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Speaker 1: Hey there, dear listener. So today we're going to do

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Speaker 1: something a little different. We're going to bring you a

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Speaker 1: Port of Entry podcast episode from our friends over at

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Speaker 1: KPBS in San Diego and PRX. Port of Entry tells

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Speaker 1: cross border personal stories that connect us. These are stories

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Speaker 1: of love, hope, struggle and survival from border crossers, front risas, fronterisos,

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Speaker 1: and other people whose lives are shaped by the wall. Now,

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Speaker 1: medical tourism is big business in Tijuana, and not even

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Speaker 1: the pandemic has stopped its growth. The US government estimates

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Speaker 1: that close to one million people in California alone cross

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Speaker 1: to Mexico every year for medical procedures or to buy

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Speaker 1: prescription drugs. And dear listener, a quick warning before we start.

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Speaker 1: This piece does not offer any medical advice based on science.

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Speaker 1: It's a story about one woman's cross border experience and

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Speaker 1: her own personal convictions. It does not reflect our opinions.

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Speaker 1: So here's host Alan Lillian Dunn to bring us this story.

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Speaker 2: Santos La Tijuana, Aljamato Tolism medic.

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Speaker 3: In Tijuana, medical tourism is blowing up.

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Speaker 1: Mexico is striving to become a worldwide leader in medical tourism.

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Speaker 4: About one million people, mainly Americans, travel to Mexico every

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Speaker 4: year for all kinds of medical treatment.

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Speaker 5: Have dentists, pharmacies, and other medical services that cater specifically

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Speaker 5: to America.

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Speaker 1: Tijuana is actually something you can afford us. It was

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Speaker 1: like four thousand dollars to get.

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Speaker 2: It done in here.

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Speaker 1: I don't even know.

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Speaker 2: It's probably like twelve to fifteen thousand dollars.

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Speaker 3: The entire Tijuana landscape immediately surrounding the border has just

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Speaker 3: completely transformed.

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Speaker 6: Family pray for quila.

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Speaker 3: Flashy blinking digital billboards advertising dentists, cosmetic surgeons, and ancer

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Speaker 3: clinics are everywhere. But towering over them is a huge

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Speaker 3: new medical center and hospital that just opened its doors.

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Speaker 3: There's a lot of talk about how this new medical

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Speaker 3: center is going to be the most technologically advanced hospital

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Speaker 3: in all of Latin America. I actually went to the

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Speaker 3: launch party for another Jewish center called New City Medical

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Speaker 3: Plaza in twenty nineteen. It was crazy.

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Speaker 7: There was wine, cheese, a huge stage with a wild

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Speaker 7: light show, and like a thirteen person banned. A ton

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Speaker 7: of politicians and business people were there.

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Speaker 3: It felt like a fancy wedding. These shiny new medical

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Speaker 3: buildings stand tall here at the border, poised for a

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Speaker 3: few where the billions of dollars being spent by lots

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Speaker 3: of people from the US and beyond just keeps ballooning,

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Speaker 3: and the pandemic it's barely put a dent in the

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Speaker 3: industry's growth. In fact, COVID nineteen is actually driving a

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Speaker 3: big boost in plastic surgery procedures in Tijuana, thanks in

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Speaker 3: part to people staring at themselves in zoom meetings all day, and.

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Speaker 8: It's causing people to see themselves on screen and not

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Speaker 8: the most flattering light. Many are now getting botox fillers

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Speaker 8: and facelifts, keeping some plastic surgeons very busy.

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Speaker 6: It's called the zoom boom.

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Speaker 3: So yeah, Tijuana is big time when it comes to

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Speaker 3: medical tourism. Most people are crossing south to save money

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Speaker 3: on medication and medical procedures. But some people, folks like

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Speaker 3: Maria Davis Cherry, are you they aren't crossing the border

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Speaker 3: to save dollars on things like nose jobs and dental veniers.

