EDITORIALFirst of all, we would like to thank you for your con-tinued support of this magazine.

Now if you some of you remember, a couple of months back we said on our website that we prob-ably not be coming out with another edition of the magazine. Well...surprise!

One of the reasons why we decided to do another edition of the magazine was to give something else to our readers. We understand that articles online can only do so much. They can only reach so many people. With an online edition of our magazine we hope to capture more readers than before, but at the same time keeping our current readers happy.

In this edition you can expect to find many interest-ing articles, along with some health tips that pro-mote a healthy lifestyle.

We invite you to send in your comments and sug-gestions on topics you would like us to publish in upcoming editions. We would also like to invite you to visit our website www.valorhispanoonline.com and our Facebook and Twitter accounts.

We hope you enjoy this edition of Valor Hispano Magazine.

We send our best wishes to you and look forward to your interest in our future editions.

Dear Readers,

Written, Edited & De-signed byChristopher Valverdecvalverde@valorhispanoonline.com

For Additional Infor-mation Regarding Magazine, persons can email:news@valorhispanoonline.com

Copyright 2014Valor Hispano reserves all rights. Published articles may not be used without permission from Valor His-pano. The publication is not responsible for the content of advertising or typographi-cal errors.

EL PASO • CD. JUÁREZ • LAS CRUCES EDITION NO. 33

VALOR HISPANO IS A FREE

PUBLICATION 100,000EDITIONS

W W W . V A L O R H I S P A N O O N L I N E . C O M03

Valor Hispano Staff

F A C E B O O K . C O M / V A L O R H I S P A N O

T W I T T E R . C O M / V A L O R H I S P A N O

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Editor’s note: This article was originally pub-lished in October 2013, on our webiste. We felt this article is important to share in this magazine edition because of the content that is discussed. A Spanish verision of this article is also available on the magazine’s website.

The NFL, the National Football League, is the most recognizable sport in America. Its championship game, the Super Bowl, is con-sistently the most watched watch program each year. Merchandise sales are through the roof. Thirty teams out of the thirty-two teams in the league are listed in Forbes 50 most valuable franchise for this year. Kids play the game so they can be like just or better than their idols.

All of this leads to the most popular sport in the country. However, everything isn’t so happy go lucky for the NFL. The league is in the middle of a crisis. A concussion crisis…a crisis that could potentially lead to signifi-cant injuries to the head and brain regions. But the problem with this crisis is that it

could have been prevented some years ago.

The Frontline documentary titled ‘League of Denial’ dives into the concussion crisis the league is involved and how shoddy research has put the league behind years to mount evidence to a possible conclusion.

The documentary begins with a profile of former Steeler great, center Mike Webster. A veteran of the league for 16 years, suffered from memory loss and head injuries after he retired. Webster sometimes even slept in his car, when he was finally able to fall asleep. He had a tough time completing thoughts because of the various hits he took during his time in the league. He passed away at the age of 50.

But before he passed away, he decided to sue the league because of the injuries sus-tained during the time he played. He went before the retirement board with doctors saying he received brain damage because of the violent sport. A NFL doctor concurred with the other doctor’s findings. Webster

Concussion Crisisin the NFL?

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was awarded $1.142 million but no one knew exactly what would be found when his brain would be examined during the au-topsy.

Dr. Bennet Omalu was assigned to do the autopsy on Webster. Omalu says he was shocked by two things when examining the body. One, the body of Webster did not look of a man who was 50 but of someone who was much older. And second, the brain surprisingly was that of someone of 50. It puzzled Omalu, made him curious. And his curiosity is what would lead him into a fight he thought he would never be involved it.

Super sports again, Leigh Steinberg, who the movie Jerry Maguire is based on, has seen his share of his representatives suf-fer from concussions. During the 1994 NFC Championship game, Dallas Cowboys quar-terback Troy Aikman suffered a concussion when he took a knee to the head from a San Francisco 49er defender. He ended up spending the night in the hospital not being able to remember much from the game he was knocked out of.

Here is a piece of the conversation that Steinberg and Aikman had at the hospital that night:

He looked at me and he said, “Leigh, where am I?” And I said, “Well, you’re in the hos-pital.” And he said, ‘Well, why am I here?’ And I said, “because you suffered a concus-sion today.” And he said, “Well, who did we play?” And I said, “The 49ers.” And he said, “Did we win?” “Yes, you won.” “Did I play well?” “Yes, you played well.” “And so what’s that mean?” “It means you’re going to the Super Bowl.”

