DR. JOSE GABRIEL LÓPEZ PLASCENCIA

Retired Physician from Private Practice, Phoenix, AZ

The older generation remembers Dr. López as one of the few Spanish-speaking doctors in all of South Phoenix. Born in Guadalajara, Mexico in 1921, he arrived in the U.S. in 1947 after a Catholic priest in Phoenix invited him to help care for low-income families in Arizona. Dr. López practiced medicine and surgery for over 60 years — even enlisting in the Arizona Army National Guard as a medical officer. He served neighborhoods in South Phoenix that once faced decades of segregation and poverty. "People knew where they could go for help, and that was Dr. López," says former patient Abe Arvizu Jr.

ARTIST - MARLENA VEGA is a native New Yorker who lives in East Harlem. She is honored to draw the late Dr. José Gabriel López-Plascencia, a fellow Latinx person, for this project. Marlena is a visual arts major at LaGuardia High School. She is also an actor and an aerial artist.