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ANNOUNCER: Millions know her simply as Soraya. At 34, she's a talented singer/songwriter, popular with legions of Hispanic and Latino fans and now gaining international recognition.
SORAYA: My uncle was playing these Colombian songs, these typical Colombian songs, and I just fell in love. I was hypnotized, mesmerized by his voice, by his dad's voice, by the harmonies and everything. I asked my dad for a guitar and started playing.
I'm self-taught, a self-taught guitarist. Then I studied classical violin. That I did learn. And just started song writing. Once I discovered poetry, there was no turning back. I knew that I could put the two worlds together.
ANNOUNCER: What most fans never knew was that some of Soraya's music was inspired by personal tragedy in her own life. Soraya had lost her aunt, grandmother and her mother all to breast cancer.
SORAYA: I made it a point to go to the doctor's visits with my mom. I made it a point to do some research with her. I made it a point to go to The Race for the Cure and be proactive in those sort of things.
ANNOUNCER: Yet Soraya's awareness was not typical for the Hispanic and Latino community.
SORAYA: My parents are from Colombia, but my Mom didn't grow up with Race for The Cure. She didn't grow up with pink ribbons. She didn't grow up with commercials on TV from a car dealership reminding you to go get a mammogram.
ANNOUNCER: In fact only about 40% of Hispanic and Latina women have regular mammograms, and doctors think this may explain the poor survival rate in this community.
AMELIE RAMIREZ, Dr.P.H.: Breast cancer is the leading cause of death among Hispanic women within the area of cancer, and its an area that we're very concerned about. Hispanic women are coming in at a much later stage when they are diagnosed with breast cancer. They put off coming in for early detection and screening and so when they do come in at this later state, the tumors are much larger and are very difficult to treat.
ANNOUNCER: Then, three years ago, Soraya found a lump in her breast during a breast self exam. Like the women in her family, she had breast cancer.
SORAYA: I was only one week into the promotion of the record, so that was a big shock for my career. Professionally. But really the career didn't matter at that point. It was just getting through it, figuring out what I had to do, how to stay focused, how to stay strong, where to pull that strength from.
ANNOUNCER: Soraya made the difficult decision to go public with her disease. And it wasn't long before she became a new voice in breast cancer activism for her community.
AMELIE RAMIREZ, Dr.P.H.: We need great public figures, you know to come out and give the message and say, "Don't be afraid. You can come in for a screening. You can combat cancer if you're diagnosed with it." We really need that positive message. It hasn't gotten out there. Right now the stigma is "If I have cancer, I'm going to die and so therefore I'd rather not know it."
One of the major obstacles to getting our Latina women to come in for screening is really education and helping them understand the importance of coming in for screening.
SORAYA: I said: "Okay you want my interview? Fine. I'll give you an interview, but you have to print information for those women that are reading it, because they're going to have questions and don't make them search anymore." And the press just was incredible. They were wanting to talk about it and just hadn't able to.
ANNOUNCER: Experts like Dr. Ramirez hoped that Soraya's story would help dispel years of misconceptions about breast cancer.
AMELIE RAMIREZ, Dr.P.H.: Some of the myths that you hear around there is that if you have a bruise on your breast that what will lead to breast cancer. Some people think that going in for too many mammograms will lead to breast cancer. These are some of the more kind of prevalent ones that are out there. They feel if they talk about it it's more likely to happen and we need to break through that.
ANNOUNCER: Women also needed to be informed about the realities of a mammogram.
AMELIE RAMIREZ, Dr.P.H.: Some women have said: "It's like a tortilla press you know? Just put my breast in there and they squeeze it in." So they have some misinterpretation of what it is, and so some of the educational programs that we're trying to do is say: "Yea, it might hurt for a few seconds worth a lifetime."
ANNOUNCER: Long held cultural beliefs also keep women from seeing their doctors.
SORAYA: It's so complicated. You have social reasons. Breasts are maternal, they're sexual, you don't talk about things like that. You know it's not easy to talk to a doctor about these issues. It's very private. It's something you do at home.
AMELIE RAMIREZ, Dr.P.H.: Sometimes they've been brought up with a culture that you can't touch yourself and so therefore they're less likely to do the breast self-exam. They're also, if they don't have a same-sex physician to do the clinical breast exam, oftentimes they are reluctant to have it done.
ANNOUNCER: Another factor in Latina and Hispanic attitudes towards breast cancer has involved lack of financial resources.
SORAYA: We don't have the health insurance in place. They can't afford it. They're busy putting food on the table.
ANNOUNCER: Having a public figure like Soraya share her story is seen as an invaluable way to spread the message.
SORAYA: "I feel that basing our identity on our appearance is dangerous because we are so much more."
AMELIE RAMIREZ, Dr.P.H.: We need women like Soraya who are young and vivacious and who have just a great message to tell, you know Hispanic women, young women in particular, because everybody is frightened about coming in and being screened for cancer and we need to get beyond that. You know we need to say " This is a household word. You can talk about it to your mother, your aunts, your sisters and get everybody to come in for screening."
SORAYA: We have to educate in a non-confrontational way. We have to educate according to the culture.
ANNOUNCER: It's hoped that having Soraya share her story will inspire younger women to encourage others to get screened.
AMELIE RAMIREZ, Dr.P.H.: Young women can help their older moms, grandparents come in for screening because sometimes the older women say " I don't need it. I'm beyond that." But we do know that breast cancer is a disease of older women as well.
ANNOUNCER: Now in remission, Soraya continues to sing and continues to inspire Latina and Hispanic women with her message.
SORAYA: I met a woman in Santa Ana, California a little while ago who was terrified of going to the doctor because she lost her mom, she lost her aunt, she lost a sister, she lost her grandma. She's terrified about going to the doctor. And I told her "You know, 'How long ago did you lose your mom?' And she said 'About 15 years ago.' And I said 'Do you know how far we've come in 15 years?' We actually have chemos, chemotherapies that are specific for breast cancer. We're on the verge of getting a vaccine for certain types of breast cancer. We've come a long way. It's not the same treatment that it was 15 years ago. Have the hope that those advances will help you because not knowing is worse than knowing and having something to do about it.
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