A folding table and a chair. These simple tools are all Dr. Leticia Chavarría Villa needs to provide dozens of medical consultations to migrants, both those settled and those just passing through Ciudad Juárez. Dr. Chavarría, as she is known locally, has dedicated the last few years of her professional life to attending to thousands of migrants who have arrived at this border city, presenting various health problems. She does it out of vocation, as she explains that since the beginning of her medical career, she never thought about recognition or financial remuneration, but only about helping.
The Doctor Who Chose Vocation Over Recognition
Originally from Ciudad Juárez, Dr. Chavarría studied medicine at the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juárez (UACJ). In an interview with EL UNIVERSAL, she recounts that during her internship, she worked at a church where, at first, she felt embarrassed to charge the small fee requested from patients. After that, she worked in various clinics and factories, but she always knew that her true medical calling was to help.
“That wasn’t my goal – to be in clinics – I like to be more in contact with people, to learn about them, not only about their illness, but about their environment, and I spent many years in the factory and dealt a lot with people, and I liked that,” she shares.
Gradually, she became more involved in the medical field she truly wanted to serve – one focused on volunteer work, vocation, and helping others.
A Deepening Commitment to Migrants
“I started getting involved in 2014 with the migrant population with the Mérida Plan in the south of the country. In 2019, during the caravans, I supported a shelter that opened after a gymnasium, which had been adapted for migrants, mainly Cubans, closed. When that space closed, the shelter was enabled, and I spent all of 2019 attending to migrants,” the doctor explains.
The COVID-19 pandemic, she says, served to strengthen her work with migrants and reinforce that her professional goal was not recognition, but to help beyond medical necessity.
The COVID-19 Pandemic: A Defining Moment
“In 2020, when the pandemic was declared in Mexico, a filter hotel was opened here by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), where I was the medical coordinator. I was there in 2020, 2021, and 2022, when the alert was lifted, and the pandemic was declared over. That experience was very important and gratifying, because it was something that arose in the city, there was nothing like it anywhere else in the country, this was the beginning, and it was very characteristic.”
The hotel, she explains, was set up in a business of that type in the locality, where patients were in isolated rooms – positive cases and those recovering from the illness. This allowed protocols to be implemented to prevent contagion among the migrant and local populations, especially since shelters were closed, and this was the only space where migrants could be cared for during the coronavirus alert.
“I had a team of doctors, one doctor and four Cuban female doctors who were here as migrants. They were assistants. It was a moment and a space to protect not only the migrant population, but all of Juárez. We had cases not only of Covid, migrants also arrived with other illnesses, pregnant women, cases of appendicitis, accident victims, we did dressings and all kinds of care, and when we couldn’t attend to them, we transferred them to the hospital,” she details.
Dr. Chavarría describes this period as a time of learning in every sense, from the humanitarian aspect, listening to migrants, and transforming the space into a safe haven for them.
Continuing the Mission: San Columbano Ministry
After the COVID-19 period, she continued working with the IOM until 2023, and in the following two years, she continued providing care in other places. However, in 2025, Cristina Coronado, coordinator of the San Columbano Ministry for Migrant Care, sought her out to provide healthcare to the mobile population served at a soup kitchen run by this organization at the Ciudad Juárez Cathedral.
“I really like this type of work, and I started here with medical consultations, and over time, some adaptations have been made. Currently, there are two psychologists from another organization, and there is an agenda for medical and psychological consultations,” she adds.
According to her, the care provided to migrants is not just a simple medical consultation, but also includes accompaniment. Most of those attended are settled in Juárez, experience discrimination, and do not know how to access healthcare.
She guides some of them to make medical appointments, to assert their right to health, and to ensure follow-up on the care they require.
“During the pandemic, I knew I could help in some way; it felt very similar to violence, because it was an enemy the community was fighting. At that time, I also didn’t stay locked up, and the pandemic was the same, doctors had to be close to the population. It’s more about serving, and since I started my career, it was never my intention to reach a status or a level, never. Medicine is an opportunity, and I’m not really interested in money or taking risks, but in helping.”
Diverse Ailments and Unwavering Support
Throughout her care for migrants, Dr. Chavarría has addressed health issues ranging from a simple cold to injuries caused by attempting to cross the border wall.
“There isn’t much difference in care. When the caravans started arriving, there was a fear that they would come with different types of diseases not common to the area, but not really; they are the diseases that anyone can have.”
Colds, cases of chronic-degenerative diseases like diabetes and hypertension, and also accidents are among the services currently provided to the migrant population.
“Right now, accidents have soared because migrants, especially men, not being employed in formal jobs, find it easier to work as platform drivers, and they are victims of accidents, and that’s what we mostly attend to and accompany.”
To this day, Dr. Chavarría goes daily to provide consultations at the San Columbano Ministry for Migrant Care’s soup kitchen, where initial contact is made with the mobile population in need. Those requiring more extensive attention are taken to a clinic run by the same organization a few blocks from the Cathedral.
The doctor affirms that, from her experience, medicine should be used to serve, as one cannot seek to commercialize people’s or communities’ health. “My satisfaction is helping people, and I always try to find a way to help.”
Source: https://www.eluniversal.com.mx/estados/mi-satisfaccion-es-ayudar-a-la-gente-doctora-atiende-a-migrantes-en-ciudad-juarez/
