Page A12 • September 26, 2013 • Inland Empire Community Newspapers

CSUSB hosts 15th Annual California NativeAmerican Day celebration, student conference

Nutritionist, radio personality Luz Maria Briseñoto sign books at Barnes & Noble in Redlands More than 1,500 school-

age children will visitCal State San

Bernardino and learn first-handabout California’s Native Americanculture, history and customs as partof the week-long California Cul-tural Awareness Conference to beheld on campus from Sept. 23-27.The conference, which will be ledby Native American leaders andrepresentatives from several tribes,is a prelude to the 15th Annual Cal-ifornia Native American Day onFriday, Sept. 27, at CSUSB. California Native American Daywill feature traditional NorthernCalifornia brush dancers, SouthernCalifornia bird singers, a traditionalNative American theater companyperformance featuring all-agesdance groups from Central andNorthern California, food anddemonstrations of traditional lifeways and knowledge.The celebration, which is hostedby the San Manuel Band of Mis-sion Indians and Cal State SanBernardino, along with the univer-sity’s Cross Cultural Center, is freeand open to the public. Free park-

ing will be available in Lot D.Partners in the event include theSan Bernardino County Superin-tendent of Schools, San ManuelEducation Department, the SanBernardino City Unified SchoolDistrict, the city of San Bernardinoand the California State Depart-ment of Education.Gov. Ronald Reagan officially ac-knowledged the contributions ofCalifornia's Native Americans in1968, when he signed a resolutionproclaiming the fourth Friday ofSeptember as American IndianDay. In 1998, the California Legis-lature passed Assembly Bill 1953,written by then-Assemblyman JoeBaca, establishing Native Ameri-can Day as an official state holiday. For more information on Califor-nia Native American Day , call(909) 537-7204 or visit the Califor-nia Native American Day websiteat www.nativeamericanday.com. For more information on CalState San Bernardino, contact theuniversity’s Office of Public Affairsat (909) 537-5007 and visithttp://news.csusb.edu.

By Cynthia Mendoza

On Saturday, October 5, nu-tritionist, author and radiopersonality Luz Maria

Briseño will be signing two of herbooks at Barnes & Noble in Red-lands. Briseño is a very popularSpanish speaking radio nutritiontalk show host with a passion fornutrition and a passion for sharingthe message of good healthamongst the Latino community.Her radio show, Curvas Peligrosas(Dangerous Curves), airs on Jose97.5 FM locally from 12-1 p.m.daily and 11 a.m. to noon in syndi-cation. Briseño says she is ex-tremely grateful for Entravision,Nestor Rocha and Carl Mayer forthe opportunity to share such animportant message through theirairwaves, which usually only playmusic, no talk radio. The two booksshe’ll be signing at Barnes & Nobleare “Cuerpazo A Cualquier Edad”(A Great Body At Any Age) andLas Herramientas Del Cuerpo(Tools For The Body). “Because of so much sufferingthat results from poor nutrition,Hispanics are ready to change theirnutritional lifestyle,” she says refer-ring to the increase in diseases suchas diabetes, obesity and heart prob-lems amongst many Latinos. “Theynow see for themselves and believethat we are what we eat.” Briseño, who at the age of 28 fellinto a coma due to a pre-heart at-tack she suffered because of verypoor eating habits, is a firm believerthat good nutrition can prevent andin some cases reverse certain con-ditions. “You can change certain parts ofyour DNA in 12 months throughproper nutrition,” she says. “If youeat right, exercise and don’t smokeor drink, you can change somepropensities to theses diseases.” Briseño makes it clear though thatwhile no amount of good nutritioncan totally change all DNA or re-verse impacts of poor nutrition,good nutrition can in fact reverseother impacts or symptoms. “Nutrition is preventive medi-cine,” she emphasizes. “Nutritionslows down the rate of a diseasespreading or lessons symptoms soit won’t keep on advancing.”As someone who at one time atejelly donuts and coffee for break-fast and had banana splits for din-ner on a regular basis, Briseño is nostranger to the bad habits and neg-ative impacts that they cause, suchas ending up in a coma. Nor to theexcuses that she often hears to con-tinue going down the same path, “Idon’t have time” being one of themost common. There also appears to be a verydeep-seated pattern of thinking thatequates time to emotion and exer-

cise to negative emotions dueto the physical discomfort

and pain commonly associated to it. “But if you choose to see the ben-efits of exercise, you’ll do it,” shesays. “And exercise gives you en-ergy and makes you happy. Thediscomfort and pain is only for thefirst ten minutes.” Another common obstacle is thatoften times even people with thebest of intentions, take on way toomuch at once and become discour-

aged,”“Start small,” she says of nutritionand exercise. “Incorporate one newsmall habit every week.”Her message is simple: “It’s timeto exercise and eat right,” she says.“Either you change or you die pre-maturely. If fear and suffering don’tmotivate us to change, nothing willdo it.” While her books and radio showare in Spanish, she is having herbooks translated and she will berecording English language seg-ments for her website. Her websitewill soon be available in English aswell. Briseño will be at Barnes andNoble in Redlands from 1 p.m. to 5p.m. Only guests with receipts fortheir books will be offered a placein line for signing. A percentage ofrelated purchases will be donated tothe AK Smiley Adult Literacy Pro-gram and Lugonia ElementarySchool. The store is located at theCitrus Plaza Shopping Center at27460 Lugonia Ave.For more in-formation, contact Laurie Aldern at909-793-4945, crm2201@bn.com.

Courtesy photo

On Saturday, October 5,Spanish language radionutrition talk show hostLuz Maria Briseño will besigning two of her books atBarnes & Noble in Red-lands. As someone who atone time in her life wasvery ill due to poor nutri-tion, she has a passion forsharing information andencouraging others totake care of their health.