Play PodcastPlay Download PodcastDownload

Transcription:

Scott Webb: Today, we're going to hear the inspirational story of Dr. Pablo Romero-Beltran, who came to Salinas as a child from Mexico. He didn't speak English. He worked in the ag fields as many immigrants do. Later, he would serve in the US Army and, against all odds, attended medical school and become a trusted family medicine doctor who views each day as an opportunity to help others.

This is Ask The Experts, a podcast from Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System. I'm Scott Webb. So doctor, thanks so much for your time today. I'm really looking forward to learning more about you. You have a really interesting and amazing story. And as we get rolling here, how old were you when you came to the US and specifically California.

Dr. Romero: I had just turned 14. So this is 1965, January. Somehow, I have spent like a couple years in Mexico working in construction after finishing from grammar school. The reason that I didn't go to any middle or high school is because it wasn't available to us. To go to the next level, it would have to be a very big sacrifice for the family. So instead, I went to work. And then my dad, he actually worked in the United States under the Bracero program. And so he went down for Christmas and then asked me, "You don't seem to be too crazy with your work. Do you want to go to the US?"

So we stopped by the American Embassy in Mexico City. We filled out some forms and "There's your immigration papers." And so when it came time to leave, we left via second-class train from Central Mexico, just north of Mexico City to the California border. Took a cab from the train station to Calexico, got in, turned our papers in and then got on to the Greyhound bus from Calexico all the way to Salinas, of course we did stop at LA.

Scott Webb: Right. Was it just you and your folks when you got to Salinas?

Dr. Romero: So it was just me and my dad. The rest of the family had to stay in Mexico because my dad was here working by himself, working in the farms. He was the only one here. Then he went down there. Then it was just him and I that came to California.

Scott Webb: And you mentioned school and why you didn't go to secondary school, you know, that just weren't available, too much of a sacrifice. And so when you got here with your dad, were you able to go to school at that time?

Dr. Romero: No. I got here and I went to live in a labor camp. And then from there, it was working and then there was never an idea or a mention of a school. That wasn't necessarily in the family plans. My dad had a second grade education. My mom had a first grade education. And being the oldest male, I was supposed to work to help the family. There were eight of us and so somebody had to work and it was me. And so there was never a question, I think only once there was a mention of schooling and that was when I was in Arizona just a couple of years later. I was in the labor camp and there was raid of immigration service. And then the fellow of course woke me up and says, "Hey, Pancho, how old are you?" I say, "Well, first of all, I'm not Pancho. Do you even know what you're saying?"

So he asked me in Spanish how old I am, I said, "Sixteen." And he goes, "Shouldn't you be in school?" I said, "I guess."

Scott Webb: Right.

Dr. Romero: "Okay. Yeah. Let me see your green card." "Here it is." "Okay. Goodbye. Back to sleep." And so people didn't care. If you produce the work, you know, who cares about school?

Scott Webb: Yeah. And of course, as we're going to get into it, as we learn your whole story today, eventually you did go to school, medical school specifically. But I'm just curious at that time between California and later Arizona, had you studied English? Had you learned English at that point?

Dr. Romero: No. No English. I mean, there was maybe a handful of phrases. In fact, when I finally got to school, it's called in the US Army being drafted. So I got drafted in 1970, and I went to a swearing in ceremony in Oakland. And I really knew that there was something different that happened because there were a bunch of us in a room and people on the front were raising their hand, people in the middle were giving the finger, people in the back were these guys with the peace sign. And I knew that something was different. So when I came out of there, I asked our Spanish-speaking officer, "What happened there?" "What do you mean what happened?" I said, "I have no idea what happened." He goes, "Well, you're in the army. You don't speak English?" I say, "No." He goes, "You're going to going to listen quick here or you're going to get through all of the trouble? So that was my introduction.

Scott Webb: What a story, doctor. I mean, so you come to America, you work in the fields because that's what you have to do because you've got eight members of your family and it's just expected. So no school, no English. And then somehow you end up in the Army, still no English, right? So tell us about this experience. What was the Army like for you? Where were you stationed? When did you learn English? Did you become, you know, really fluent at some point?