In addition to Aikman’s injury, one of Stein-berg’s clients suffered an even more dev-astating injury. In 1999, 49er quarterback Steve Young suffered his 7th concussion. And it would turn out to be the last one and last down he would play in the NFL.

Concussions have always been a part of

the game. Forces and helmets hitting each other on every play are common. But one question was that if concussions could cause long term effects to the head and brain?

When examining the brain of Mike Webster, Dr. Omalu found traces of CTE, chronic trau-matic encephalopathy. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy is a progressive degenera-tive disease of the brain found in athletes (and others) with a history of repetitive brain trauma, including symptomatic concussions as well as asymptomatic subconcussive hits to the head, according to Boston University’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Encepha-lopathy.

Naturally Dr. Omalu thought the NFL would be interested in this information but that was far from the truth. Omalu even exam-ined another brain, a former teammate of Webster, Terry Long. The same results of CTE were found in Long’s brain but the NFL was not interesting in the results.

The commissioner of the league during this time was Paul Tagliabue. Tagliabue had strongly denied concussions were on the rise in the league despite the media report-ing/investigating the opposite. He called it ‘pack journalism’, there was no concussion issue in the league and that the media was making a big deal out of nothing.

However the league had created a commit-tee to research the subject of the injury. The MTBI, Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, was founded in 1994 with Elliot Pellman serving as head. Pellman, the New York Jets head team doctor, concurred with what Tagliabue had stated before that it was not a serious issue for the league; despite Pellman not having a background in neurology.

The committee even went as far as publish-ing papers in 2003 in the medical journal Neurosurgery. The report stated there was no relationship between hitting in football and injury in later life. The report goes on to say they ‘are not serious injuries’, ‘return to play does not involve a significant risk of an

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injury’, ‘there was no evidence of worsening injury of cumulative effects of MTBI’s in NFL players.’

The report adds, ‘it might be safe for col-lege/high school players to be cleared to return to play on the same day as the in-jury.’ As pointed out in the documentary, the committee didn’t study high school or col-lege players when it came to concussions.

Mark Lovell, who was involved with the New York Giants medical team and also served as editor in chief for the journal, admits now there were problems concerning con-cussions but never said anything when the report was published.

Shortly after the publishing of the MTBI’s re-ports, Dr. Omalu submitted his own reports about a pos-sible link be-tween hits sus-tained in the game of foot-ball and long term effects to the brain.

His works were not met with great ac-ceptance by the MTBI. The MTBI said, ‘these state-ments are based on a complete misunder-standing of the relevant literature on chronic traumatic encephalopathy of boxers.’

The committee even doubted that Mike Webster even had CTE and Omalu to retract his report.

In 2006, Paul Tagliabue retired as commis-sioner of the NFL and was succeeded by his right hand man, Roger Goodell. In addition to the change of commissioner, Dr. Ira Cas-son was promoted to the head of the MTBI;

replacing Pellman. Despite the change in guard, Casson sung the same tune as his predecessor.

In New York City in 2007 at NFL headquar-ters, the league held a conference with team doctors and trainers to talk about con-cussions and CTE. The league also invited outside doctors to talk about these condi-tions but one prominent doctor was absent, Dr. Omalu.

However an associate of his was able to present Omalu’s findings to the NFL but the findings presented were not met with broad acceptance. As told on the documen-tary, Ira Casson was in the corner rolling his eyes when Omalu’s research was being presented.

Despite the presence of neurologists at the conference, the league kept on denying any link of CTE in dead football players, said it was only seen boxers and some steeple-chase jockeys, and added they had the problem under control.

Before the start of the 2007-08 season, the league sent out a pamphlet to all players in the league. The pamphlet titled What is a Concussion? answered various questions and concerns regarding head injuries.

One question included in the pamphlet was ‘If I have had more than one concussion, am I at increased risk for another injury?’ The response, ‘Current research with pro-fessional athletes has not shown that having more than one or two concussions leads to permanent problems if each injury is man-aged properly.’

With all this happening in New York City and in the lockers room across the country, over at Boston University a group of researchers tried to build on the findings of Dr. Omalu.

Dr. Ann McKee, Dr. Robert Cantu, Dr. Rob-ert Stern and Chris Nowinski were the group that decided to take on the task of convinc-ing the NFL that CTE was indeed in dead player’s brains.

