Tagged With "childhood trauma"
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May 3 to 7 - The Treating Trauma Master Series: A 5-Module Series on the Treatment of Trauma
Hi everyone. Sorry to interrupt your Sunday. However, we think that this info is important and requires a timely response. The US based National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine (NICABM) is offering a series of 5 modules on the treatment of trauma featuring some well-known experts in the field. They include Bessel van der Kolk, MD (featured in the cover image of this blog post), Pat Ogden, PhD, Ruth Lanius, MD, PhD, Dan Siegel, MD and Stephen Porges, PhD. The 5...
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Resources - Racism and Discrimination as Risk Factors for Toxic Stress
Hi everyone, we hope you are all doing well and keeping safe and healthy. On April 28, 2021 there was a very informative online discussion hosted by Aces Aware of California, USA on the topic of Racism and Discrimination as Risk Factors for Toxic Stress. "Featuring opening remarks by California Surgeon General Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, this is the first in a series of webinars that will explore research demonstrating how racism and other forms of discrimination can serve as risk factors to...
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Happy Mother's Day!
Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mothers, nurturers, biological or surrogates throughout the Caribbean and the world! Empirical data shows that 42% of our Caribbean families are single-parent in nature. From my observations in Trinidad and Tobago, many such homes are led by a lone woman caring for more than 1 child. With all that you have experienced - your own adverse childhood trauma, the trauma of adulthood, and the challenges of Covid-19 - we salute you! We cheer you on, admire...
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May 6-7: Canadian Sexual Exploitation Summit: Disrupt Demand
Hello everyone! Are you interested in Trauma and ACEs as they relate to child sexual exploitation and human trafficking? Well, there is an upcoming Summit which you should enjoy. It will take place this week so be ready to take action. This year's edition of the Canadian Sexual Exploitation Summit will be held virtually on May 6 and 7 with the theme: "Disrupt Demand". With over 50 Canadian, American and international speakers and presenters, the Agenda of the Summit will cover a wide cross...
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Action on ACEs Conference 2021: From ACEs to Resilience (June 10)
Hi ACEs learners. We're trying to ensure you have access to credible information and training on ACEs by sharing links to such events. Today is no exception. The organisation, Action On ACEs, based in Gloucestershire, UK is hosting a free virtual conference on Thursday 10th June 2021 from 9:30 am to 3:30pm UK time. The conference, ‘From ACEs to Resilience’ will focus on "resilience, how to build it in children and young people and how we can support adults who have experienced ACEs. It will...
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How Trauma-Informed Are We, Really? [ASCD article]
Good morning everyone and welcome to another Friday. We are offering you an opportunity to think deeply about addressing trauma in education as we move into the weekend. In an article on Trauma-Informed Schools, Paul Gorski shares about his experience at a particular school and asks us to explore how we are seeking to implement Trauma-Informed practice in our school systems. "A major challenge at this school, as in many schools, was the leadership team's habit of embracing shiny new program...
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Bryan Stevenson Nailed It!
Hi everyone. If you missed the Feature Address of Picower Institute's symposium on Early Life Stress and Mental Health, you missed a treat. Bryan Stevenson blew everyone away with his flawless talk on racial injustice and how this has shaped the American judicial system to the devastation of persons, many of whom have suffered childhood and generational trauma. It was one of the most powerful opening talks of any conference I have ever heard! We shared excerpts of his talk using Twitter...
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Being Defined By Your Worst Past.
Good Tuesday morning everyone. As we navigate the various systems of our nation, one in which trauma often manifests is the penal and criminal justice system. In our nation, thousands of men and boys and hundreds of women and girls are warehoused in some form of youth detention, pre-trial detention or incarceration after having been failed by dysfunctional or abusive families, and ineffective educational institutions. Often bursting at the seams due to overcrowding, these places of detention...
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Wellness Wednesday - Weighty Matters
Happy Wellness Wednesday, everyone! For some people who have experienced childhood adversity, coping with the horrors of what happened to them can take them into using food for comfort. As such, some develop certain lifestyles and gain an unhealthy amount of weight such that their health is comprised. This was evident from the original Kaiser Permanente study in 1998. It is also revealed in a recent study involving 1,647 adults aged 27-33 . “A history of any childhood maltreatment was...
