciendo Juntos” to empower parents with information.
“You have to get involved in finding out who your kids are and what they need,” says Plana, who home-schooled his own children – whether biological, educational, whatever those needs are. “We teach them not to do things for their children, but to make them learn, and parents to become learners themselves. You teach by modeling. Become more educated so you can make more money and raise standard of living. Show your kids how important education is.”
Currently living with his wife in NYC, Plana also spends time advocating for other causes when he’s not acting. Most recently, he’s a spokesperson for a non-profit called TECHO, which brings volunteers and low-income families in Latin America together to combat poverty.
Traditionally, family meals have represented much more than just communal eating—they’re a time for good conversation and genuine family bonding.
Unfortunately, today, many meals are consumed at stoplights or in front of the computer—alone. Solitary dining has become more and more common as busy families are finding it challenging to carve out time for family meals, particularly when all adult family members work outside of the home.
A 2014 study found that the majority of American households eat meals together less than five days a week. A 2013 Harris Poll found that among Americans who live with at least one family member, only 58 percent report eating with others at least four times a week, but 86 percent report sitting down to a dinner together at least once a week. The poll also found that the frequency of family dinners is declining with each generation.
Although solitary meals are occurring on a regular basis now, recent research suggests they are not contributing to you or your children’s well-being. Families that make an effort to eat meals together, at least three or four times a week, enjoy significant benefits for their health, happiness, and relationships.
For example, kids who eat meals with their families enjoy healthier eating patterns and less obesity. Research shows that children who share family meals, three or more times a week, are more likely to be in a healthy weight range and make better food choices. They’re more likely to eat healthy foods and less likely to eat unhealthy ones. They are also less likely to develop eating disorders.
Interestingly, a Cornell University study found that families (both adults and children) who eat dinner in their kitchen, or dining rooms, have significantly lower BMIs (body mass index) than families who eat elsewhere. For boys, remaining at the table until everyone is finished eating was also associated with a lower BMI.
There is also something to be said about the importance of family rituals, and routines, for children’s emotional health.
For example, teens who eat with their families at least five times a week are 40 percent more likely to get A’s and B’s in school than their peers who don’t share family meals. They’re also 42 percent less likely to drink alcohol, 59 percent less likely to smoke cigarettes, 66 percent less likely to try marijuana, and tend to be less depressed.
Other research shows that with each additional family dinner, adolescents have: higher self-esteem and life satisfaction, more trusting and helpful behaviors toward others and better relationships with their parents, better vocabulary and academic performance, lower teen pregnancy rates and truancy, and increased resilience to stress.
In order for family meals to occur, you must make them a priority.
If you’re looking for ideas on how to corral your family into eating more meals together, The Family Dinner Project provides some helpful and creative tips.
One of my favorite sayings is: “If you fail to plan, then you are planning to fail,” and this certainly applies here.
Making it possible for your family to eat together means not only shopping ahead of time so you have the food to prepare, but also selecting a time that works for everyone—whenever that may be. Just be creative and make your mealtimes as regular, stress-free and as enjoyable as possible!
Dr. Josefina Monasterio is a certified life coach, fitness expert, and nutritional counselor based in Vero Beach, Florida. She holds a PhD in Adult Personal Development from Nova University and a Master’s Degree in Education from Boston University. Dr. Josefina is also a certified Yoga Therapist from the World Yoga Society of Calcutta, India, and host of Healthy Power TV’s “The Dr. Josefina Way.”
Nereo López in Queens, New York. (Courtesy Facebook)
Nereo López isn’t a typical 92-year-old; he’s more like a typical young, starry-eyed artist who wakes up at noon and gets inspiration from everything around him. His small frame is overpowered by his bright blue eyes anxiously anticipating what is about to come next in his life. López has not only rediscovered his art, he has gotten a second chance at a successful career and fulfillment.
The Cruz de Boyacá winning photographer — one of the highest honors in Colombia — who had traveled the world taking photos, giving nearly 20 exhibitions, and published more than 10 works, saw his career plummet 12 years ago. The man who met Gabriel García Márquez and Pope Paul IV had his center, the Nereo Center of Teaching and Culture of Photography in Bogota, Colombia, shut down due to lack of funds. He says after the age of 40, in Colombia, it is very hard to find work because you’re considered too antiquated.
López says he was having thoughts of ending his life when a friend called from New York. She heard the distress in his voice about not being able to find a job, and how he was feeling depressed, so she bought him a ticket to the city that never sleeps — arriving the next day — to see if he’d like it better. He says he didn’t just like it better, he found another reason to keep living.
“As soon as I arrived, I ran to all the photo galleries,” says López, describing his eagerness like a kid in an amusement park.
The title of his photo book published last year, called “Nereo López: Un Contador de Historias,” describes what he is precisely — a storyteller. He says there was a time he used to have 14 cameras of different sizes to tell his stories. Now, he just uses one to make his life simpler and lighter — a compact Canon G9.
“Photography still fascinates me,” says the man who one day started observing the faces of people leaving the subway and started a series of photos of just that. “What I have learned is to see.”
