Latino friends join Alzheimer's study, tackle 'cultural' issue - USATODAY.com: Jose Maria Burruel was born in his grandmother's home, a tent that sat between a ditch and a drainage canal on the outskirts of Phoenix. He says the family was fortunate to find a black physician to help with the birth. At that time, he says, local white doctors wouldn't deliver Latino babies.Now, at 84, the retired educator says he is helping improve medical care for other Latinos by participating in an Alzheimer's study at nearby Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center. He's encouraging friends to do the same.
"We all have an obligation to contribute to the betterment of generations to come," says Burruel, a great-grandfather and World War II veteran.
For more than a decade, Burruel, his wife, Frances, and friends from his old neighborhood high school, Phoenix Union, have been gathering at local restaurant Bit-zee Mama's for comfort foods and company. The group of roughly 100 affectionately calls itself "El Grupo."