Nowinski, despite not being a doctor felt an emotion connection to this ongoing crisis in the league. He had played college football at Harvard and wrestled for the World Wres-tling Entertainment (WWE) company. He took his share of bumps and hits to the head while on the field and in the ring. He even admitted he might have CTE in his brain as a result of concussions suffered in both fields. The concussions eventually forced him to retired from playing football and wrestling.

His purpose of the group was to get per-mission from deceased player’s families to donate the brain of the players for research. The group wanted to see if in fact they had the protein called tau in the brain that shows existence of CTE.

One of the first brains McKee examined was the brain of former Tampa Bay player Tom McHale. The brain showed signs of CTE, making his brain the sixth player who had the condition of CTE. The other five brains with CTE in them were all examined by Om-alu.

McKee and Nowinski decided to go public with their findings during Super Bowl week of 2009. McHale’s widow, Lisa McHale, also spoke at the conference about the way her

late husband acted and she believed the findings of McKee cut her husband’s life short. Despite a large media presence for the week, few reporters attended the con-ference.

However the conference did capture the at-tention of the league. McKee and Nowinski were both invited to league headquarters in New York to discuss their findings with Dr. Ira Casson and other team doctors.

The meetings, like others in the past, did nothing. Board members still remained skeptical of McKee and her team’s findings. Many felt she couldn’t provide a direct link between the hits sustained over an NFL ca-reer and CTE. But there were bigger things the league had to deal with on the horizon.

New York Times journalist Alan Schwarz re-ceived an interesting piece of information about a NFL commissioned study regarding retired players and health.

On the bottom of page 32 on table 7.3, there was information titled ‘Memory prob-lems: dementia, Alzheimer’s disease or oth-er memory-related diseases.’ The conclusion was former players seem to have memory related disorders at a higher rate than the regular community.

It made news on the New York Times, but the league denounced its findings once this was made public. But it did however raise awareness among wives and widows of for-mer players.

Eleanor Perfetto, wife of Ralph Wenzel, demanded answers from the league. She showed up to a former players meeting was denied access into the meeting by NFL com-missioner Roger Goodell. He told her the meeting was for former players only and she could not come in. Wenzel suffers from dementia.

With all these findings of the leaked study, the government decided to get involved. Goodell and other NFL representatives ap-

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peared in front of Congress to answer ques-tions about long term effects to the brain.

Not many questions were answered that day. Many of the answers consisted of not being a scientist or doctor as to why former players suffer from memory related disor-ders. One member of Congress compared the league to big tobacco companies in the 90s and their denial of a link to cancer.

A poor showing in front of Congress prompt-ed the league to take action. New guide-lines were issued through the league. Teams could consider a concussion a game ending injury. Casson was out as head of the com-mittee and a new one was established, with two neurosurgeons taking Casson’s place.

But the most intriguing action taken place by the league was the giving of $1 million to Boston University. The center was designat-ed as the preferred brain bank of the NFL.

But the biggest of all, finally an admission by the league…that there is long term con-

sequences in NFL players because of con-cussions. Or as the New York Times put it in a headline in their sport page, ‘NFL acknowl-edges long-term concussion effects.’

By 2010, Boston University had examined 20 brains, 19 of them had signs of CTE. But one brain caught Dr. McKee off guard.The brain of 21 year old Owen Thomas was brought to McKee. The results were

unimaginable. A football player who played at Pennsylvania University, who never had a history of concussions, had CTE in his brain.

Another case of CTE in the brain of an 18 year old who died 10 days af-ter his fourth concussion started to raise concerns about the nature of the game.

Harry Carson, hall of fame linebacker and Su-per Bowl champion, put its best, the body is not meant for football; with all the forces and hits that occur in one game. He adds we should not only worry about regis-tered concussions but the mini concussions that

sometimes occur 10-12 times a game. Par-ents should know that a child could develop a brain injury at any level of the game.

Robert Cantu believes that kids should not play tackle football until the age of 14. His reasoning behind this statement is the brain of kids is much lighter than adults and a simple tap can send the brain moving a lot more versus if it happened to an adult.

With pop warner football being played na-tionwide and kids wanting to emulate their favorite players and the presence of brain injuries, Nowinski believes the NFL helped

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create a danger. As long as the NFL kept de-nying a link between long term brain injuries and football, it gave the notion to parents that they had nothing to worry about when signing up their child to play.

