Ricardo Chavira Hopes Breast Cancer Efforts Will Help Latinas  10/10/05

Desperate Housewives star Ricardo Chavira is hoping his efforts to stamp out breast cancer will prompt fellow Latinos to get checked early.

The actor, who plays imprisoned Carlos Solis on the hit show, signed up as an unlikely spokesman for the Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Foundation when he realized too many women in Latin America were dying through ignorance.

Chavira explains, "The death rate is very high because a lot of them are in your lower income areas socio-economically.

"They don't detect it early enough because they don't have healthcare or health insurance.

"Another main reason why it's been hidden a lot is a lot of Latinos won't allow their women to go to the doctor because they don't want a male doctor checking out their wife or their daughter or their sister."