Juan Magaña mentors young people to help them find paths into medical careers.

One way to tell the story of Dr. Juan Magaña’s career path to working as a hospitalist at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula would be a pulled-up-by-his-bootstraps intelligence and hard work. But that is not the story Magaña tells – he is humble, for one thing, and he credits many for his success.

He also credits chance. “The reason I do the work I do is because I did not have a linear trajectory into medicine,” he says. “I almost fell into medicine by sheer luck, and support of mentors.”

By “the work” he means supporting young people who are underrepresented in the medical field, but may be interested in career pathways. He created Minorities in Medicine, a shadowing program at CHOMP, that has provided over 2,000 hours of student support since launching in 2021. The hope is to help local people find career pathways that might otherwise be opaque or inaccessible to them, and to help diversify the medical workforce. Magaña is quick to point out the disparities. For example, in 1978 there were 542 Black men enrolled in U.S. medical schools. In 2014, there were even fewer, just 515, according to a report by the Association of American Medical Colleges. Today, Latinos comprise 40 percent of California’s population, but just 7 percent of the healthcare workforce.

Magaña, 39, was raised in the Boronda neighborhood of Salinas. His parents worked in the fields, then in a cooler and in construction. He grew up working, accompanying his mom cleaning houses, picking blackberries and walnuts in the Central Valley, cooking at a Carl’s Jr.

He learned what it meant to provide health care when he was 13 and his ailing grandfather – an amputee suffering from diabetes and dementia – moved in with the family at 88 years old.

Weekly: Tell me about taking care of your grandpa.

Magaña: We provided toileting, gave him medications through stomach tubes. Even though I didn’t know him well, that level of responsibility just changes you – a level of care and respect and humility that you have to have.

My grandfather died right before I graduated high school and I thought, why can’t I do this for the rest of my life, why can’t I do this work? I was always proud of the work I did, but never happy.

You graduated from North Salinas High School then went to UC Berkeley for undergrad. But you say you did not excel in school.

I was not thinking about school in my younger years because of the distractions that come with growing in a working-class family. My mother wanted me to sit in the front at graduation and she said, “I just need you to get straight As.” It wasn’t that hard.

Getting straight As meant I got a letter that I was accepted to UC Riverside and it was like, “I can go to college.” My friends and I thought we were going to the Marines.

When I got accepted to Berkeley [where my sister was enrolling], I didn’t know it was a top school. I went because my mom said, “Mijo, it’s your job to go take care of your sister.”

I wish I could say I was driven, I wanted to get out of poverty. I really wasn’t; I was just like, “Mom, I love you to death.”

You are well versed in the disparities for people of color working in healthcare.

I can’t rest until the people of my community can realize their dream to go into medicine. I am lucky to live my dream. Everyone else deserves that opportunity, particularly in this richest country in the world. People say it’s the American Dream, but it’s not reality that it’s accessible, that’s bullshit. The least I can do is level the playing field.

Part of your mission is to help students see pathways to a career.

We have a saying, “you can’t be what you don’t see.” I am trying to be very intentional, to let it be no accident that a student decides or decides not to pursue medicine.

Looking back, are you angry that nobody helped guide you earlier?

Yes, I am very angry. I am absolutely beside myself that in this country, people are not realizing their potential because of structural barriers that exist. There is no better time than today to put even more energy into this effort.

I also find a lot of joy. Yesterday when I put gas in my car, every time I heard the pump click I thought, “Oh my god, I used to put in coins from the ashtray.” I have housing security, food security, reliable transportation. My life is rich because of what I didn’t have, and I can appreciate that.

What do you do to relax?

I play Call of Duty and watch college football. Go Bears.