Fulfilling My Purpose as a Future Bilingual Pharmacist – Honoring Hispanic Heritage in Pharmacy

Hello everyone, my name is Diana Martinez-Nava and I am a fourth-year student pharmacist at The University of New Mexico College of Pharmacy. I would like to take some time on this special month celebrating our Hispanic Heritage to share my story on my pharmacy journey.

My interest in becoming a pharmacist began around the time I was 8 years old. I was that small child who could barely see over the counter at our neighborhood pharmacy next to my father’s arm who would be reaching out to collect, as he called it, “goody” bags.

I recall this woman in a white coat asking my father very short yes or no questions because that was all my father could respond to in his very broken English.

At 10 years old I was granted the honorary role of the family translator. I began to gain curiosity of what was in these so called “goody bags” with these very hard-to-pronounce names. I started to learn quickly as I now served as the bridge between this woman in the white coat and my father as his diabetes began to worsen. Countless trips to the pharmacy throughout the years seemed to form a father-daughter-pharmacist patient relationship and I was now able to physically see eye to eye with this woman who soon became one of my role models. Her name is Nicole and quite frankly she saw me grow up throughout all levels of my education. I even had the opportunity to become her pharmacy intern!

At this point, I thought my story came full circle, but it wasn’t until I got my very first opportunity to translate for a father-daughter duo at that same pharmacy that I realized my purpose as a future bilingual pharmacist serving our community. Truly, my purpose as a student pharmacist was fulfilled when I saw the relief in the young girl’s eyes who in the most impeccable grammar asked me why her “father’s prescription was changed from one medication to a different one”. I thanked the little girl for her help and bravery as I greeted her father in his native tongue “en Español” and informed him about the changes. The look of relief in her eyes was the reason why I chose this career.

Nicole and many other women who I have been lucky to work for and precepted under have shaped me into the student pharmacist I am now and I am excited to continue this legacy and keep empowering my female colleagues and the next generation of pharmacists. My mission as a future pharmacist is to hopefully breakdown these language barriers by understanding my future patients in their native tongues and allowing their children to solely be children and not have to worry about remembering the word for “pain” in English because they only know it in Spanish.  

In May of 2021 I received my very first degree, a bachelor’s of arts in Spanish literature with a minor in chemistry and everything seemed so surreal, I could not believe I had made it through those 90 credit hours of prerequisites for pharmacy school when I thought the world was going to end because of organic chemistry II. In fact, the world didn’t end! My life in this crazy world of healthcare was just beginning. As a first generation Mexican-American and proud daughter of Mexican immigrants, higher education has always seemed like a very unachievable goal both monetarily and logistically. Being the first in my family to graduate high school, attend a university, receive a bachelor’s degree, and the first to matriculate into a doctorate program came with many barriers along my path. These barriers at the time seemed impossible to overcome and I would constantly ask myself “Can I really do this?” or “Do I actually belong here?”, especially when I didn’t get the “perfect grades”, or I didn’t have the networking connections my peers did. These once unachievable goals to the 10 year old little girl who praised Nicole’s white coat became achievable thanks to the support of my friends, family, many mentors I’ve had the honor to have, and to the endless curiosity I have always had when asking the question “Why?”.