Dr. Romero: Again, I went from Salinas and ended up going to Fort Ord here in California, which is 15 miles from Salinas. Fort Ord was very active training of people in basic training, but I was very, very fortunate that I ended up with a bunch of people from the National Guard going through the basic training and they took it upon themselves to teach me the language as much as they could in between learning the Army.

I was helping them with physical things because there were all kind of chubby. They were a national guardsmen and I was in very top shape from working in the fields. So they took it upon themselves to teach me. Granted that at the end of the eight weeks, most of my English was bad words. As you can imagine, the Army teaches you a lot of bad words.

Scott Webb: Yeah.

Dr. Romero: And so among other bad words, I'd relearned some of the language. From there, I went to Fort Sill, Oklahoma for the second part of the training. And there, I said, "You know what? I'm kind of stuck in these business. I better learn the language more seriously." And I decided to go to all the movies, to go to the library and take books out. And then a lot of people helped me with some of the findings. And then it became a career to learn the language and since here I am, I'm going nowhere, I better learn their language.

Scott Webb: Yeah. So you served your time in the army and it sounds like that's when you begin to kind of find your passion for helping people, which I'm sure later paid off, becoming a doctor. You learned English, the good words, the bad words. And it's probably just been a lifelong, you know, education process, right? And so what'd you do when you got out of the Army?

Dr. Romero: So when I got out of the Army, it seems like January has a lot of things for me, you know, I came in to the US in January to Salinas. And when I got out of the Army, again, here we go again, this was another January, I was considering going to Arizona to follow lettuce season. That was my former job, working with lettuce, and it's very seasonal. And I get to Salinas. And then I said, "You know, maybe I should just take a little break and see what happens." Well, somebody told me, "Why don't you try to see if there's anything at the local college and community college, called Hartnell?" So I went there and I said, "You know, I just got out of the Army and my English is getting better, but still, I mean, academics is not something that I've done yet. Do you have anything available?" "So yeah, yeah. We have a program where we can test you and then we can place you."

And so I got tested and then I got placed at everything at the very bottom, from arithmetic to grammar to whatever. But it was self-paced, so I went through it very, very quickly. And so I went from arithmetic to eventually second year calculus, from introduction to science to physics and all that. And so I kind of likened this as the first semester. The lettuce started again. And I decided to work half time with the lettuce with my dad. He'll do half of the shift, I'll do the other one while going to their local community college. So I stayed at the community college and I took all the courses that require pathway for science. And of course, at the same time, somebody told me that if you want to take these serious, you need to do quite well. So you were never happy with an A, you want the highest grade in the class. And that's how I ended up. It looked to me like science was a thing to do, it was an equalizer. And that's how I ended up being more interested in science and then eventually in medicine.

Scott Webb: I mean what an inspirational story, right? We're tracking this whole journey, you know, from Mexico city to the fields in Salinas and then eventually, you know, Army, going to college, but you're still work in lettuce and going to college and you realize how important grades are and doing well. And then ultimately, right, you go to medical school. So tell us about that.

Dr. Romero: Yeah. So, somehow I got an introduction to UC Irvine. Somebody came in to do some recruiting, and then they offered me, you know, a great thing, which is called the region scholarship, which pays for pretty much everything. So I could just study instead of having to worry about the bills or whatever. Science was quite good. I was thinking of a career in biochemistry. Medicine was quite foreign.

When I came here, for several years, there was nobody, there were no doctors who spoke Spanish. So there were no role models whatsoever. If you broke your wrist, you went to the hospital and you have to translators or whatever. So medicine for me was not necessarily a reality. So I went to UC Irvine and, there, I was introduced to the idea of medicine since there's more docs in Orange County and more models. And so I said, "Let me try it." Of course, they told me, "Go to medicine and go to UC Irvine and you will get a free ride all the way." And I said, "Well, I kind of wanted to come back to our home, which is Northern California Salinas." And so I ended up taking a position at UCSF, which was probably the best decision I made in my life.

