Like many of the Emerging Scholars, Dr. Efrain Talamantes has witnessed his intellectual ambitions converge with his personal history.
Currently an assistant professor of internal medicine at University of California, Davis, Talamantes has leveraged his education and experience to holistically address issues of equity and diversity in the field of medicine.
Dr. Efrain Talamantes
Talamantes grew up in a largely immigrant community in Los Angeles. When his mother injured her arm while working in dry cleaning, an adolescent Talamantes served as her interpreter during her doctor’s visits. While he was able to translate the language for his mother, Talamantes struggled to translate the culture. He says several doctors were unable to treat his mother, which caused her to sink into a depression. Doctors would tell him that, if his mother wanted medical attention in the United States, she would need to learn English.
Talamantes says it took about a year for his mother to get the treatment she needed. The months prior were spent in confusion.
“As a kid, I couldn’t explain it. I couldn’t understand it myself,” he recalls. “But because she was uninsured and primarily spoke Spanish, she wasn’t able to advocate for herself or really understand what was happening or what was the next step for her.”
As a student at an under-resourced high school, Talamantes dreaded his science classes. However, after performing well in a notoriously difficult chemistry class, he felt inspired by the field and was determined to become a biology or chemistry teacher.
It was only when he entered college at the University of California, Los Angeles that he began to understand the impact that a medical degree can have in his community. He was encouraged to pursue a degree in medicine by classmates and mentors, as well as by the effects of his own volunteer work.
