Oscar A. Leyva is a flight surgeon.
Walking through the narrow alleyways and past artisanal businesses in the Lake Atitlán region of the Guatemalan highlands, a swarm of children followed us as if we were a parade or a moving tourist attraction. As a global fellow through the Stanford Freeman Spogli Institute (FSI), I served as an interpreter and interviewer in this underserved region with extreme poverty a few …
“What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?”
– “Harlem” by Langston Hughes
“$23.46,” the Walmart cashier distractedly mentioned to me as I got ready for my first ride. I had signed up and passed the background check. My …
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