ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – When was the last time you checked your blood pressure? It’s just one of the services you can get at the National Hispanic Cultural Center Foundation’s Día de Salud.

“It’s all about health and wellness for the community,” said Melissa Armijo, chief operations officer of the National Hispanic Cultural Center Foundation. 

Armijo help put on the nonprofit’s second annual Día de Salud – Day of Health.

“It’s important just for the community in general, I mean, we’re in a historic neighborhood, Barelas, and there are so many people here who may be untrusting of, you know, big healthcare corporations or hospitals in general. So we want to make this a more friendly space, a space where they can get information and resources, and just not be afraid,” said Armijo. 

In addition to blood pressure and lung screenings, massages, and vaccines, they also had vital sign measurements and glucose testing.

“Vital sign measurements and glucose monitoring is very important to the well-being. A lot of our community doesn’t have resources that they can go to, to get these checks. But we can let them give them some education and point them in the right direction if they have abnormal screening, our massage therapy is very therapeutic. So we’re here to just give back to the community,” said Amber Bueno, program director, of Carrington College. 

Día de Salud also taught the community different ways to make healthy meals.

“Latinos are sometimes not the most healthy eaters. And, we do have a lot of, you know, engraved traditions, and we do have some beautiful food in our traditions. But sometimes the preparation isn’t quite there,” said Armijo. 

Source Functional Nutrition came to show the community how they can make simple, fast healthy meals.

“We really specialize in nutrition, food is medicine. And we’re just here kind of sharing a bunch of our favorite recipes,” said Kevin Arnold, co-owner of Source Functional Nutrition. 

Sometimes healthy food is associated with high costs. So, Arnold and Danielle Arnold emphasized using less ingredients to prioritize healthier ones.

“We try to make everything as minimal ingredients as possible. We do push a little bit more organic when you can. But we do tell people you know, Dirty Dozen, which are the ones that you want to focus on to not get organic. But for the most part, we’ve growing up had been on food stamps. So we know how hard it is to eat healthy. So we want to make sure that we share that with everyone,” said Arnold. 

The National Hispanic Cultural Center Foundation is planning to combine Día de Salud with the Cultural Center’s Día del Niño next year.