By Heather Benoit.
The Arkansas
City Traveler. July 20, 2001.
Dr. Norberto Alvarez has lived in Arkansas City for 30 years, a far cry from
where he began his life, in Cuba. In 1967 for "political change" he
moved to the United States to escape the communist government of Fidel Castro. "Before
Castro," he says, "Cuba was a rich, young country." The changes
that came with Castro's rule made him want to leave. It took six years for Dr.
Alvarez to escape and the journey wasn't easy.
After his initial request to leave, the government took his property and
sent him to live in Cuba's San Antonio. He lived there on a military base for
three years. They assigned him work to perform and allowed him to see his family
only once a month. He was finally liberated from health care in Cuba and told he
could leave whenever he wanted. But that was untrue, according to Dr. Alvarez.
It would be years still before he would actually be allowed to leave.
Finally, one Sunday afternoon, while living in Santa Maria just northeast of
Havana, 27 soldiers with guns surrounded his home unexpectedly. A colonel with
the Russian Army had taken a liking to his home where he had lived with his wife
and two children for nearly three and a half years. He says they just walked
around his house and then the colonel came to him and informed him that he was
free to leave in 48 hours. He instructed Dr. Alvarez not to move anything,
because he liked everything the way it was. Sure enough, 48 hours later, he was
on a plane with his wife and children, but without any personal items, to live
in Florida, near Miami.
He spent one year working at Jackson Memorial Hospital and at the same time
studying English. Because of his anti-Castro activities, he was told that it
would not be safe for him to live in Florida and that he should move somewhere
more inconspicuous. He moved to Chicago and again because of a strong
infiltration from Canada, he says he wasn't able to stay there either.
Finally, he says that he told the CIA that he had a friend in Winfield and
they offered to move him there. They assured him that if he didn't like it,
after 30 days they would help him find another place to live. He chose to stay,
and after two years, moved to Ark City.
Here, he worked for the Ark City Clinic for five and a half years until he
began his own practice at the South Central Kansas Regional Medical Center. At
the hospital he performs general surgery and has a general practice office. Nine
months after relocating to Ark City, he was able to take the E.C.F.M.G. which is
the Education Counsel for Foreign Medical Graduates. The test gives foreigners
in the medical field the license to practice in the U.S. At the same time he
took his State Board of Kansas test.
While he feels that the newest wave of immigrants moving here are relocating
for economical reasons rather than his political reasons, he has no doubt that
they will not have much trouble integrating into society and learning the ways
of life here. He says that the greatest problems come when the education and
cultural awareness is low. That is why he encourages the Kansas Advisory
Committee on Hispanic Affairs (KACHA) program. The program works at the
university and college levels to help the Latino population become educated.
The hospital, he feels, is doing its best to learn the basic ways to
increase the communication of the basic needs of Spanish-speaking patients. The
TOP program, for instance, is a service provided by the obstetrics department to
translate helpful information from English to Spanish.
During a recent interview with Alvarez, he participated in the making of a
video for the Diversity University program. The informational video is designed
to dispel some myths about the Hispanic community. It is meant to show the
public the benefits of bilingual speakers who are simply trying to become good
community citizens, according to Yazmin Wood, president and CEO of the Ark City
Area Chamber of Commerce. The program is a part of a larger picture meant to
educate the public on what being "diverse" really means.
Diversity, according to Wood, is not limited to race or culture, it also
includes areas such as gender and age. Wood says, "We cannot put a fence
around our community and expect it to prosper." The program offers classes
and information to the community to better understand the history of the
immigrant population here in Ark City. "We've gotten through some rough
times," says Wood of the changes on the horizon for Ark City, "but I
think we're on the edge of something wonderful."
Dr. Alvarez says that the best thing about this area is that "No matter
how you speak, you are welcome here." He says that his patients are very
good about understanding his "Espanglish" as he says they often call
his mix of English and Spanish. "America is the only place where you can
speak any language," he says, "and people just do their best to deal
with it."
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