When asked on camera for the documenta-ry, McKee said she wouldn’t allow 8, 10, and 12 year old kids to play football. She adds you only get one brain and it could be dam-aged because of the nature of the game. It could lead to long term effects of memory loss and perhaps CTE.

Critics were quick to say that she shouldn’t jump the gun so fast. They state they still need to learn more about the subject and examine more brains to get a better under-standing. They need to answer this impor-tant question, why does one player get CTE and another doesn’t?

As of the documentary, McKee has examined 46 brains, 45 of them have CTE or 97.8%.

But one brain generated a lot of interest in 2012.

Former San Diego Charger, Miami Dolphin and New England Patriot Junior Seau com-mitted suicide in May 2012. Instantly his brain wanted to be examined by several doctors, including the ones at Boston Uni-versity. However a doctor in the Bay Area was going to get his chance to examine it.

With verbal permission from Seau’s son, Dr. Omalu was ready to take the brain of the linebacker back to his lab, until he was stopped by the NFL. The league told Seau’s family Omalu should not be trusted and that his brain would be examined by doc-tors from the NIH, the National Institutes of Health. After examination, the NIH reported that Seau’s brain contained CTE.

In the wake of Seau’s death, the league went on the offensive. They stated promot-ing a youth safety inititative, the Heads Up Program. In addition they donated $30 mil-lion to the NIH to study sports injuries in-

cluding CTE, joint disease and chronic pain.However the league is backtracking from their statements they had made back in 2009 about a link between football and long term concussions effects.

In a televised interview held the morning of Super Bowl XLVII, Goodell says there is no link of long-term concussion effects in NFL players. He states there is the science still emerging, that they are trying to do long term studies on the subject and figure out if there is a link.

As of right now, the link between CTE and football is uncertain. Despite the forming of the MTBI about 20 years ago, the league contends they are still looking for evidence. It seems the league really wasn’t looking for valuable evidence in the beginning years of the concussion crisis, even though they kept saying they were.

Before the start of this current season, for-mer players sued the league for billions of dollars concerning the concussion crisis. The lawyers for the retired players said the league kept this danger hazard a secret. League lawyers insisted they did nothing wrong, they didn’t mislead them and denied all allegations from the retired players.

At the negotiations table, the players want-ed around $2 billion. The league was only offering peanuts. Finally a settlement was reached. The NFL would pay $765 million to the retired players. However as a part of the settlement, the league admitted no wrong going. ‘No admissions or liability or weak-ness of claims.’

With this settlement, Harry Carson puts it best, ‘I think everyone now has a better sense of what damage you can get from playing football. And I think the NFL has given everyone 765 million reason why you don’t want to play football.’

The 7th Annual Plaza Classic Film Festival

It is hard to believe that the Plaza Classic is going to head into it’s seventh year. It just seems like yesterday that this festival was started and showcasing numerous amounts of films for the public to see.

And just as great as the past film festivals have been, this year’s is prepared to follow its predecessors.

The 2014 Plaza Classic Film Festival, which is ran by the El Paso Community Foundation, will begin on Thursday, August 7th, and run through August 17th.

The festival, which is labled as the world biggest classic film festival, will be showcas-ing over 80 films over an 11 day event pe-riod in El Paso, Texas.

Of course one of the things that attendees look forward to about this film festival is the featured 7pm showing.

Over the past couple of years, the 7pm showing has featured films such as, Star Wars. West Side Story, The Sound of Music, Dirty Harry, among others. And this year’s festival will not disappoint.

Some of the movies that will be featured during this time slot include: The Seven Year Itch, Oklahoma, The Wizard of Oz, Rear Window, Guess Who’s Coming to Din-ner, Crimes of the Heart, A Hard Day’s Night, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The Good The Bad and the Ugly and All the Pres-ident’s Men.

But big name films are not the only ones that are going to be showcased during the week and a half festival. Enter the Local Fla-vor film series.

This film series gives independent and small production film makers a chance to show-case their talents to an audeince who might not get the chance to see their work in a big theater.

Audiences can expect to see about 50 films showed through this film series. And the great thing about the series is that is features films from different genres. There will be indepedent films, international films, short firlms, documentaries and even ani-mated films.

And even though this may be a film festival, the audience can expect more to happen during this event. Event attendees can also expect many guests (actors and directors) to appear during the event.

