Sinaloa Coach Helps Mexican Youth Build Muscle Strength to Resist Narcos Fusion
go to original August 4, 2014

In Sinaloa, Mexico, Tomas Isidro Barraza Cuevas teaches kids how to feel strong and powerful by teaching them about weightlifting. (Fusion)

Thousands of Central American children are heading north to the United States, desperately trying to flee gang violence, murder, rape and hopelessness. But in the violent birthplace of Mexico's most notorious drug cartel, some children are developing the strength to stay.

At a rundown yet bustling gym in La Reforma, Sinaloa, a small Mexican community of 1,733 households, kids between the ages of 8-19 come together to train as weightlifters. They are led by Coach Tomas Isidro Barraza Cuevas, who tries to inspire kids to resist the lure of narcotraffickers and instead channel their energy into a serious sport that can give them the sense of power they desperately crave. To him, weightlifting is more than a sport.

Read the rest at Fusion

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