Becoming a Perinatologist: One Doctor’s Path

Yeah, so I was born in Lima, Peru, to teenage parents, and we lived in this multi-level home with all of our family members.

My grandmother was my primary caretaker initially.

But Lima at the time was undergoing some very difficult times politically, and my parents, as teenage parents, found themselves with really not many options with regards to their futures and trying to raise their two daughters.

So they decided to immigrate to the United States.

And my dad immigrated two years earlier than we did, and then we joined them in 1980.

And, you know, they felt very strongly that by immigrating to the United States, they would be able to provide for their daughters, for their family, and actually for their whole family, because eventually, you know, our whole family ended up immigrating, extended family.

But they really, really believed in the educational opportunities that the United States would be able to provide for their daughters.

And so that was really ingrained in my upbringing.

Yeah.

And it's the same immigrant story that we hear all the time.

The United States and other countries just provide opportunities for people who have to leave their homes because of what's happening over there.

So we're really glad that your father made that decision because now we have you, this brilliant physician here working for us at UC San Diego.

So tell your father thank you for me.

I

will.

Let's talk a little bit more about your grandmother because I recall you mentioning that she was one of your inspirations for going into health and for being a physician.

Say a little bit more about that.

Yeah, because we lived in this, you know, home with all of our family members and literally people would just show up like cousins, you know, from other family members.

I mean, we had a large extended family.

My grandmother was a caretaker and so she would take care of like everybody's like, not only like food needs but also you know health needs and so if anybody had a stomachache or a headache she was there to provide her skills i i thought of her as a curandera really when i was growing up because i just saw her being responsible for taking care of the ailments of family members and i really i would follow her everywhere so i really responded to that and i also found her so nurturing and caring and supportive And that really resonated with me in terms of, like, wanting to be a healer because I would see her that way as a healer within our family.

Yeah, a very similar thing.

My grandmother, I saw her as a curandera.

And I asked my mom, I was like, was grandma a curandera? She goes, no.

I go, well, what about

the egg and the herbs? Yeah, yeah, exactly.