Hispanic girls don’t grow up to be doctors. At least that’s what Erica Espinoza once thought. A pharmacist, a nurse, a physician’s assistant … yes, certainly. But the thought of being a doctor appeared out of reach for a woman who looked like her.
Erica became interested in a health care career path at a summer program in Edinburg, where she grew up. She also is quick to admit, while now wearing her white coat and stethoscope, she didn’t think she could become a doctor.
“I was going to be a PA (physician’s assistant) because that is what girls do,” Erica says. “But, someone said, you don’t want to be a PA, you want to be a doctor. I can’t remember who said that, maybe one of the guys in the program. But, that statement stuck in my head for so long. And so, I decided to go to medical school.”
That decision has more than paid off. The Harlingen resident easily summarizes her early life as a means to quicker reach the present and talk about what she’s doing now.
But, before we can get to her new calling and how the two are intertwined, we must find out her path.
Erica wanted to be a veterinarian when she was a child. Her parents were not highly educated people. Her father was a successful businessman who Erica says worked hard for everything he earned.
In high school, she excelled in academics and athletics. She admits she’s been able to do whatever she has ever wanted to do.
“My parents were always supportive,” she says. “They just thought I could do whatever. You know, the sky’s the limit.”
After attending the University of Texas Pan American and earning a bachelors degree in chemistry, Erica headed out of the Valley to Houston. She worked at the Baylor College of Medicine, including a few years on the human genome project.
In 2004, she was admitted to medical school and graduated in 2007 from the University of Texas Medical Department in Galveston. That’s where she met her husband, who later became a urologist.
Along the way, she decided family practice was most appealing because of its broad nature.
“I see kids, adults, teens, and the elderly,” she says. “I love the variety of general medicine. You see the common things, but the variety is amazing. The day is never the same. And that is fun.”