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North Carolina Looks at Feasibility of Having Trauma-Informed Courts.
Hello ACEs Caribbean Community! Do you think that Trauma-Informed Courts will work well in the Caribbean? Before you say, "No", remember that some of the region's justice systems already have examples of problem solving courts. Last week, PACEs Connection staff member, Ms Carey Sipp posted that "p lans to integrate practices and policies based on the science of adverse childhood experiences in North Carolina’s 6,500-person,100-county statewide judiciary were announced... by Chief Justice...
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Intergenerational transmission and prevention of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) [Science Direct]
Hi everybody. It's Friday and we want to share some ACEs research wirh you that you can digest over the weekend. 📖 This is a heads-up on a recently published study from the USA on intergenerational trauma and ACEs and how it is transmitted and can be prevented. Angela J. Narayan, Ph.D., L.P. and her colleagues published it in April 2021. Here is an excerpt from the abstract. "In recent years, research and practice on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have shifted from delineating effects...
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Wellness Wednesday - Examining the Mental Wounds of Covid-19
Good day and welcome to this week's Wellness Wednesday! We are sharing this article from The Atlantic titled, 'What Happens When Americans Can Finally Exhale. The pandemic’s mental wounds are still wide open.' It's been discussed a bit in recent times especially as the USA (and other nations) see the light at the end of the tunnel out of Covid-19. As some Caribbean territories are experiencing severe spikes in cases of Covid-19 infections and deaths, we long for the time when this is...
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PACEs Connection: Not just another social network
At last week’s fabulous HOPE Summit, one person told me that they didn’t realize all the things that PACEs Connection does.
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Immature Brains Cannot Regulate Themselves Alone.
Kudos to Gerry Diamond who shared this image on Twitter. His handle is @gerrydiamond71 As Gerry put it, this challenge of regulation also is seen in young people who have unaddressed ACEs and Trauma. They often present with arrested emotional development. Parents and caregivers, including teachers, may need to remember that the young minds in their care are not yet equipped to make the mature choices or decisions the adults hope they will make. Being mindful of the fact that emotional...
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ACEs and the Oldest Oppression.
Hi everyone. So it's still the 25th and apart from expressing how important it is to use appropriate language when discussing child trafficking and exploitation, we do have another post for you on this important topic of ACEs and Human Trafficking. Mrs Harmony Grillo, a Survivor Leader and founder of the nonprofit Treasures, recently did a TEDx Talk titled, The Oldest Oppression in the World. As you can expect, she is referring to the sexual exploitation of primarily women and girls in...
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How can student progress in public schools be improved?
Good Monday morning everyone. It is a public holiday here in Trinidad and Tobago for the Arrival Day observance on Sunday but this article just cannot wait. Kudos to our ACEs Caribbean Community member, Mark Nicoll, whose article on ACEs and their impact on children's education was published last week in the Cayman Islands newspaper, Cayman Current. At the time, Mark was commenting on the Education Data Report 2020 that highlighted the poor performance of public schools as compared with...
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Oprah & Dr. Bruce Perry book on Childhood trauma: What Happened to You?
What Happened to You? Oprah Winfrey and renowned brain development and trauma expert, Dr. Bruce Perry, discuss the impact of trauma and adverse experiences and how healing must begin with a shift to asking, 'what happened to you?' rather than 'what’s wrong with you?' Through wide-ranging, and often deeply personal conversation, Oprah Winfrey and Dr. Perry explore how what happens to us in early childhood – both good and bad - influences the people we become. They challenge us to shift from...
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Re: Oprah & Dr. Bruce Perry book on Childhood trauma: What Happened to You?
Great post, Mark!
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Criticizing ACEs in Peer Reviewed Professional Journals Impairs Child Abuse Treatment
Criticizing ACEs in Peer Reviewed Professional Journals Impairs Child Abuse Treatment Jeoffry B. Gordon, MD, MPH May 23, 2021 As a family doc practicing in San Diego I was privileged to hear Dr. Vincent Felitti talk about his inspired development of the ACEs questionnaire and its association with many adult mental and physical diseases directly from him only a few years after his original insight. Yet, although I had a lively clinic and learned how to manage a vast array of medical...
