As he matured, Nicolas felt more comfortable with his ethnic identity. Attending UCLA was a revelation to him.“ When I got to UCLA, there was this club, ALC, the UCLA Afro Latino Connection. It was founded by an Afro Latina.“ I had never seen so many Afro Latinos in one place, ever,” he recalled. ALC had guest speakers who connected with the undergraduates.“ That’ s where I really felt like wow, you guys get me. This place was the one where I met so many people that are dark skinned and spoke Spanish. It was nice and fun,” he noted. It was a safe space for him.
“ I never knew the history. But in ALC, we got to learn about a lot of about the Atlantic slave trade and how a lot of the countries in South America were involved. I had never really learned that history.” Nicolas was also becoming more exposed to the news media. A big revelation was that the current vice president of Colombia, Francia Elena Márquez Mina, is an Afro Latina. It was nice to talk about those types of topics at the ALC meetings. We had events, we had cultural days. It felt very much like a big family.”
What were some factors that helped Nicolas decide that he wanted to become a physician?“ One of the biggest reasons for me was that I was undocumented for most of my life. I recall a lot of times with my family, being undocumented, we were afraid whenever we would get sick, it was always like,‘ you can’ t really go to the hospital because they find that you’ re undocumented, you might risk deportation’. So oftentimes, my grandma would try her medicinal cures, and it might or might not work.
In creating a space for others, Nicolas said that many of his peers want to pursue medicine, but the barriers still remain.“ Sometimes when sick patients look at you, they’ re like,‘ Oh, this guy doesn’ t know Spanish’. Then you talk to them in Spanish. I think of building a medical family that enriches our experience, because I was once one of those people as well,” he said.
“ I want to say I am blessed. And now, I’ m a citizen of this country. And I was blessed to have employees’ health insurance when I was working. When I was working, none of these issues were there. I think it’ s important because I think of my family members, I think of my neighborhood, my tías, my uncles.
“ I call them and many still don’ t get the right care because they’ re either undocumented or because they don’ t have their employer’ s type of health insurance. That’ s a time when I think of my loved ones and other people who need this help. Knowing that as a physician, I do want to provide that care that I wish I had when I was a kid. I want to inform my peers. The situation that patients face makes you want to become more culturally competent and empathetic towards patients.”
“ And I remember one time as a kid, when my mom was going to the ER, they found out that we didn’ t have insurance and we didn’ t have the money to afford the treatment. I recall vividly, they just said,‘ well, we can’ t really treat you, so you have to find your own way’. It was the first time I realized, this is because I don’ t have papers and because I don’ t have money. I can’ t afford the right health care.”
“ Unfortunately, that’ s something that still very prevalent today. A lot of times people have that fear. I wish we lived in a place where health care providers wouldn’ t discriminate or that you can get the right treatment, regardless of socioeconomic status,” he added.
Nicolas then stated offhandedly,“ I haven’ t even met an Afro Latino physician yet. I’ m pretty sure they are here. But I’ ve never met them in person,” he noted. Right on cue, he was introduced to Afro Latino Dr. Roberto Vargas, the award-winning physician who is a COM Assistant Dean, faculty leader, and topnotch researcher.
CDU College of Medicine | PG. 18