Son of valley farmworkers honored for achievements
Written by Xiuhcoatl
Dec 01, 2006 at 10:31 PM
Son of valley farmworkers honored for achievements
Latino health foundation awards Stanford alum with scholarship
By MICHAEL DOYLE BEE WASHINGTON BUREAU Last Updated: December 1, 2006, 06:09:09 AM PST Source: Modesto Bee
WASHINGTON — Juan Ibarra's parents would be immensely proud, had they only survived Stockton.
The son of San Joaquin Valley farmworkers, Ibarra is a Stanford alumnus with two graduate degrees and a third on the way. He is a public health professional. He is an award winner, garnering national recognition and some welcome cash.
He also is a survivor, in the most elemental sense of the word.
Thursday night, Ibarra and seven other Latino students were honored and aided by the National Hispanic Health Foundation. Each received a $2,000 scholarship, a modest boost toward completing graduate or professional degrees.
"I was just blown away by being selected," Ibarra said Thursday. "I'm really proud of this, and it's going to motivate me."
As it happens, Ibarra's latest honor, presented at a New York City banquet, came on the heels of a grisly 20th anniversary.
Ibarra and his 10 siblings, along with their parents, had entered the United States from Mexico during the 1970s. The family worked in the fields around French Camp, Stockton and Lodi.
Tragedy hits family
On the night of Nov. 3, 1986, when Ibarra was an eighth-grader at Stockton's Marshall Middle School, an intruder broke into the family's Van Buren Street home. He awoke to screams. The children escaped. His mom and dad did not. The killer was caught and convicted.
"He is serving a life sentence without possibility of parole," Ibarra said.
Ibarra's siblings still live in the Central Valley; his brother Jose is a doctor in Fresno. Ibarra started achieving, and never stopped.
His latest scholarship comes from a program begun in New York City, and this year marks the first time a Californian was selected. Ibarra, 33, is completing his doctorate at the University of California at Berkeley's School of Public Health. In time, his peers and mentors expect him to help fill a void.
"A consensus exists among health policymakers and experts that there are too few Hispanic health professionals in the U.S.," said Dr. Elena Rios, president and chief executive officer of the National Hispanic Health Foundation. "We hope these scholarships will help address that need."
Few Latino doctors available
The numbers are, in fact, daunting.
According the Census Bureau, nearly 90 percent of white U.S. residents are covered by health insurance. Fewer than 60 percent of U.S. residents of Mexican descent are covered. Latinos are less likely to have a regular doctor or dentist. They are more likely to assess their own health as poor. They are more likely to be obese, or suffer from diabetes.
And with all of these health woes, there still are relatively few Latino health professionals.
Only about 4 percent of California doctors were Latino in 1999, according to the most comprehensive study of its kind. The UCLA study identified 3,578 Latino physicians out of a state total of 74,345. By contrast, Latinos make up about one-third of the state's population.
"Lots of Hispanics, when they are sick, they want to have a Hispanic doctor," noted Carol Castenada, a spokeswoman for the National Hispanic Health Foundation.
The foundation is an arm of the Washington-based National Hispanic Medical Association. The other scholarship winners range from a University of Southern California medical student to a budding dentist at Baylor University and a doctoral student in nursing at the University of Texas.
Ibarra, whose doctoral research involves human immunodeficiency virus infection among young Latino men, is juggling several possible futures from academia to public policy.
"I'm really going to keep my options open," he said.
Bee Washington Bureau reporter Michael Doyle can be reached at 202-383-0006 or
Latest Product
Anti-HR 4437 Movement in Modesto DVD
$4.99 Add to Cart
Mambo is Free Software released under the GNU/GPL License.
Getting Started 
