Latinx Files: Doctors from Mexico bolster California farmworkers’ healthcare

A promising pilot program in the Salinas Valley is bringing much needed healthcare to one of California’s most vulnerable populations.

On Tuesday, The Times published a report by Melissa Gomez (with photographs by Dania Maxwell) about an initiative launched by the Clinica de Salud del Valle de Salinas that brings doctors from Mexico to provide medical care for the area’s farmworkers.

To date, the federally qualified health center has brought to California 24 doctors specializing in several fields, including pediatrics and gynecology. The idea is to bring culturally competent healthcare professionals to a primarily Spanish-speaking community. These doctors are paid a salary comparable with what their U.S. counterparts earn and are vetted by the Medical Board of California.

By the looks of it, the program has been a success. Dr. Maximiliano Cuevas, chief executive of the Clinica de Salud del Valle de Salinas, says that the doctors are on pace to handle a patient load of 4,500 visits each.

“I keep hearing over and over stories of people who have put off healthcare because they felt that no one was listening, that doctors were making fun of them because they couldn’t speak the language, or doctors were insulting them,” Cuevas told The Times.

Under this program, patients feel heard and understood.

Amazingly, the California state law that makes this initiative possible has been on the books since 2002. However, nothing was ever implemented because the law faced vocal opposition from Latino physicians and the California Medical Assn. Critics accused proponents of wanting to set up a “doctor bracero program.”

It took more than a decade for dissent to die down. In 2015, Cuevas and Arnoldo Torres, previously the executive director of the California Hispanic Health Care Assn., headed to Mexico to begin their recruitment. In 2021, the first wave of doctors arrived.

The program’s future remains unclear — a peer review by UC San Francisco and the Medical Board of California awaits at the end of the year. Those findings will decide whether it’s extended for three more years.

Regardless of its fate, it’s clear this initiative has been life-changing not just for the patients it serves, but also for the doctors who participate.

“I don’t know if in the future the program will be reviewed positively or negatively,” Dr. Armando Moreno, an OB-GYN, told The Times in Spanish. “But for me, and all of us who see patients every day, to see how their faces light up when you come in and you say, ‘Hi, how are you? How can I help you?’ That, for me, I will carry with me.”

You can read Melissa’s full report here.

(Jackie Rivera / For The Times; Martina Ibáñez-Baldor / Los Angeles Times)

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