UCLA Journal of Radiation Oncology Fall and Winter 2022 - Flipbook - Page 24
UCLA RADIATION ONCOLOGY JOURNAL
though to be honest, most people took them for
granite.
factor guiding my decision to pursue a career as
a physician. Once seen, health inequity cannot
be unseen, and so I set out to frame my career as
a physician with the goal of leveling the playing
field for those most in need. Radiation Oncology
entered the picture for me later in medical
school, mostly because I loved taking care of
cancer patients and I was really stimulated by
the cutting-edge research and technology that
characterized the work we did. Recognizing that
there are actually many opportunities to address
healthcare disparities in our field sealed the
deal, as Radiation Oncology seemed to represent
an ideal alignment of my interests and passions.
As fun and fulfilling as these creative pursuits
were, I think I knew that the future had other
things in store for me. I still have a lot of friends
in the arts and I really love supporting them and
their work whenever I can. I think it makes for a
great grounding counterbalance to my career in
medicine – especially in LA where the art scene
is so incredible.
Can you talk about your heritage. Did it
influence your trajectory?
L: My heritage is a little bit here, there, and
everywhere, but I did grow up in a Hispanic
family, and both Spanish and French language
and culture were a part of my upbringing. My
grandma would regale us with incredible stories
about her harrowing escape from Franco’s
regime during the Spanish Civil War, and she
worked very hard to cultivate a Spanish-speaking
community for her family even after leaving
Spain. I still do have extended and not-soextended family throughout Spain, France, and
parts of the Caribbean, and I try to visit when
I can. There’s such a range of what Hispanic
identity means to people, but for me, it offers a
unique opportunity to connect with our Spanishspeaking patients in ways I don’t think would be
possible without that aspect of my upbringing.
You’re a Fulbright Scholar. How did this honor
and experience impact your approach to
patient care?
L: My Fulbright experience was incredible,
and I really try to carry many of the lessons
I learned from that year into my clinical
practice. During my Fulbright year, I lived in
the rural fishing village of Majene, which sits
on the western coast of the island of Sulawesi.
Indonesia is a country of 17,000 islands, so it’s
always worth specifying. While in Majene, in
addition to serving as a cultural ambassador and
promoting mutual understanding between the
people of Indonesia and the US, my main focus
was teaching English and working with local
stakeholders in public high school education to
develop an English language curriculum specific
to the needs of the community.
Why medicine? From medicine, how did you
arrive at Radiation Oncology?
Generally speaking, when you are the only
one of something in a community (which was
certainly the case for me in Majene), both your
presence and your absence rarely go unnoticed.
So that experience really got me in the habit of
showing up, literally and figuratively, for the
students and co-teachers in the community I was
serving. I think that is one of the most important
things I’ve carried forward in my approach to
L: It was clear to me from a very early age that
there were extra challenges when people in my
family encountered illness. As is the case for
many families in America, there were times
when we had only the most basic healthcare
services accessible to us, and I don’t think any
of us could have conceived of easily accessing
tertiary care or clinical trials. So the opportunity
to combat health inequity was an important
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