The talented López wasn’t always a photographer. He lost both parents at age 11, and started working when he was a teenager in a movie theater in Colombia, where he was promoted to manager after 10 years.
“It was World War II, and you couldn’t travel in a plane with a camera during that time,” says López, explaining how his photography career began. “A friend asked me to watch his camera while he went on a trip, and I started to practice with his camera.”
He says he learned on his own with a book and a correspondence course that he never finished, and he was always asking questions.
“I started taking photos in a series — like a movie,” he says. Still today, he says he’s always thinking in series — perhaps because of the many years of films he’s seen in the movie theater where he worked. “I always have my photos in my head, and I figure out what series they will go in later.”
When he was 27, he quit his movie house job, and started working as a photojournalist at one of Colombia’s largest newspapers, El Espectador. That is when he says he started to travel all over Colombia and started his photo collection for the book, “Colombia: Que Lindo Eres”/”Colombia: How Beautiful You Are.”
“The subjects I most gravitated towards were children,” says Lopez who also has a series called, “Niños Que No Rien”/“Children Who Don’t Laugh.” “Perhaps because I didn’t really have a real childhood.”
In 1957, he became a chief photographer of the photographer’s magazine, Cromos, in Colombia. He says he was a photojournalist for 15 years before he started his center of photography where he taught up to 100 students at a time.
Since he’s been in New York City, he has not wasted any of his precious minutes. He’s been recognized by the New York City Council and has shown his work at the Queens Museum and El Museo del Barrio.
“It hasn’t been easy, because I don’t speak English,” says López in his native Spanish.
He says he’s happy to not have to develop photos the old-fashioned way anymore. He’s well-equipped in his new one-bedroom apartment, in a building for the elderly, with bare white walls lined with varied books, including “Macs for Dummies.” The centerpiece of his living room is a shiny new 27-inch Mac computer, complete with scanner and printer. He explains he loves his craft even more now with modern technology.
“For me, paper is obsolete,” he exclaims, laughing.
One of the highlights of his week is going to a senior center in Queens, NY. Even though he moved to a different neighborhood, he still goes on Tuesdays, because that’s the day the seniors dance after lunch.
“To see these seniors dance and have fun is life,” he says, joking that no one is older than him. “They have a desire to live. I take photos demonstrating their desire to live.”
He says he would like to publish a book of these photos called ”La Primavera del Ocaso”/“The Spring of the Sunset,” but he’ll only do it if it can have that name. He also started making goals for himself again — to be featured in a large museum such as, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and to live in Spain and Paris one day.
“When I came to New York, I said to my friend, ‘I came to New York too late,” says López, eager to start on a new project with some young artists he’s encountered. “My friend responded, ‘You never arrive too late to New York, you just came with less time,’ but I hope to live 100 years more…I haven’t arrived to where I wanted to arrive, but I’m on my way.”
López says when he came to the U.S. and obtained his residency, and citizenship five years ago, he saw a new horizon.
“When one sees a horizon, one sees life,” says the photographer with never-ending vision. “Here is where I’ll stay.”
This article was originally published on NBCLatino.com on January 10, 2013.
Beth Farren, 70, continues living her life doing what she loves most – nursing, teaching, and fitting in the time to play tennis.
Originally from Chicago, she has lived in Dallas for the past 33 years, where she volunteers as a nurse practitioner at a nearby clinic, teaches nursing online at Texas Tech, and sits on the board of the North Texas Nurse Practitioners – where she helps raise money for social causes.
“I have lovely days,” says Farren, in her kind, soft voice. “Some days, I diagnose and treat women’s health – pelvic exams, breast exams, pulmonary exams…I also work in the neurology clinic and dermatology clinic. Both have specialty doctors, and I’m their nurse.”
Farren says she started teaching way before she became a nurse practitioner – a career which requires advanced coursework and clinical education beyond that required of a registered nurse.
After getting her bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Farren says she started to think about getting a masters.
“The new dean of the nursing program called me and asked me if I wanted to come teach,” she remembers. “I told her I only had a bachelor’s degree, but she told me they didn’t have enough people with master’s degree, so she was asking those with bachelor’s degrees to do clinical teaching.”
So Farren made an arrangement with her then husband where he helped with their little boys in the morning.
“I started, and I loved it,” says Farren about her first teaching experience. “I taught for them for 10 years.”
During her time in Tennessee, she also worked with women who didn’t have access to prenatal care.
“They were just learning about premature births at that time,” says Farren who took a course in working with premature babies. “I learned that some babies would not have been premature if the mom had just had good prenatal care. I began to be passionate about it.”
So while working on her master’s, she decided she was more interested in prevention and taking care of patients that would benefit from education.
“I mentally left the hospital and pursued courses,” says Farren. “Nowadays, practitioners have a great variety of roles, but when I became a nurse practitioner, we worked outside of the hospitals trying to prevent people from going to the hospital.”
After earning her master’s degree, she moved to Texas for a job opportunity, and there she also earned her doctorate degree.
