User:Oughtta Be Otters/sandbox/Catalina Esperanza Garcia
Catalina Esperanza Garcia (b. 1944) is an American anesthesiologist. Only the second Latina to graduate from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, Garcia had a fifty year career as an anesthesiologist.[1] Her civic engagement paralleled her career, focusing on helping Latina American women build successful careers.[1] She founded the Dr. Catalina E. Garcia Student Enhancement Endowment in 2015, and helped to start the Dallas Women’s Foundation, a philanthropic organization. Texas Governor Anne Richards appointed her to the State Board of Medical Examiners.[2]
References
edit- ^ a b "2019 National Hispanic Heritage Month". University of Washington. Retrieved 2022-04-18.
- ^ "Catalina Esperanza Garcia, M.D.". Miami Herald. March 8, 1992. p. 448.
2019 National Hispanic Heritage Month
Growing up in in el Segundo Barrio of El Paso, Texas, Dr. Catalina Esperanza Garcia remembers wanting to become a doctor as a child. “In sports they tell you to imagine making the perfect shot, well for me the perfect shot was walking down the hospital corridor, dressed as a physician in a white coat with a stethoscope.”
In 1961, Dr. Garcia graduated from Texas Western College – now named the University Of Texas El Paso (UTEP) with a bachelor’s degree in biology. Eight years later, Dr. Garcia became a doctor. In 1969, she became the second Latina to graduate from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. For the next 50 years, Dr. Garcia built her medical career as an anesthesiologist in North Texas. In addition to her being a practicing physician, Dr. Garcia has been actively involved community engagement. Her drive to help young Hispanic women succeed, Dr. Garcia established the Dr. Catalina E. Garcia Student Enhancement Endowment in 2015. Such support facilitates cultural immersion activities for students in the UTEP’s Medical Profession’s Institute (MPI).
Citation: University of Texas El Paso. (n.d.). Dr. Catalina Esperanza Garcia. Retrieved October 2, 2019, from https://givingto.utep.edu/page.aspx?pid=1631.
Dr. Garcia is also a founding member of the philanthropic Dallas Women’s Foundation. She teaches English to immigrant women. In 2013, Dr. Garcia was the recipient of the Dallas-Fort Worth Hispanic 100 Latina Living Legend Award. In 2016, she received a Distinguished Alumni and Gold Nugget Award from the University of Texas at El Paso.
https://givingto.utep.edu/page.aspx?pid=1631
Dr. Catalina Esperanza Garcia grew-up in el Segundo Barrio, one of El Paso’s oldest and poorest neighborhoods. While her family didn’t have much, Catalina recalls that there was always the belief that through education and hard work anything could be achieved. Catalina remembers always wanting to become a doctor. “In sports they tell you to imagine making the perfect shot, well for me the perfect shot was walking down the hospital corridor, dressed as a physician in a white coat with a stethoscope.”
Dr. Garcia obtained her bachelor’s degree in biology from Texas Western College, now UTEP, in 1961. In 1969 she realized her dream of becoming a doctor, and became the second Latina to graduate from UT Southwestern Medical School in Dallas where she has lived and worked as an anesthesiologist for over 50 years. Dr. Garcia has been actively involved in civic affairs, with a strong desire to help young Hispanic women succeed. In 2015, she established the Dr. Catalina E. Garcia Student Enhancement Endowment, which supports cultural immersion activities for students in the UTEP’s Medical Profession’s Institute (MPI). Her gifts made it possible for MPI students to travel to the Dominican Republic to research the clinical practices in the rural province of Santiago.
“It really broadens your mind when you work in another country and see how other people live. Those experiences provide important lessons on how to interact as helpers and physicians to other cultures, so that they can learn about us and we can learn about them.” Dr. Garcia hopes to give back to UTEP students for generations to come. She has made a provision in her will to make additional gifts to UTEP to help students achieve their professional aspirations.
https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/latina-doctor-made-history-in-dallas/1958824/
If you've had surgery in Dallas, anesthesiologist Dr. Catalina Esperanza Garcia may have been by your side in the operating room.
"I like team sports. And this is a team effort," said Dr. Garcia about the surgery process. "There's no way to good patient care without a lot of people involved. And I like that very much."
