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Serving the community since 1968, the El Paso Center for Diabetes recently unveiled ‘Synthesis’ a new mural located at The Outlet Shoppes at El Paso that seeks to bring awareness to diabetes.

According to the Center’s website, it is estimated that 9.4 percent of the United States’ population suffers from diabetes, and El Paso is the sixth largest city in Texas where diabetes prevails at 16 percent among adults.

While symptoms for type 1 diabetes can be very sudden, type 2 diabetes symptoms can develop gradually. For this reason, Sandra Gonzalez, Executive Director of the Center, encourages members of the community to get tested -- even when not showing any symptoms.

“One thing I will say is that the people that we see are getting younger and younger,” Gonzalez said. “People believe it is just our seniors but no, they’re starting from the age of 30. You must think about getting tested, take that risk test to find out and prevent anything else.”

The American Diabetes Association estimates that a person diagnosed with diabetes could spend more than $16,000 per year. According to Gonzalez, El Pasoans can get A1C tests for free and sometimes through grants, patients may receive free and low-cost treatment provided by the local Center.

“All the money that is raised -anything that comes here -- stays here in El Paso. So, it doesn’t go to research, it doesn’t go anywhere else. That’s how we are able to do our kid’s camp for free, that’s how we’re able to do our glucose and A1C tests for free,” Gonzalez said. “We’re here to serve you. We’re not here to judge you if your numbers are high. We’re here to walk this journey with you.”

With diabetes on the rise in the community, the organization seeks to bring awareness through art. The organization recently unveiled ‘Synthesis,’ a mural in collaboration with local artist Cesar Inostroza, that seeks to inform the community through images rather than words.

In bright colors, the mural details the iconic views of the desert, a young girl, a man during a soccer match, and a Native American at the center of the piece.

“We selected this art because if you look at it, it’s everybody in our community. You saw type 1 and type 2 diabetes, our Hispanic and white people, and our Ysleta del Sur Pueblo people,” Gonzalez said. “Cesar took it to that point that it was everybody. He did his homework and noted that diabetes is everybody. That’s why we selected him.”

Inostroza, who started his career as an artist at 16, currently has different murals throughout the city including some of the paintings under the I-10 near the Spaghetti Bowl.

For this mural, Inostroza said it was a process of reconsidering the way food is processed nowadays and the impact on the body.

“I started doing research. If you look at all that processed food, it wasn’t always that way. If you look at our ancestors all around the world and where we come from, they hunted, gathered, and preserved their food in a healthy way,” Inostroza said. “Maybe, instead we need to look back at our roots, and take a little bit more of those traditions. Not necessarily hunting, but maybe by educating yourself and others to not eat all the junk that is so bad for us.”

According to Inostroza, the purpose of the mural is to speak for itself, and with only a few seconds, people can interpret the meaning of the piece without having to stand in front of the artwork for hours.

“The first sketches of what I did looked like a brochure, but I wanted to deviate from that.

At the same time, I said, ‘Okay, there’s going to be a lot of people walking in and out. They’re not going to have a lot of time to sit here and just stare at it, right?’ So, I wanted to do something that, at a glance, you should get it,” Inostroza said.

Regular visits to your primary care physician is important. In a published study by the National Institute of Health, research suggests that most people avoid regular checkups for a few reasons including, embarrassment at having their body being examined, fear of having a serious illness, or because it makes them think of dying.

“Medical stuff can sometimes scare people to the point where we don’t even go in for checkups. I wanted to do something friendlier, and I think that that’s why it was important for me to approach it as I did,” Inostroza said. “I was a little bit concerned when I submitted the proposal, because it

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wasn’t too medical and they could’ve not gone for it, but I think that’s why they did (choose it), because it wasn’t.”

Coming from a Latino background, Inostroza said that the food culture plays a huge role in his inspiration for the mural. He hopes that just in the way people upgrade phones, a shift in food culture could be upgraded to be healthier.

“With Mexican culture, the tacos and tamales are great delicious food, but during the holiday season, and then every year, we later encounter health problems. Think of this digital era, we are transferring from gas powered cars to solar or energy cars, to smart homes and so on,” Inostroza said. “Our diets however are still the same and getting worse and I feel we need to transition to something more sustainable.”