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No. 2 Photo: Adam Mastoon  Pablo Rodriguez |
The Women's Care office in Pawtucket appears to be much like any other ob/gyn’s office—-filled with new moms and tiny babies, literature on family planning and cancer screening—-but it’s probably the only one around that includes a state-of-the-art radio studio in addition to its exam rooms.
At the microphone is Clinical Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology Pablo Rodriguez, hosting his daily call-in radio show “Nuestra Salud” (Our Health) for the non-profit radio station Latino Public Radio. But the show covers much more than just physical well being.
“So many things are impacted by health that I have a very broad definition of what health is,” he says with a grin. “I begin the show by saying that we will talk about your physical, mental, emotional, political, economic health…Anything that impacts your health, we’ll talk about it here.”
On a recent show, for example, Rodriguez outlined the health care plans proposed by each presidential candidate. Most of the time, however, the issues are felt more locally. For instance, after Governor Carcieri signed an executive order empowering Rhode Island police and correctional officers to enforce federal immigration laws in March, rumors spread through the Latino community that any undocumented workers who applied for the state’s low-income insurance program for their U.S.-born children would be arrested and deported “on the spot.” Fear was keeping people from seeking the health coverage their children were entitled to. “I was not only able to dispel those rumors, I was able to get representatives from the Department of Health to appear on my show, so that people could hear it directly from the authorities,” Rodriguez says. “There was a lot of consternation and fear in the community until my show tackled those issues.”
THE ACCIDENTAL ACTIVIST
Rodriguez’s work as an advocate began with a seemingly benign letter to the Providence Journal in 1987. The AIDS crisis was in full swing, and public policy was being guided by scant definitive information about the disease and how it spread. The Department of Health demanded that physicians report the names of all people confirmed to have HIV/AIDS, at a time, Rodriguez says, that discrimination was at its height.
“I had just been installed as medical director of Planned Parenthood when I received the regulations. [In the letter to the Journal] I said, I’m just a doctor, I deal with people every day in terms of sexuality. The last thing I need is to become a cop, to lose the trust that patients already have in me,” he recalls.
“I sent the letter not even believing it would be published. I had no idea it would become such a big deal.”
His phone began ringing off the hook: the media called for interviews, the health department director “read him the riot act,” and the fledgling advocacy group Rhode Island Project AIDS asked him to join its board of directors. An activist was born. Since then Rodriguez has championed a number of issues both locally and nationally. After his home was vandalized and threats were made on his life, Rodriguez testified before the U.S. Senate to demand safe access to abortion clinics, leading to the passage of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act in 1994. In recent years he’s been very involved with immigration issues in the Latino community, establishing the Latino Political Action Committee ten years ago.
ON THE AIR
After a horrific car accident three years ago that left him in a coma for three weeks and out of work for ten months, Rodriguez says, “I had to reexamine life and see where I could be the most efficient advocate.” He began a slow return to his activities by first going back to his radio show every day.
A year ago, Latino Public Radio incorporated as a non-profit. “I thought it was important that we were free of any commercial influence in order to have a true education and empowerment mission,” he says.
The station previously existed in a Spanish music format, but they’ve expanded the depth and breadth of the talk component. Programs offer news and news analysis, information about business creation, family law and dynamics, and cultural programming.
“We’re going to be able to change the face of radio in this country.” Rodriguez explains that most of the Spanish stations in the U.S. feature shows of the “Howard Stern” variety with crass content that is not suitable for the whole family. “We call ourselves the antidote to all the poison.” Rodriguez says the impact is already being felt locally, as other Spanish stations add more educational shows to their line-ups in response to Latino Public Radio’s success. In the last Arbitron survey they participated in, Nuestra Salud was number one in its time slot, garnering some 50,000 listeners.
“It’s so counterintuitive that you have a health show—that that would be what people want to hear. We’re proving them wrong,” Rodriguez says.
The show has even been a good way to get people involved in research. “There’s been a real lack of participation of Latinos in any kind of research and it’s because there’s no understanding of what that research is. We’ve become a platform for researchers to recruit and to explain their research in a way that people can understand.”
With Dr. Maureen Phipps, associate professor and director of the Division of Research in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, he has submitted a grant to the NIH for a study that would prove that the community is ready and able to acquire knowledge through radio about the research process and that there is a value to supporting these kinds of educational ventures.
POWER OF THE WHITE COAT
Rodriguez knows that much of what he has been able to accomplish is due to the fact that people generally respect and trust what doctors have to say. And, he believes, the medical profession could “take a more active role in developing physicians as social change agents.”
The biggest issue for him now, is trying to support public policy based on good information and not on myths and misconceptions about immigration.
Though he’s often asked if he would consider running for office himself, Rodriguez says he doesn’t think it’s possible to raise the kind of money you need for a campaign “without becoming beholden to somebody.” And that’s not something he’s willing to do.
“It’s better to be on the outside throwing rocks than it is to be on the inside making compromises.”