Garcia's dream to become a doctor began in her birthplace of El Paso, where her parents settled after leaving Mexico.
"I wanted to be a doctor since I was 5 years old," she said. "We lived in a housing project, and the county clinic was close by, and the first doctor I knew was a woman."
"The respect my parents had for that doctor," Dr. Garcia continued. "I have never seen my father show such deference to a woman as he did that doctor. I was very impressed. He showed her more respect than even to the priest. I was fascinated."
Early on, she learned the benefits of becoming a good student. Growing up, she and her siblings would look at the large houses on the mountains surrounding El Paso.
"And we would always say, 'Oh, isn't that beautiful? Why can't we have one of those?' So my parents' answer was always, 'Education,'" Dr. Garcia said. "'If you get an education, you'll be able to get a house like that.' So it was always stressed that everything is possible if you get your education."
After graduating from the University of Texas at El Paso, Garcia came to Dallas for medical school in the 1960s. But there were some lessons she wasn't prepared for.
"When I toured Parkland, the 'white' and 'colored' [racial segregation] signs were still up," said Dr. Garcia. "So that the waiting room was still divided into 'white' and 'colored.' And I had sort of an identity crisis – I do not consider myself white, and I do not consider myself black. I am a Latina, that's brown. So I didn't know what I was going to to do.
"I was very immature and not well-traveled or seasoned or anything. So I had to deal with, which is my water fountain, and which is my bathroom, and am I going to have to deal with this if I move here?"
Many classmates at UT-Southwestern were not welcoming.
"We were treated like outsiders," said Dr. Garcia. "Those of us who were not fitting the general mode of being Anglo and being from more east Texas."
"So many times I'd run into people who had misconceptions of Latinos. I realized what they had been telling me – that I was different. I wasn't different; they just hadn't met enough of us. I felt I was carrying a burden in a way."
Dr. Garcia said her professors, however, treated her fairly.
"That's what made me so at home at Southwestern," she said. "The professors never seemed to treat one student different from other. That was terrific."
Garcia was the only woman of four in her class to finish medical school. She was one of the first Hispanic women to graduate from UT Southwestern.
"My grandmother who never flown came [to her graduation], so we have a three generation picture of my grandmother, my mother and me," said Dr. Garcia.
A car crash nearly killed Dr. Garcia during medical school. She's had multiple surgeries. She calls her patients the night before surgery to reassure them and let them know the person who will be handling their anesthesia.
"I prefer not to read it off a chart," Dr. Garcia said. "What if somebody picked up the wrong chart? Or entered the wrong thing?
"I'm responsible for this patient. So I want very much to be able to guarantee that I know this patient, not just their size but their history."
Dr. Garcia's middle name of Esperanza means "hope" in Spanish. That's what Dallas has given her.
"What I try to do is educate people," Dr. Garcia said. "No matter what culture you're from, you have many of the same heartfelt feelings and needs and wishes and creations and dreams. We're all so much alike when you get past our outside."
In late October, the Hispanic 100, a network of Hispanic Women Leaders will honor Dr. Garcia with its 2013 Latina Living Legend Award.
https://www.dfwhispanic100.org/
https://www.latinoleadersmagazine.com/mayjune-2017/2017/12/28/top-latino-physicians
Catalina Esperanza Garcia, a Dallas-area anesthesiologist, was one of the first Hispanic women to graduate from the University of Texas-Southwestern Medical School. Garcia attended the school at a time of racial strife: the 1960s.
“So many times I’d run into people who had misconceptions of Latinos,” Garcia said. “I realized what they had been telling me – that I was different. I wasn’t different; they just hadn’t met enough of us. I felt I was carrying a burden in a way.” Garcia was the only woman of four in her class to successfully complete medical school. Garcia is a founding member of the philanthropic Dallas Women’s Foundation. She teaches English to immigrant women. She is the 2013 recipient of the Dallas-Fort Worth Hispanic 100 Latina Living Legend Award. In 2016, she received a Distinguished Alumni and Gold Nugget Award from the University of Texas at El Paso.
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Latinas/EUPGBlSsMqMC?hl=en&gbpv=1&kptab=overview
http://www.dallashistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/afe-past-recipients-2019.pdf