Some of the notable names that are sched-uled to appear and take part in discussions and question and answer events include: Shirley Jones, Yvette Yates, Robert Wagner, Ryan Piers Willams, Beth Henley and many more.

So no matter if you are an avid film goer, amateur film critic or just looking for some-thing to do with the family and/or your friends during the month of August, the 2014 Plaza Classic Film Festival is surely a way to go.

Currently festival passes and individual tick-ets are on sale right now. And in case you are wondering what the full list and sched-ule of the filrms are, you can check out our website (www.valorhispanoonline.com) for all event showings, times and locations.

And if you would like additional information about the festival itself, you can visit their website, www.plazaclassic.com.

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Well they don’t call it the Sun City for noth-ing. Last week the city of El Paso saw record breaking temperatures and that only means that summer is here. And during this time of year a lot of people decide to exercise. But the hot temperatures should not discourage people from moving their exercise routine indoors.

Here are some helpful tips for those who are or are planning on exercising during the summer months.

The first tip we have is to pay attention to the part of the day you are going to exer-cise. Usually the high temperature of the day is experienced sometime around 3 or 4 in the afternoon. So consider exercising in the morning, anytime before 10 am, or in the early evening, usually starting around 7pm.

No matter what part of the day you plan on exercising you should also stay hydrated. It is recommended that you drink at least a glass of water before you start exercising. You should also take a bottle of water with you while outside. Take a drink of water

about every 15 minutes or so. And when you are done with your routine be sure to drink some more glasses of water.

During the time you are exercising outdoors pay attention to what your body is saying. The heat can take a lot out of you, espe-cially during the first couple of days of the season. Your body is not used to this sort of heat yet. So let your body get use to the hot temperature. Start out slow in your exercise routine and increase it gradually over the next couple of weeks. Also if you feel faint or dizzy, stop immediately.

Also dress the part when exercising. Do not wear colors that are dark or clothing that is heavy. Your body should be able to breathe when you are exercising. So be sure to wear light colored, lightweight and loose clothing (fabric such as cotton should do the job).

And lastly don’t forget the sunscreen. You do not want your skin to sunburned while you are outside.

Summer Exercise Tips

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As some of you may have seen on our so-cial media pages, we select one article a day to be our ‘Health article of the day!’ But we all know that there are plenty of articles or even websites for that matter that we aren’t able to showcase all the time.

So we have compiled a list of the our top five health websites to help our audience out. The way we selected these websites was based on content, variety of selection on the website and trustworthiness of web-site and writers. We do hope that you enjoy our selections.

1. WebMDOne of the biggest reason why WebMD is on our list is because of it’s symptom checker. If you aren’t sure what you might have or that pain is...all you have to do is put it into the symptom checker and it will give you some options as to what you might be experienc-ing. In addition, many of the articles posted on the website include interesting facts for your daily life and how to be healthier.

2. Health.comThis website has countless articles that can help just about anyone. Some of their most helpful articles deal with workouts and health recipes. Perhaps the best thing about

both of these types of articles are they are simple and the workouts can be done at home. No need to go to gym for them.

3. Health.govThis website provides helpful resources for questions about health questions. Since this website is coordinated by the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, you will be sure to have update information about health news in the country.

4. Yahoo! HealthI would like to say that is website is a cross between WebMD and Health.com. The web-site gives you informative information, along with interesting article to live a healthier life. One of the best things about this website is that it features health blogs that are up-dated frequently.

5. Mayo ClinicYou need research, health information, some health education or anything else; well the Mayo Clinic got it. There really isn’t much more to say about this website that it’s got an encyclopedia of information when it comes to health.

Our Top 5 Health Websites

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Many novels or short stories draw on ex-perience from their writers. Some use past relationships or problems in their work. In other instances, some based their work on their family background. Then others use their location/where they lived as a source of inspiration.

The Feria is a romance novel written by Julia Bade that was released earlier this month through Soul Mate Publishing. The novel is based here in the El Paso-Juarez region.

“My book takes place in the El Paso-Juarez area because this is where I grew up, and to me it’s a magical place. In my youth I spent a lot of time on both sides of the border, and have a special place in my heart for both places,” Bade said.

Here is a blurb about Bade’s novel:

Opening in 1941, The Feria is a stunning tale

of two countries, where we find Soledad, a smart, educated young Mexican-American with big plans. She and her family, how-ever, begin facing the economic pressures inflicted by a nation readying for war. To ensure her family’s survival and continued success, her father tears her away from her true love, a Feria worker named Xavier, and forces her into a marriage with a reputable banker, meant to save her family’s agricul-tural fortune.