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Webinar on Trauma and Prostitution
Hi everyone. There's an upcoming free webinar on Sunday 6th June 2021 (9am to 10:30am EST) on Trauma and Prostitution. Some of the questions it will answer include: "Does prostitution have a negative impact on mental health? What about physical health? What is the role of dissociation? Is trauma in a woman’s childhood connected with her entry into prostitution? " To register please visit the link below. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/trauma-and-prostitution-tickets-152860332369
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Reflections on Trauma-Informed Policing
Hi everyone, Happy Friday.😀 If any of you has a law enforcement background, this post is for you! Recently, we had the pleasure to virtually connect with Graham Goulden from Scotland. Graham is an experienced and committed leadership and violence prevention trainer. For thirty years he was a Scottish police officer and Chief Investigator specialising in criminal investigation, drug investigation, training and crime prevention. For the last eight years of policing career he was a Chief...
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Barbados Research into Childhood Malnutrition and Maltreatment.
Happy Friday everybody! As you know, with that comes some weekend reading for you. Today, we are sharing a report from research conducted in Barbados that links childhood malnutrition and maltreatment to personality disorders which persist into adulthood. It is the work of Rebecca S. Hock and her colleagues using data from the 47 year longitudinal Barbados Nutrition Study. Published in Psychiatry Research (Volume 269, November 2018, Pages 301-308), the work, " Childhood malnutrition and...
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The Pain of "215"
Hi everyone. We hope you're taking care of your spiritual, physical and mental health, wherever you are in the world. This has been a sombre week with the news of the discovery of the bodies of 215 precious children on the grounds of a residential school in Canada. Words cannot express the incredible pain those families must have felt for years, knowing nothing of the whereabouts of their babies. To have the revelation come at this time, during all that the world is experiencing and with the...
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Wellness Wednesday - The steps that can help adults heal from childhood trauma
Hi everyone! This Wellness Wednesday we are looking at an article written by Shanta R. Dube, Associate Professor, School of Public Health, Georgia State University. In writing in 2107, she focused on the fact that ACEs can be a cycle that is hard to break if we only deal with it from the perspective of the child. "Prevention is the mantra of modern medicine and public health. Benjamin Franklin said it himself: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Unfortunately, childhood...
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What Do We Do Once We Realize the Prevalence of Adversities?
When people hear about the mental and physical health risks of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and toxic stress, one of the first questions is, “What do we do about this?” Awareness of the prevalence of adversity and the impact of stress on the brain and body leads to the possibility for prevention and response. Whether you are acting within a family, agency, organization, business or community, the next steps should be taken knowing that we will all work together to bring about change.
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Adversities. Resilience. Gratitude.
Adversity can be a powerful word especially when you are a Trauma Counsellor aware of ACEs. This revolutionary study on the impact of our Adverse Childhood Experiences has provided us with so many answers as to why we are the way we are. At least it did for me and the people I work with every day. It has also raised many important questions. One being, how can one build resilience through past adversities? How did I do it? Having done the ACE test and getting a maximum score of 10 on it, I...
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Gabor Maté on The Wisdom of Trauma
Hi everyone, this is exciting! 🙌 In case you have not heard, The Wisdom of Trauma, the movie production around Dr. Gabor Maté and his approach to treating Trauma, is currently online. You can view the sessions "live" or the replays online between 8th and 14th June 2021 at the link below. https://wisdomoftrauma.com/hub/ The introductory video is a bit over 1 hour long but it sets the tone for the experience. The video begins with Dr. Maté speaking to the recent events in his native Canada...
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California PACEs Connection initiatives spark new connections in regional meeting
Among PACEs Connection initiatives around the country, it’s well known that our social network is something like a bustling, giant town square where people share ideas, resources and any number of conversations about how to prevent childhood adversity and promote positive childhood experiences. On May 14, PACEs Connection assembled a virtual town square gathering of PACEs initiatives in California, where we have 58 initiatives sparking action all across the state. Speakers at the gathering,...
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Wrestling Ghosts Watch Weekend on PACEs Connection (June 11-13th) & Zoom Discussion with Director Ana Joanes on June 15th at 7p.m. EST.
