A Health Summit for Latinos in Travis County: How Vivir Con Ganas Was Born
September 24, 2025
The first-ever Community Health Expo for Latinos is two years in the making and is scheduled to take place on September 27 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Austin.
When Central Health planners created a vision for the first-ever health expo for Latinos in Travis County, they asked themselves what defined the community.
How do they live?
What are their interests?
What is meaningful to them?
“Moving forward,” said Yesenia Ramos, a co-organizing lead for the health expo.
“Putting your family first,” said Isela Guerra, another co-organizing lead.
Vivir Con Ganas—translated in English to, “live with gusto”—eventually came to embody Latinos in Travis County, Central Health stakeholders believed. Two years of planning later, the organization will unveil its groundbreaking health summit, set to be hosted entirely in Spanish, on September 27, 2025, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel.
Event: Vivir Con Ganas
When: September 27, 2025
Where: Hyatt Regency Hotel – 208 Barton Springs Road
Time: 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. CST
What: Join Central Health for its first-ever Community Health Expo for Latinos in Travis County. The conference, which will be conducted entirely in Spanish, will feature informational panels on cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure, diabetes, and behavioral health, along with a keynote address and entertainment throughout. Breakfast and lunch will be served, while free parking will also be available.
To Register, Go To: https://www.centralhealth.net/vivir-con-ganas/
The Vivir Con Ganas expo will feature a keynote address from emotional wellness coach and podcaster Leslie Montoya, along with sessions led by community leaders on topics such as cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure, diabetes, and mental health. Additional resources and information will be available from partners such as Integral Care, Austin Community College, and more.
“What I’d like for this event to do is create a foundation of knowledge and be an experience that this community will be able to take it back to their families and friends, to their networks, and expand the mission—the mission of Central Health and our partners,” said Cynthia Valadez, a member on the Central Health Board of Managers.
How Vivir Con Ganas Sprung to Life
Valadez, it turns out, set the stage for the conference. A decade before Vivir Con Ganas sprung to life, she kept pushing the idea forward.
A former Community Health Worker (CHW) whose entire life has been devoted to providing a voice for the underserved, she’s often advocated for better programs and resources for those in need in Travis County. The oldest of seven siblings and the daughter of educators from Mission, Texas, the 70-year-old has always been driven by progress. “Education was taught to all of us to be necessary to break the cycle of poverty,” said Valadez, an East Austin resident who’s lived in Austin for over four decades.
As a college student at the University of Texas in the 70s, she marched on the streets to advocate for migrant rights. Later, as a wife and mother, she worked tirelessly for better education and tools in special education settings—work forged after her daughter Gloria was born with learning disabilities.
When Valadez was appointed to the Board of Managers by the Travis County Commissioners in 2015, she took her health advocacy to Central Health, helping jumpstart the organization’s Health Champions program. By 2023, she, along with former Central Health Board Manager Dr. Guadalupe Zamora, pushed to create a brand-new health summit for Latinos. Nothing in the region existed like it.
By October 2023, that vision was officially born.
“My dream and overarching goals are that family members and children here in Travis County will grow up being educated about what Central Health is, what CommUnityCare is, what Sendero Health Plans is, and what Integral Care is, so that they can have an understanding of what health care opportunities there are in Central Texas,” Valadez said.
People Leading Health Care Forward
To take any step forward, people must lead the way. Central Health’s Ramos and Guerra bootstrapped resources in late 2023 and early 2024 to execute key objectives, such as the conference’s name, date, and venue.
They will be the first to admit that a series of advisory councils allowed the health expo to move forward with patients in mind. Three separate groups—consisting of patients, network collaborators and external partners—had a large say in each of those decisions.
“We wanted this to really be something that is designed for our patient population,” Guerra said.
Vivir Con Ganas will fall on September 27, midway through Hispanic Heritage Month, an annual celebration of Latino culture in the U.S.
Along with informational sessions on chronic health care conditions, the conference will also feature live music from Mexican-born artist Lesly Renaga, Afro-Latin ensemble Son y No Son, and ballet folklorico dancers.
Partners such as Integral Care, which provides low-cost health care and social services to people affected by mental health conditions and substance abuse disorders, have played a key role in shaping the vision of the conference. Since 2000, Integral Care has convened the Central Texas African American Family Support Conference (where Central Health is a key sponsor), an event focused on the mental health and well-being of African Americans.
The conference was among the many inspirations for Vivir Con Ganas.
“Mental health is essential to overall well-being, and in Latino communities we must ensure care is accessible, inclusive, and rooted in trust,” said Dr. Amanda Banks, the Chief Public Health Officer at Integral Care. “We are proud to support an event focused on removing barriers and creating spaces where individuals and families can connect, learn, and take charge of their health in ways that honor their language, culture, and lived experiences.”
Mission-Oriented Speakers
Several speakers are set to lead health care panels around Vivir Con Ganas. One of them is Clarena Tobon, the Director of Strategic Advancement at ASHwell, whose personal mission has been shaped by personal loss.
Nineteen years ago, Tobon was 20 when her mother took her own life. The tragedy spurred her to act—both to honor her mother and to understand the many challenges those going through behavioral health issues struggle with.
Two years later, she raised over $13,000 for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and took part in its annual Out of Darkness Walk.
“I learned that people wanted to find community,” she said.
Tobon has since built a dedicated career in the field, speaking before Congress twice and advocating for those who face mental health challenges.
At Vivir Con Ganas, Tobon will lead a session centered around mental wellness and behavioral health.
“I have to think where my life would be if we had support like this back in 2005 or later,” she said. “If my mom had been able to see someone speak and find the resources that are going to be in this space, that just hits me differently.”
Tobon does this important work, she says, because it can make a difference in someone’s life.
“If one person takes a baby step toward recovery, that one person will make the entire event worth it to me,” she said.
The First Step in a Future Full of Health Care
Vivir Con Ganas is a big first step toward better health care access for Latinos in Travis County, Valadez says. She believes it can become a roadmap for future versions of the conference.
“We’re building a pipeline to success,” she said.
For Ramos, the mission she started alongside Guerra is close to being realized with the first-ever Central Health-led community health expo.
“I’m so glad this is happening,” she said. “The reason why I joined Central Health (in 2021) was because I realized there was a gap in health care resources with my Latino community. And I kind of wanted to bridge that gap. This expo is the start of that. It’s bringing people together as a community.”
Guerra added: “To me, this is what Vivir Con Ganas means: It’s about not just settling to survive, but to thrive. We’re here to help them do that.”