Her heart forever belongs to Xavier, and the only way she has tolerated her miser-able marriage is the fact that she and Xavier made a beautiful daughter together that she has secretly and successfully passed off as her husband’s for several years. But her carefully concealed secrets begin to collapse when her daughter meets and falls in love, unknowingly, with a boy who could possibly be her half-brother, Xavier’s son, and Sole-dad once again finds herself in the irresist-

Book Review: The Feria

ible presence of her eternal love.

The challenge of putting everything back together and resisting the desire and love she has for Xavier, presents itself in a dar-ing love story dancing on both sides of the border, intricately written around Mexican and American cultures, love, and the great uncertainty that comes with it.

But of course any novel cannot be simply written just in a matter of minutes.

She said her writing process included late nights, music, and a worn and tattered note-book where she had all her outlines,notes and vocabulary words that she likes to employ; as well as a list of publishers who would be a good fit with her books.

“I wrote The Feria in about a month. It’s 50,000 words, and I only wrote one draft. The idea was very solid in my mind and I just needed to get the framework on paper and then work around it with the details and connecting scenes.”

After the writing and editing processes, which is she said was the hardest, comes the part that readers get the message that she is trying to covey.

“I hope that people get a sense of pride in their cultural heritage, and even if they are not of Mexican heritage, I hope they can appreciate the beauty of a new culture. I

hope people will enjoy my book, and I hope they will enjoy the roller coaster of emotions I put into this love story,” she said.

Even though this is her first published book, she has written sev-

eral novels and short stories over the past couple of years. She also has other works on submission right now with publishers.

Currently she is working on a novella called What Follows Sorrow, which is about a young successful couple who find their big-gest challenges in trying to start a family, and learn that through the sadness of mis-carriages and health complications, that they must stay united, and together, they can get through anything.

In addition she is almost finished writing a Young Adult novel called The War of As-traea, that is based on Greek Mythology, an-gels of light and darkness, a war that joins the Titans and the Olympians and love.

A part from being a romance writer, Bade is a busy wife and mom in El Paso, Texas.She is an adjunct faculty member at El Paso Community College, a freelance writer, a University of Texas at El Paso Alumni and former UTEP cheerleader.

Her novel, an e-book, is available at the publisher’s web site, Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

For more information about Bade, she can be found at www.juliabade.com and www.juliabadewrites.wordpress.com. You can also contact her at juliabadewrites@hotmail.com.

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It feels like a whip. Represents a stabbing pain that may result from the deterioration of the lumbar discs, which compress the sci-atic nerve, or due to excessive tension of the muscles of the buttocks. Besides anal-gesics and physiotherapy, there are home remedies that can help.

Consume foods rich in vitamin B12 and vita-min (B1). Neuralgia often have their cause in deficit B vitamins if that’s the case, you should increase the consumption of bread, pasta or brown rice, wheat germ, nuts, le-gumes and green leafy vegetables.

Take vitamin C. Study links mutation in a specific gene (the COL9A2), which controls the production of collagen, with the dete-rioration of the lumbar discs causing com-pression of the sciatic nerve. Vitamin C is essential to form collagen.

Definitely, do not smoke. Smokers are more likely to suffer from sciatica and degenera-tive diseases of the spine. The snuff de-creases blood flow to the bone, reducing the mineral content of the vertebrae and causes bone chemical environment is much more

acidic.

Stretch the piriformis muscle. It is located inside each buttock. To stretch, lying on your back on the floor, lift the right knee and left shoulder holding it near the instep. Hold the tension 30 seconds.

Press the buttocks. You must find the center of the dimple located on each side of the buttocks. Then press the two sides together and vigorously for 15 seconds (the pressure points are located at a fairly deep).

Empty your pockets. A bulging wallet in his pocket, at the height of the hip, putting pressure on the sciatic nerve.

Ask for help from your partner. Lie down on the ground. Lift your leg and bend the knee until it flush with the waist. Ask your partner to keep you knee close to the ground as you lift the ankle.

Supports calves. Lie on the floor in front of a chair and support the back of the legs on the seat, at least for 20 seconds several times a day.