Wrestling Ghosts is the fourth and final film in the Transform Trauma with ACEs Science Film Festival series. The film can be watched, free of charge, on PACEs Connection from Friday, June 11th through Sunday, June 13th where it will be streamed all weekend. The streaming will be followed by a Zoom discussion with Wrestling Ghosts Director, Ana Joanes, and the co-sponsors of the Transform Trauma with ACEs Science Film Festival (CTIPP, PACEs Connection, & the Relentless School Nurse) on...
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Upcoming Livestream on Father's Day - ACEs & The Father Wound
Many men and women around the world are nursing a Father Wound and it is negatively impacting their health, eroding their self-confidence and crippling their ability to form healthy relationships, among other things. For such persons, the word "father" does not represent the definitions outlined in the title image. Rather, it brings to mind memories of hurt and pain, or thoughts of abandonment and neglect, or simply a void. So, on Father's Day, at 2pm Eastern Standard Time we want to address...
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Happy Father's Day!
Its the 3rd Sunday of June and its Father's Day! Happy Father's Day to all "dads"! Around the world, fathers and father figures (hopefully) are being celebrated for their hard work, love, care and support given to the family, especially throughout the past year of the global ACE known as Covid19. On that topic, we wish to extend very special greetings to all NEW fathers whose babies have been born into this new normal. So if you did not read our previous post, we were trying to spare the...
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Reminder - Livestream on Father's Day - "ACEs & The Father Wound"
Hi everyone, it's the Father's Day weekend! If your dad is in your life and you love him, try to do something different for him this year. Socks and ties are so 20th Century. You can take him to "Lunch and a Movie" - or Livestream, on us! Yup, you can share with your father the link to our YouTube channel and you and he can tune in for our riveting discussion on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and The Father Wound. Date - Sunday 20th June 2021 Time - 2:00 p.m. EST Where - On YouTube of...
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Wellness Wednesday - Resilience Prescription
Hi everyone and welcome to another Wellness Wednesday! Today we have an account from a psychiatrist who, after many years studying trauma and the experiences of trauma victims, had the misfortune to become one himself. In a rather dramatic turn of events, Dennis S. Charney was shot by a former co-worker and survived to write about it and to grow from the experience. In his own words, he describes how the situation challenged him to dig deep and uncover the resilience he needed to take him...
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How Does Historic Trauma Impact Blacks Swimmers?
Good Monday morning everybody! It's warm weather time in the global North and the "wet season" here in the Caribbean. In times before 2020, this would have signalled a lot of beach and river bathing in Trinidad and loads of people headed to Tobago to enjoy the more attractive beaches there. Now, beach-going and sea-bathing are restricted as part of the current national State of Emergency. With those thoughts in mind, that may explain why this recent article from an African American mother...
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How to (Mentally) Prepare for Hurricane Season
Hi everyone! We are well into the Hurricane Season for 2021 and today Trinidad and Tobago was put on a Yellow Alert due to the passage of a weather system. For those interested in learning more about the possibilities of the hurricane season, try to register for the Pre-Hurricane Conference 2021 put on by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies ( IFRC ). It runs from Wednesday 23rd to Friday 25th June 2021. While there is great value in developing a Disaster Plan...
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Gwyneth Paltrow x Nadine Burke Harris: How Does Childhood Trauma Impact Health Outcomes? [goop.com]
From Goop, June 16, 2020 “You can’t grow up Black in America and not feel outraged by the terrible health disparities that are still going on every day,” says Nadine Burke Harris, MD , the first surgeon general of California. GP got on a video call with Harris, who is an expert on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Her book, The Deepest Well , explores the connection between adversity, trauma, and toxic stress in childhood and health outcomes later in life. Much of her work focuses on...
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It's time to heal childhood trauma!
A consensus of scientific research demonstrates that cumulative adversity, especially when experienced during childhood development, is a root cause to some of the most harmful, persistent, and expensive health challenges facing our nation. But there is hope. We can take action now to change and save lives. The impacts of ACEs, trauma, and toxic stress are treatable. Start by watching the short educational video below. For more information please visit: https://aceovercomers.org/...