“I always volunteered one night a week, when my boys were older, at the free clinic,” says Farren. “I’m nothing special. They were just opportunities I had.”
Some of those opportunities included going to Poland and Romania, who were moving away from communism, to teach standards of practice; as well as working at a Cuban refugee camp in Wisconsin one summer.
“In the early ‘80s, Fidel Castro let a bunch of people from psychiatric facilities in Cuba come to America, and all these people showed up in Miami on boats and rafts, and the Army started taking them to different bases to try and take care of them,” says Farren. “The fort I was in was considered a family camp with a lot of pregnant women and children…a number of my patients told me they had been in prison, and I strongly believe a lot of them were political prisoners.”
Perhaps the most impactful moment of her long career, she says, was the moment she thought she might lose her son.
“About 15 years ago, my son had a very serious emergency, and I wound up taking him down to the county hospital here in Dallas,” recounts Farren about her son’s gastric bleed. “One of my students was in the emergency room. She looked up and saw me, and said, ‘Dr. Farren, I’m going to take care of this.’ I realized in that moment that I was able to tell her how much blood he’d lost, and she was able to believe me, because she knew who I was.”
The next day, she says another one of her students took care of him.
“It’s just one of the most humbling things,” says Farren about the whole experience. “I had just done my job to teach these girls, and there they were when I needed them. It wasn’t anything special I did – just the rhythms of life.”
She says her piece of advice to the younger generation is:
“Remember to do what you love, and trust that it will all be ok,” says Farren. “We all worry so much, thinking, ‘Can I make a living doing this?’ ‘Is it even doable?’ I got my doctorate as a single mom, while I worked full-time and did part-time jobs on the side, and nobody in their right mind told me it was a doable thing, but it was.”
Armando Hinojosa is a proud Texan, born and raised in the southwestern city of Laredo. His family has inhabited the Lone Star State as early as 1755.
He calls himself “a Tejano,” because his father came from Mexico and married his American mother, who was a direct descendant of the founder of Laredo, Don Tomas Sanchez. But perhaps what makes him even more proud, is the fact he dedicates each day to carrying on his late father’s work as an artist – and he does so with love and careful attention to the slightest detail.
With more than 40 years of experience, the 70-year-old has sculpted bronze pieces for Sea World, Boy Scouts of America, as well as the largest monument at any state capitol in the nation – the 11-piece, life-size, Tejano monument in Austin. On September 6, his statue of Gil Steinke will be unveiled. He was the head football coach at A&I University for 22 years and the first to recruit Black and Hispanic players, according to Hinojosa.
Hinojosa working on the Tejano Monument. (Photo/David Hinojosa)
“I love all my projects, and I put my whole heart in each one, but the one that has given me the most respect is the Tejano Monument,” he says. “Three-fourths of the Tejano Monument is made up of Hispanics…We were here before any Anglos were here. We’ve been here for 500 years.”
The energetic Tejano says every project he receives is a new challenge for him. Although, he loves every piece he works on and puts his full attention on each one, he never dwells on the past once he’s done.
“I gotta move on,” he says. “I gotta work for the future now. I’m ready for something new.”
Hinojosa excitedly mentions the Cotulla Convention Center in South Texas has already booked him to make a life-size sculpture of the city’s founder, Joseph Cotulla.
“I do everything in clay,” says the busy sculptor. “You can buy it green, grey, or brown. Then I send it to the foundry where they make a mold…a five foot statue will cost about $30,000 and three months to make, but it’ll last forever.”
He explains it took him 12 years to finish the Tejano Monument, because it took that long to raise the funds.
Ever since graduating college, teaching had been Hinojosa’s primary source of income.
“I married my wife, and we had three kids,” remembers Hinojosa, stating fondly that his wife was an award-winning teacher. “I was a teacher seven or eight years, then I started in the arts.”
After opening up his own gallery and running it for about five years, he says he went back to teaching another 10 years, at the end of which he was hired as Dean of Art for a new arts high school in Laredo.
“I was there for 20 years. I would get up at six in the morning, work in my studio till eight, then go to school,” recounts Hinojosa. “I was never lazy. I was doing both, but when I got the Tejano Monument, I quit and I’ve been doing art since.”
These days he spends his days sculpting, and his nights painting cowboy or Mexican themes, with either watercolors or oils. He says he is often reminded of when he first started his career with his dad.
“He would paint billboards,” says Hinojosa. “My dad would draw the letters, and I would paint the inside….Then I went to high school. While other people had jobs in stores, I was helping my dad paint the signs outside.”
He says his talented dad is still known throughout Laredo by his first name, Geronimo. Years ago, he had been hired to do props for Hollywood, but he didn’t go, because he didn’t know English. Geronimo only had a sixth grade education, but Hinojosa is very grateful for the invaluable lessons he passed down to him.
“Have a dream and stick to it,” Hinojosa says is one of those lessons. “You have to pay your dues. You have to keep at it. When I first started, I didn’t paint or sculpt like I do now. I was born with it, but I also learned from my dad.”