How To Relieve

Pain

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Well summer is starting to wind down here in the city. In a couple of weeks, the kids will be heading back to school and it will be usuall routine for families. But just because it will be ‘back to normal’ for these families, that does not mean you should not be get-ting out and being active.

There are plenty of things that can be done even though school will be back in session. In fact it might even better. Parents will not have to worry about keeping the kids busy during the day and won’t have to deal with the hot temperatures of the afternoon hours.

If you have having trouble figuring out ways to keep you and the kids acting during these times, one place to check out is the El Paso Parks and Recreation website.

They have numerous youth leagues posted on their website for each season of the year. Some of the sports they currently have go-ing on right now include: baseball, softball, volleyball and soccer.

In addition, all of the recreation centers in town several services for us to stay active. One of the service offered are open gyms. If you feel like shooting some baskets or want to run a couple of pick up games with your friends. And in case you are into lifting or just want to get those muscles toned, each of the centers has a fitness room for those toning needs.

And who said that being active is for those you are young. There are nine senior cen-ters throughout the city that offered a vari-ety of articles for those who are still young at heart.

So if you are looking to get out and do some physical activity, the parks and recreation website is the perfect place to start looking.

For detials on hours and locations of the rec-reation centers here in town, visit the parks and recreation website.

Get Out, Be Active

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One of the great things about living in El Paso is that the city is near so many oth-er cities, towns and villages. It gives us a chance to experience something different that we are not normally used to.

There is Ruidoso, White Sands, Mesilla, Las Cruces and many more. And since they are nearby, you do not have to worry about breaking the bank. You can easily make day trips out of them.

One of those places that you and your fam-ily can make a day trip out of is Carlsbad Caverns.

Carlsbad Caverns is located in south-central New Mexico, near the Guadalupe Mountain range and the Premian Basin. It is about 150 miles east of El Paso and only takes about two and half hours to get there.

The national park covers around 47,000 acres, with 33,000 of those acres designated wilderness. The visitors center is located at 4,406 feet above sea level. As of July 2012, there are 118 known caves.

Even though there are over 100 known caves within the national park, only so many

of them are available to the public to see.

The Lechuguilla Cave, which is 1604.2 feet deep and 136 miles long, is limited to re-search and exploration, but you have to have skilled technical ability to enter the cave.

The Carlsbad Cavern, which is developed for public touring, is about 30 miles long and is the largest, readily accessible cave chamber in North America.

Two other caves worth noting are the Spider Cave and the Slaughter Canyon Cave. Both of these caves are less than 5 miles long but adventure tours are offered to those people who want to see more of the national park.

On average about 400,000 people visit the national park each year. And since the year 1923, the park has seen over 41 million peo-ple walk through the caverns.

And with so many people walking through the caverns, it is very likely that they saw some of the many animals that roam around the area.

According to their website, there are 67 spe-

how AboutA Day Trip

To Carlsbad Caverns?

19

cies of mammals that live within the cav-erns. In addition to that there 357 species of birds, 17 different types of bats and 54 spcies of amphibians and reptiles.

Out of the different species of animals that visitors might see, the common one are the bats. In fact there is a program dedicated to letting visitors see the birds fly near the sunset hours of the day.

These bat flight programs are scheduled from Memorial Day weekend through the month of October. And the great thing about seeing the bats is that there is no charge. However visitors are not permitted to use any type of electronic device. These devices can include cameras, tablets, mp3 players and other music players and cell phones.

So now that you know about some of the more interesting facts about the national park, a question that is often asked is what options do I have to explore the park? Well you will have two options. You can either take a self-guided cave tour or take a rang-er-guided cave tour.

Self-guided cave tour are probably the most popular among visitors to the park. It allows them to go at their own pace throughout the park and gives them a chance to see every-thing they want in the Natural Entrance and Big Room areas with no time limitations.

If you do go the route of a self-guided tour it is important to know that the cave can get cool inside. It is suggested that you

bring a light jacket or sweater. Also think about bringing some comfortable shoes to wear. You will be walking for some miles.

However if you are thinking of going the adventous route, then a ranger-guided tour is the way to go. There are many different tours that are offered throughout the day. Each tour does have its own difficulty, so might want to visit the park’s website to see which is best for you.

The national park is open year round and only closes for three days during the year, Thanskgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Years Day.

The hours of the park can vary throughout the year. During the summer (around late May to early September), the visitor cen-ter is open from 8am to 7pm. The Natural Entrance closes at 4pm each day. The last elevator into the cave is at 5pm and the last elevator out of the cace is at 6:30pm.

