Thread: A journey of patience and persistence

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonia ... xml&coll=7


THE MONDAY PROFILE: A journey of patience and persistence
Abel Ahumada: A new dentist, rooted in determination
Monday, May 30, 2005
PATRICK O'NEILL

They take away points if your teeth explode. Which is why Abel Ahumada and 67 other students at Oregon Health & Science University's dental school are so intent on getting the job done right.

With his magnifying eyewear, Ahumada peers into the mouth of his patient in the school's simulation lab. The patient's head and torso are plastic; the face, fleshlike rubber. And in the artificial mouth is a human tooth, fixed in a simulated jaw. The tooth, extracted from an unknown dental patient, tests Ahumada's ability to perform a basic root canal. The outcome of this exam -- and others to test his proficiency -- take him one step closer to graduation from the OHSU School of Dentistry.

The journey toward this goal, which he began as an undocumented worker, has taken him from his home in Mexico to an industrial laundry in Los Angeles, to the berry fields of Oregon and, eventually, to citizenship and a full scholarship through dental school.


Patience and persistence have defined that journey, and Ahumada applies them here. If he rushes his drilling, he risks blowing up the fragile tooth. If he hangs back, he won't complete the root canal in the allotted time. "An adventurous spirit" Abel Ahumada, age 15, waits for night to fall on the dusty streets of Tijuana. An uncle has pointed out a place in the fence to cross the border. The year is 1984.

With a dollar in his pocket and one word of English -- "OK" -- Ahumada joins the northward flow of hopeful Mexicans through a fence and up a slope to the other side.

But the scramble sends Ahumada straight into the waiting arms of U.S. Border Patrol agents, who handcuff him, toss him into a van and drive him back to Tijuana.

So Ahumada tries again. Again, he's sent back. And again. Finally, he hires a guide to take him across. "I always had an adventurous spirit," he says. More importantly, he hopes to earn enough money to help his parents. "They were killing themselves with work."

His father, Juan, makes bolis, a frozen treat that he sells to local stores. His mother, Maria de Jesus, owns a 10-by-10-foot restaurant.

The fourth of 10 children, Ahumada has grown up until now in Xalisco, Mexico, in the state of Nayarit, about 75 miles north of Puerto Vallarta. The family lives in a two-bedroom adobe house that Juan built. Food is often scarce. "I remember my mother counting us at mealtimes," Ahumada says. "Many times, my dad would go without eating. Sometimes, all he got was a tortilla with salt."

Ahumada took part-time jobs in addition to attending school. At age 6, he hawked newspapers. Two years later, he shined shoes. He operated a movie projector for an itinerant theater that showed films at night in people's backyards.

When he was 13, his second-oldest brother, Raul, asked him to go north to the United States. "I always admired the States, watching the movies," Ahumada says. "But it never crossed my mind to go." His mother refused to let him leave at such a young age. But two years later, despite his mother's tears, he decided he was ready, though his brother had changed his mind. "At the last minute, he bails out on me," Ahumada recalls.

He is on his own. "I'm going to die"

Ahumada sticks with his guide all the way to Los Angeles, where he hopes to connect with a cousin. But the two get separated in a crowd, and all of a sudden, Ahumada is alone in the city with no money, no friends, no English. And he has lost his cousin's telephone number.


After three days with nothing to eat, he offers to clean a taco stand in return for food. The owner gives him food and sends him on his way.

By then, Ahumada says, "I wanted to go home. I said, 'This isn't going to work. I'm going to die.' " Finally, however, he calls his mother collect and gets his cousin's phone number. The cousin sets him up with a job in a commercial laundry that gave jeans a distressed, stonewashed look. From there, his journey takes him to an agricultural job that provides food, money and housing near Woodburn. Living conditions turn out to be a problem. For awhile, he lives in a four-bedroom house with 80 other workers. Then a huge shed for 200 workers at a migrant camp. Later, he finds a homeowner who rents out a detached garage without bathroom facilities. He showers outside with a hose and uses the restrooms of a nearby church and store.

But all along, he's learning, picking up English so well that his employers often call on him to interpret for recent arrivals. Feeling that he is being taken advantage of, he earns a GED at Chemeketa Community College in Salem while working as a teacher's aid in English classes for migrants.

One thing leads to another. His experience helps him to get a part-time job as an interpreter with the Clackamas County Health Department. He begins to work in 1991 as a health educator for the Virginia Garcia Clinic in Cornelius, teaching migrants about sanitation, HIV and pesticide protection.

He lands a job as coordinator of the clinic's mobile dental van. And he meets Robyn Mason, who works at a migrant Head Start program. Mason, now his fiancee and the mother of the two youngest of his three children, recalls being impressed with Ahumada's volunteer work.

