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01/10/2006:

"Living at an Epicenter of Diabetes, Defiance and Despair"

...Indeed, in East Harlem, it is possible to take any simple nexus of people - the line at an A.T.M., a portion of a postal route, the members of a church choir - and trace an invisible web of diabetes that stretches through the group and out into the neighborhood, touching nearly every life with its menace.

Mr. De La Vega, a 33-year-old self-styled "sidewalk philosopher" whose murals and sidewalk chalk drawings are familiar neighborhood ornaments, has a mother with diabetes. His stepfather's case was confirmed in March. And a number of Mr. De La Vega's friends who occupied his chairs or sat in the bordering garden, well, they had it. Mr. De La Vega said he would probably get it, too.

In East Harlem, in fact, it seems peculiar if you don't have it.
nytimes.com