Latinos live longer, despite poverty

8602417859?profile=originalCelia Aguilar wears a long, loosely fitted white dress with touches of red embroidery and red bandanas tied around her head and waist. The 29-year-old Chicana dances alongside men wearing large, feathered headdresses, the seashells on their ankles rattling. Here in El Paso, Texas, they gather in a ritual of Danza Azteca, an Aztec dance preserved in Mexican culture.

“For me it is a form of spiritual healing,” she says. “A way to connect with my indigenous roots as well as preserve ancient traditions. It’s a form of prayer and ceremony that really helps me cope with all of the things that I face in my life.”

Author Claudia Kolker took a closer look at such cultural practices for her 2011 book, "The Immigrant Advantage." Her book examines why immigrants are often healthier than native-born Americans — a question that continues to be explored. Some credit this perplexing phenomenon to the idea that immigrants must be healthy to migrate. READ MORE AT PRI

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