The words that have meant the most to me: sister, daughter, ally, Latina, first generation to college, Boliviana, queer 

I wanted to do more for the communities I loved. I grew up working alongside my parents in a low income neighborhood of Los Angeles. I started working in my parents’ stores at 5 years old. The customers and vendors of the indoor swap meet my parents worked in became my extended family. It hurt to see them and their families suffer from disparities in healthcare.

It also saddened me that sometimes I did not see physicians treat those I cared for in a manner that took their autonomy, independence, culture, or experiences into account. 

The worst part for me was seeing relationships suffer because someone was suffering silently from diseases that could be alleviated in some way if they had been caught earlier or if they were managed well.

Stories that come to mind: arthritic knee pain in an elderly person who has to work to be able to care for his family, but he’s in so much pain it makes him frustrated in a way he never was before and he can’t work as long as he used to. Or cancer that could have been caught earlier with preventive care but now is advanced and family can no longer afford to live in the United States with just one parent working, so they leave this place they worked so hard to call home.

There is SO much we can do! We worked with patients with different abilities who navigate a world that is not built for them. We think about how our patients move around in this world, and we provide them with tools that they need to make this world work for them. That’s a unique perspective that most physicians do not have. I think physiatrists can

(a) be heavily involved in ability coalitions at their respective institutions or places of work

(b) can work on developing trauma informed care in PM&R

(c) can create an anti-racist culture in PM&R

(d) can ensure that our research creates solutions for research participants…those are just a few ideas I have.

Very easy to realize that things are not fair when you’re a 5 year old spending Christmas selling toys on the street with your parents rather than opening toys with your parents on Christmas morning. My parents had to work very hard and have struggled to make ends meet at various times in their life. They sacrificed a lot for me, and I always thought they deserved an easier life or a chance to get an education (which is what they always dreamed of). But try as they might, they could never afford to have a job, go to school or even have their degrees in Bolivia count here in the US. I felt that everything was harder for them, and everything seemed to be easier for others. Later, I had words to describe all I had seen where I grow up - things like cultural capital and more but when I was little all I had to do was look around. 

My main goals in life are to continue being happy with my family, friends and work and one day to have a pug!

I enjoy working with my hands so I’m considering an interventional fellowship. I’ve found that I’m very moved by patients with chronic pain. Because of that, I’m considering a pain fellowship. People with chronic pain are underserved and stigmatized in many ways. They share similar challenges to the ones that my family members (disenfranchised Latinx immigrants) face when navigating healthcare and I feel called to help out in any way I can.

I feel so lucky to be in medicine! There is so much we can do to improve medicine and support healing in our patients and ourselves. I’m excited for the changes that are happening.