The Central Valley’s Health Crisis Isn’t Inevitable—I’ve Proven What’s Possible

With the right leadership, resources, and determination, we can transform our community’s health.

For too long, Fresno County families have been told to accept our reality: the worst air quality in the nation, the highest uninsured rates, and critical shortages of physicians, nurses, and health care workers. Career politicians shrug and call it inevitable—the price of living in the Central Valley. They’re wrong. I’ve spent 20 years proving that with the right leadership, resources, and determination, we can transform our community’s health.

When my family immigrated from Mexico, we came to Calwa, where I was brought to work alongside my parents in the fields and cleaning hotel rooms. Like many Valley families, we learned to navigate a health care system that treated us as afterthoughts. But where others saw unchangeable conditions, I saw opportunities to build something better.

Throughout my career, I refused to accept that status determined access to quality care and lifesaving treatment. As an HIV Health Educator, I helped create culturally relevant programs that reached those everyone else had written off. When I became an Outreach Worker, I helped establish Fresno County’s first Healthcare for the Homeless program. At Clinica Sierra Vista, I expanded our programs and secured funding for mental health services, substance abuse treatment, and prenatal care. We didn’t just talk about comprehensive care—we built it, clinic by clinic, program by program. When the Affordable Care Act became law, we constructed new facilities and renovated existing ones, proving that local action is critical to delivering policy change.

During the pandemic, we learned what was possible when forced into an emergency. As President and CEO of Fresno Building Healthy Communities, I co-founded the COVID-19 Equity Project. We united 20 organizations, deployed 135 community health workers, and delivered vaccines and resources directly to more than 25,000 vulnerable residents. Our model achieved such success that it was replicated in two other counties.

We’ve secured $70 million in state funds for community transformation. We passed Measure P, bringing millions for parks and health-promoting spaces. We established a $5.5 million Non-Resident Specialty Fund, ensuring undocumented residents access to lifesaving care.

When Community Health System diverted Medi-Cal funds meant for Fresno’s underserved to expand into affluent areas, we didn’t accept it as “business as usual.” We sued because accountability isn’t optional when public health dollars are at stake.

I’m now fighting to reclaim Calwa Park because I’ve proven that communities thrive when they have spaces for wellness and connection. Shuttered facilities aren’t inevitable—they’re choices that can be reversed.

Critics say the Central Valley will always struggle with health care access, that our geography and demographics doom us to disparity. I have two decades of receipts that say otherwise. Every clinic built, every program funded, every family served proves that accepting inadequate health care as our destiny is a political choice, not an unchangeable reality.

As your Assemblymember, I won’t offer sympathy for “unfortunate realities.” I’ll bring the same approach that’s transformed health care access for hundreds of thousands: identify the gaps, secure the resources, build the solutions, and hold institutions accountable.

The question isn’t whether quality health care equity is possible in the Central Valley—I’ve already proven it is. The question is whether we’ll elect leaders who accept excuses or those who deliver results. I know which one I am. My track record speaks louder than any campaign promise ever could.