Dr. Salazar was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia. After high school, he entered the school of medicine. He started out in dentistry but wanted more personal interaction with patients, so he turned to medicine. A few days after he graduated from medical school in Colombia, he moved to the US.
His parents moved to the US because of political concerns. His mother, who did not work in Colombia, joined the workforce in the US to support the family.
In early 1980s when Dr. Salazar moved to the US, he found internal medicine a difficult field to enter. People explained that most important thing was to enter the United States and be part of the healthcare system. In the US, when you apply for a job, employers want to see experience in the States. Once he completed postgraduate training in the US, he was dual certified in internal medicine and psychiatry. He has been a faculty member at what is now known as Augusta University for 19 years.
Dr. Salazar feels that his success as a doctor is due to the amount of training that he has had in the US, for which his education in Colombia prepared him. Dr. Salazar came to Augusta for a job at the Medical College of Georgia that matched his strengths and experience. Coming to Augusta felt like coming to a small town to Dr. Salazar. Dr. Salazar was impressed by how kind people were in Augusta, the beauty of the city, the Augusta University Health System, and the educational system.
When he arrived in Augusta, he found that Hispanics/Latinos in Augusta were mainly Puerto Ricans. He has been engaged with the Hispanic/Latino community here, and they helped him adjust to life here.
He knew a lot of Hispanic doctors, and they formed the Medical Hispanic Association which had a variety of member doctors from different specialties. Later on, Dr. Salazar began to work with ALAS, the Asociación Latina de Servicios, which provided a variety of social services, including health services Dr. Salazar was later given the opportunity to be the president, and one of his main goals as president was to continue offering care to the poor and underprivileged. Today, the clinic is in a spacious location and serves Hispanic patients as well as members of other underprivileged communities. ALAS is now in the process of building its own building.
ALAS’ work is done mostly by volunteers—hundreds of volunteers. ALAS tries to help people, particularly Hispanic, to acculturate by providing other services like ID cards and ESOL classes.
Dr. Salazar works with ALAS in part because doctors want to alleviate suffering and to follow Catholic teachings to help and love your neighbor. The response to ALAS by the CSRA community has been heartening to Dr. Salazar. Augusta University has been very supportive of ALAS.
Dr. Salazar describes how ALAS was organized by a group of people who wanted to provide services to the Hispanic community. He has learned humility, patience, and faith from working with ALAS. He finds power in working together with people from different backgrounds but the same goal.
He remembered a Nicaraguan patient who came here from extreme poverty that ALAS was able to help. He finds that when you sit down to listen to others’ stories, you realize that many of us are very privileged.
He would like to educate people, especially people from this country, that Hispanics provide a lot to this community. He would like them to know that Hispanic/Latino people’s accents are not a sign of intelligence and that they value family and work.