Salvador Pena

Down in Nuevo Laredo was Dr. Salvador Pena, who delivered more than 8,000 babies over a period of time. When I met him he was 80 years old and still practicing medicine. Women of Mexican descent living in Laredo would go to Nuevo Laredo to have their babies delivered by Dr. Pena and then would rush back to Laredo to register them as U.S. citizens. Dr. Pena was a believer in the principle of the siesta. He would take two hours off in the early afternoon and usually was to be found in a men only cantina, where he and the other leaders of the community met to eat and drink and exchange viewpoints. Frequently he would leave the cantina and have a tryst with a young woman. He recommended this practice as a method of prolonging life. He pointed out that he was 80 years old and still healthy.