For the second part of the year, the visitor center opens at 8am and closes at 5pm. The latest hike-in time through the Natural Entrance is at 2pm. The last elevator into the cave goes down at 3:30pm and the last elevator out of the cave occurs at 4:30pm.

Entrance fees for self-guided tours is $10 for anyone 16 and older. Anyone younger is free. Each of the self-guided tour tickets are good for three days and included the ‘Bat Flight’ for free. Also there are several days

throughout the year where there is free entrance to the park (self-guide tours only). Ranger-guided tour fees vary on the type of tour you choose.

So the next time you are thinking of something to do with family on the weekend, consider going to Carls-bad Caverns for the day. It is a de-cision you will be glad you made.

For more information regarding the national park, you can visit their website: www.nps.gov/cave.

20

Everyone has a personal taste in music. We even have our own definition of what “good music”. And because of this it prevents us from listening to other genres and musical ideas that other people listen to. What for them is good music for us may not be and vice versa.

That is because we close ourselves to listen to new ideas even unknowingly hearing may be to our liking and not give us the oppor-tunity to meet and appreciate. In the music world there is a wide range of music styles. And usually each style tends to have its own audience.

One of the great things about being His-panic is that you are a part of the Latino community. Not only do we get to experi-ence music from the United States, music but Mexico and the rest of the Latin America region.

It is a priceless gift to appreciate the music of Juan Gabriel, Alejandra Guzman and while enjoying the countless amount of artists here in the states.

Who knew that being Hispanic could open the door to all music that is out there in the world today. It allows you to really appreciate every type of genre, especially since music is con-statnly evolving.

So what we are saying is not to close yourself to the different types of music that are out there. Give yourself a chance to hear what others artists from different regions or coun-tries have to offer. Also take the opportunity to listen to music in other languages . Gradu-ally you will find that different types of musi-cal styles and genres will feed your soul, mind and heart.

Don’t Be Blind To

Music

21

When you think about good health, the heart always comes to mind. Afterall your overall health is based on how we care for the heart. We have to understand that every day your heart is affected by the different things you do to it. The foods we eat and the exercise we do or not do affect the way it functions.

The heart is the basic and foremost func-tion in our body. It helps pump blood to guide oxygen to tissues and helps remove any waste products within the human body. Caring for your heart reduces the risk for the various disease that can affect this vital organ.

The heart can be the cause of pain and in a matter of seconds, take you life away. In fact many fear that heart infarction is the cause of more deaths of women worldwide.

The reduction of blood supply to the dif-ferent hemispheres can cause stroke. And do not think that stroke happens to older people. In fact can happen to anyone, even

those at an early age.

The heart is essential for the body to contin-ue beating over the course of our lives. But we can do things to prevent disease in our heart. Today more people are overweight.

Consider following these prevention mea-sures to help you not only live a healthy life-style but to ensure that your heart is func-tioning properly.

Prevention Measures• Do not smoke• Monitor body mass index• Try not to overdo it on the salt• Choose a diet containing fruits, vegeta-bles, and fish.• Keep your body healthy by exercise (daily if possible).• See a doctor at least twice annually to as-sess your health status.

Love YourHeart

EVENTSOF EL PASO, NEW MEXICO AND CD. JUÁREZ

Damon WayonsWhen:

August 22, 2014 Where:

Abraham Chavez Theatrewww.ticketmaster.com

Fiesta de las FloresWhen:

August 29-31, 2014 Where:

El Paso County Coliseumwww. fiestadelasflores.org

Sun City Music Festival

When: August 30-31, 2014

Where: Ascarate Park

www. suncitymusicfestival.com

BunburyWhen:

September 10, 2014 Where:

Plaza Theatrewww.ticketmaster.com

Disney Junior Live on Tour

When: September 12-14, 2014

Where: Abraham Chavez Theatre

www.ticketmaster.com

One DirectionWhen:

September 16, 2014 Where:

Sun Bowl Stadiumwww.ticketmaster.com

Marc AnthonyWhen:

September 25, 2014 Where:

El Paso County Coliseumwww.ticketmaster.com

La LeyWhen:

October 23, 2014 Where:

Don Haskins Centerwww.ticketmaster.com

Bill EngvallWhen:

October 4, 2014 Where:

Inn of the Mountain Godswww.ticketmaster.com

22www.valorhispanoonline.com