"He had a fire about him," she says. "He didn't take no for an answer. It was love at first sight." With Mason's urging and help, Ahumada applied to Portland Community College. Later, he transferred to Portland State University, where he took classes that prepared him for dental school. He'd gotten amnesty through a program that permitted him to stay in the United States, and he gained citizenship in 1997.

Coming full circle

On Wednesday, one week before OHSU graduation, Ahumada is working in a 37-foot Winnebago motor home that holds two dental chairs, X-ray machines, a three-patient waiting area and a receptionist.

The van, operated by Northwest Medical Teams International Inc. and Tuality Health Care Salud Services, provides free treatment to patients who can't afford it.

Today it's parked in the equipment area of Stoller Vineyards, in the rolling hills north of Dayton. Ahumada can't get over a surreal feeling. In 1989, he earned his living picking berries in the fields around Woodburn. One day, a motor home converted into a mobile dental clinic arrived near a field where he was working. He remembers waiting outside for the dentist to see him and feeling grateful when the dentist took care of his problem. In Ahumada's dental chair is Francisco Ponce Garcia, a shy 21-year-old migrant worker who has taken time out from stringing wire to hold grapevines. Ponce last saw a dentist four years ago.


Ahumada speaks to his patient in Spanish, probes, takes X-rays, injects anesthesia and gets down to business with the drill.

The van is busy today, with 14 patients scheduled between 8:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. In the second chair, Dr. George Abdelnour, a McMinnville dentist and a dental school instructor, finishes with one patient and watches Ahumada.

Abdelnour has seen the student evolve as a dentist, his confidence growing. "He is extremely conscientious and detail-oriented," Abdelnour says.

At the beginning of the appointment, Ahumada had noticed cavities in two of his patient's lower molars. Now he's found more -- six cavities in four teeth.

An hour later, Ponce's cavities are filled, and he slides out of the chair. Abdelnour estimates the cost of the donated treatment at nearly $700.

Ahumada has volunteered with the van for the past three years. Someday, he wants to establish a similar program in Mexico, staffed by volunteers from the United States. He envisions buying a house on the beach and inviting dentists to take vacations there and do volunteer dental work.

Dr. Vincent Reyes, a cardiologist and mentor to Ahumada, visits the van. He has volunteered with the Salud program for 13 years.

Reyes calls Ahumada "charismatic," citing his doggedness as a reason for his success. "For every one person who tells you you're doing the right thing," he says, "there are 10 others who keep telling you you're on the wrong track."

Inspires others to dream

When he's not studying or donating his dental skills, Ahumada speaks to groups of Latino high school students in a program sponsored by the OHSU Center for Diversity and Multicultural Affairs.

"Abel talks to students about the barriers he has overcome," says Leslie Garcia, the center's director. "He tells them that your dreams can become a reality as long as you have determination and believe in yourself." As an undergraduate, she says, "he was told that he would never make it -- to look for a different career path because dentistry was not an option to him."

His example probably will inspire other Latinos. "Abel," Garcia says, "gives them inspiration to dream." On Wednesday, at age 37, Ahumada will receive his degree from OHSU's School of Dentistry. His parents, visiting from Mexico, will look on.

Patrick O'Neill: 503-221-8233; poneill@news.oregonian.com

When and How did he become LEGALIZED? Mass amnesty?

They're donating Dental work to ILLEGALS? Thousands of dollars of Dental Work? Who's fronting this bill?

The problem here began in Mexico.

He is one of 10 children living in a 2 bedroom home.

They don't have enough money to eat, but they have 10 children.

The mother had to "count" them at meal-time.

That's what my mother did when she would feed her cows.

And why in the world would a family with limited means have 10 children?

Why wouldn't they stop having children around 1 or 2?

Is this the result of what? Not using birth control?

Even the Rythm Method works better than this.

I'm sorry folks, but this story doesn't move me. It just illustrates the source of the problem. A culture that believes its cool to bring children into the world they can't feed and have to "pawn off" when they are teenagers to some other country. This child could have been lost forever; murdered; raped; abducted and never heard from again.

He is now here when he should be there.

There is admiration for him, but not in defense of the act.

There have been 7 amnesties of illegals in the past 20 years.

Most of us had NO CLUE or KNOWLEDGE.

IT NEVER MADE THE EVENING NEWS OR A NEWSPAPER ANY OF US READ.

We have over 17% of our population as of 2003 living below the poverty line. The Black Community has 34% of its population living below the poverty line. Hispanics have over 29% of their population living below the poverty line. The Black Community can not get above the poverty line because 70% of the Hispanics took their opportunity SPOTS.

This is outrageous. The more we hear, the more we learn, the worse it becomes.

Pure Evil has concocted this Scenario.

And it needs to be Stamped Out and Stopped in Its Tracks and Sanity Restored to the United States.

WE HAVE TO DO IT!!

Judy, I knew you would love this story.