Of course, UCSF is a fantastic medical school. We have top graduates from all over the country. But guess what? We're all equal. We're all at the bottom of the barrel. Medics, medical students are absolutely nothing. You got to be on that to anatomy. You know, it's like, it was great because it was a huge equalizer. I went to medical school. Then after that, I was thinking of going to surgery. I was really good in surgery. But I was also made aware of the fact that when I was here in the community college, that I thought about medicine for the people here. So I said, "Well, let me try and family practice one year and then residency." So I started the residency. And then of course, after that, I finished the residency and realized that if I want to make a difference in this town, you need to do something more sustainable. So I went ahead and formed a group and there were no real groups necessarily at that time of docs who did family practice and took care of the Spanish-speaking community. So my group was one of the first ones and so we opened up a practice and, you know, here we are many years later.

Scott Webb: Right. Yeah, still thriving and it's so great to connect those dots and see how you got to family medicine. And it really does just feel like you're, you know, living the American dream. As you say, you continue to help the community. And why is that so important to you? You know, helping the community, giving back to the community, helping the ag workers. It sounds like a real high priority for you. I just like to have you talk about it a little bit.

Dr. Romero: Yeah, it is because coming to Salinas as a kid and making the minimum wage, which is actually the minimum wage in those days as it is now is different for farm work. For the country, it was a dollar twenty-five. For farm work, it was a dollar. And if you can work for a dollar and then you provide all those eating vegetables for people and whatever, I think that's kind of a great thing. So what do you do going forward and how do you pay back? Well, you pay back by making sure that people have access to care by making sure that bad situations don't take place.

single day, I have a lot of things to cover, misdiagnosis, misunderstandings, all of these things. And so I think the community always needs help and guidance. We also established a couple of scholarships. One is UCSF for farm-working people and then another one at Hartnell College, again for people who wants to study science and who come from farm worker backgrounds. And I think it's important. I could have bought probably four or five Teslas with that money, but then what will they do? Park them and then watch them getting old? I don't want Teslas.

Scott Webb: Right. You know, since you interact so often with members of the community, what advice do you give young people, especially immigrants? Perhaps advice about enlisting in the Armed Forces in your experiences. Share that advice with listeners.

Dr. Romero: I ended up with three daughters. And of course, they all went straight to NYU, Harvard and USC. But they have my background economics. Some of these folks don't have the same access. Some of these folks don't necessarily know what they want to do with their lives. And if you don't, guess what? You can go and learn something. Learn a trade, learn something. You can learn to draft things, to become a great mechanic, to be a logistics person. Learn that for free in the Armed Forces. Think of where you are, think where you want to go next. And then maybe if you want to, you can stay in the Armed Forces and help the country. Or if not, then take what you have in there and come back to the community, and now you become a great diesel mechanic, or you can go work for UPS and deliver packages. Or if you're a medic, then you can go back here and become an RN or go to medical school if you want to, all of that.

Scott Webb: Yeah, so many great opportunities, you know, come from serving of course. And obviously, I want to thank you for your service, wish you a Happy Veterans Day. As we wrap up here, doctor, what's your advice for veterans? I'm sure you have plenty and thoughts about, you know, what it's like to serve and what you do when you get out of the service.

Dr. Romero: What you need to do is you need to feel proud that you did what you did. Things changed. There could have been a lot of traumatic events. Adjust yourself to the new reality. You are human beings. You're able to learn. You're able to use the gifts that you have with you and work to better yourself and your family, and then as a side effect, also the community. You can do that and then be proud of what you've done. Be proud of having been a great artillery man, but then now you're a great welder or you're a great councilman or whatever. The limitations are all in your head. Free it up, and learn a new thing and then help the community and help yourself. A lot of us can just go home and become obese eating hamburgers and whatever, or you can go around and see how you can help the community.

Scott Webb: Yeah, that's a perfect way to finish. I mean, nothing wrong with hamburgers and cheeseburgers, but also make time to help the community as you've done and what an amazing journey and amazing life you've had. So great to hear about your daughters and how well they've done. So doctor, thank you so much for your time today and, sincerely, you stay well

Dr. Romero: Thank you. You too.

Scott Webb: For more information, visit our website at svmh.com and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. And if you found this podcast to be helpful, please be sure to tell a friend, neighbor or family member and subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and check out the entire podcast library for additional topics of interest. This is Ask The Experts from Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System. I'm Scott Webb. Stay well, and we'll talk again next time.