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Explore the Role of Culture in Healing with La Maida Project
La Maida Project is thrilled to share videos from our recent webinar series “Exploring the Role of Culture in Healing”. We had an great audience turn out and robust dialogue with our panel of guest speakers including Ken Epstein, PhD LCSW , leader in trauma-informed systems transformation, Anil Vadaparty , CEO of child-welfare agency McKinley, and Omid Naim, MD , integrative psychiatrist and founder of La Maida Project. In these webinars we discuss the role of leadership in trauma-informed...
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Building a Restorative Restart to School in the Fall
As we look towards the reopening of in-person instruction in the fall, planning and reimagining for a restorative restart to our school systems that emphasizes student and educator mental health is a priority. In addition, there is a windfall of one-time funding coming to districts from federal and local funds for just this purpose. Recently a wise educator said to me, ‘you know, if you want to get to the hearts and minds of school leaders to make changes for the fall you need to do so by...
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Trauma's epigenetic fingerprint observed in children of Holocaust survivors [www.sciencedaily.com]
Date: September 1, 2016 Source: Elsevier Science Daily The children of traumatized people have long been known to be at increased risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and mood and anxiety disorders. However, according to Rachel Yehuda from the James J. Peters Veterans Affairs Medical Center at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai who led a new study in Biological Psychiatry , there are very few opportunities to examine biologic alterations in the context of a watershed...
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Good Bye Elsa!
Hi everyone, We hope the past weekend was a fun one for the folks in the USA celebrating the Fourth of July. In the Caribbean, it was a mixed affair as the season's first Hurricane, named Elsa, tore through the region, doing considerable damage to Barbados - often untouched by these systems - and causing flooding in several other territories. As these small island states continue to grapple with fluctuating Covid-19 infection rates, disrupted economies due to border closures, internal...
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Psychologists Advocate for Improved Treatment for Developmental Trauma
Hi everybody. This article contains some good news! According to an article on the website of the American Psychological Association (APA), a growing body of research is leading many psychologists to call for the inclusion of complex childhood trauma in various classification systems. "To better serve children who faced poverty, homelessness, and severe neglect throughout his childhood, a growing group of psychologists and psychiatrists is studying complex trauma—which can refer to exposure...
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"Historical Trauma in America" series starting July 15.
Hi everyone, it's Monday! So I know, not everyone is excited about Mondays. However, this is a very good Monday as there were no serious tropical systems that impacted the Caribbean over the weekend. (We could not say that last week after Hurricane Elsa battered several of our sister and brother islands.) Climate related events are but one of the challenges our Caribbean region faces. Another huge issue is inherited trauma from the centuries of genocide, conquest, enslavement, exploitation...
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How Have Children and Families Fared During Covid?
Hi everyone, It's Friday or as some say, Fri-yay! Today we want to share some additional research info with you and it is based on US data for the past year. Essentially, the desire was to understand how children and families have been coping since the onset of Covid-19. Recently, KidsData released the latest data from the "Family Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic" questionnaire. These data are the second wave of findings from the multi-wave questionnaire. As the COVID-19 pandemic...
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5 ways to create compelling messages about childhood trauma using data
When presented strategically, data can help tell an important story about childhood trauma. Here are a few tips for presenting numbers in ways that advance efforts to reduce adversity, promote resilience, and improve health outcomes.
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Understanding Adverse Childhood Experience (ACEs) Communicating What We Know to Communities of Care [bach.health]
Keynote & Expert Panel August 12, 9am - Noon Join an interactive discussion with several nationally-recognized experts on ACEs and the field of early childhood development Learn how to communicate, screen, treat and heal trauma associated with adverse childhood experiences Receive a free social media toolkit to educate your community about screening for ACEs [ Please click here to register .]
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When Self-Care Doesn't "Work"
You can't fail at self-care. If something isn't helpful, maybe you haven't yet found your own way.
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"Machete" Star Talks About His Childhood Experiences
Hello everyone. If you are into corny action-comedy movies, then you know the person whose picture adorns the cover image for this post. None other than Mexican-American actor, Danny Trejo, the star of the "Machete" series. Back in the day, I had read that Trejo was a former gang-banger, former drug addict and was formerly incarcerated. However, I never heard his story until recently. He has written a book detailing some of his highlighted experiences but shares how, after giving the...