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Speaker 2: For three weeks, I think it's about twenty three, twenty

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Speaker 2: two thousand and some change money coming around your savings.

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Speaker 3: People like Maria are crossing the border hoping to save

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Speaker 3: their own lives.

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Speaker 2: We are in Tijuana, Mexico, right across the border, and

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Speaker 2: I just finished my last natural holistic cancer treatment at

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Speaker 2: Immunity Therapy Center.

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Speaker 3: Today we kick off a new series on medical tourism

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Speaker 3: at the border with Maria's story of crossing for alternative

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Speaker 3: cancer treatments. It's really a story about faith and belief

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Speaker 3: and looking death right in the eye.

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Speaker 4: Aritamos jahra gressamos.

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Speaker 3: So when Maria gets a headache, she doesn't reach for

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Speaker 3: tile and oil.

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Speaker 2: I just put like peppermint oil across my temples or

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Speaker 2: lavender oil and drink more water. I go like the

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Speaker 2: natural stuff.

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Speaker 3: Before she's what some people might call.

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Speaker 2: Crunchy toomeric and mushrooms and alkaline water. You know, how

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Speaker 2: to keep your accalinity in your body. I started looking

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Speaker 2: at now even more at elderberries, vitamin B seventeen, which

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Speaker 2: is appercross seeds, you know, so just a lot of

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Speaker 2: natural oils, frankinsense essential oil.

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Speaker 3: Maria believes one hundred percent in the power of holistic healing, healthy,

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Speaker 3: clean eating, exercise, natural remedies, those kinds of things, and

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Speaker 3: she's kind of the perfect poster child for it. Maria

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Speaker 3: was forty nine back in twenty nineteen when my producers

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Speaker 3: and I first talked to her, but she looks way younger.

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Speaker 3: She's one of those people who somehow always looks like

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Speaker 3: she just stepped out of a spa or something like

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Speaker 3: her skin just sort of glows, which is worth noting

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Speaker 3: because at the time she was in the middle of

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Speaker 3: a battle for her life.

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Speaker 2: I was in the doctor's office at the oncologist office,

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Speaker 2: and I was sitting there with my husband again. So

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Speaker 2: they just they said, you, unfortunately as breast cancer again.

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Speaker 2: It came back, you know, they call it coming back.

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Speaker 2: I don't think it ever left, but it came back.

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Speaker 2: So I mean, you feel disappointed and irritated and sad

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Speaker 2: and a bunch of different emotions at the same time.

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Speaker 2: But okay, let's do this again.

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Speaker 3: And look, I want to say this right up front.

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Speaker 3: I am most definitely not a doctor. And this is

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Speaker 3: not some kind of hardcore investigation into the efficacy of

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Speaker 3: alternative cancer treatments. We're not recommending or warning anyone about

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Speaker 3: anything here. Instead, this is a story about one woman's

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Speaker 3: experience and her own personal convictions. Maria lives in Otai,

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Speaker 3: Mesa a city really close to the US Mexico border.

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Speaker 2: I just go out from my yard and you can

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Speaker 2: see all the little lights. It's an open field. And

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Speaker 2: then right after the open field, you can see all

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Speaker 2: the lights and you can see Mexico from the O

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Speaker 2: Tai border pretty much.

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Speaker 3: One of the first things you noticed when you meet

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Speaker 3: Maria is her sort of stoic look. It's like being cool,

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Speaker 3: calm and collected is her natural state. She's strong and

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Speaker 3: also a little emotionally guarded, at least with me and

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Speaker 3: my producers, Emily Jankowski and Kinsey Morland.

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Speaker 6: Man, how do you stay so tough?

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Speaker 9: Did you like build a wall around your heart?

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Speaker 6: And how do you stay so strong? No?

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Speaker 2: You know, I mean the only thing we can do

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Speaker 2: now is to educate ourselves to to keep pushing forward

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Speaker 2: another day.

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Speaker 4: You know.

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Speaker 9: Nothing.

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Speaker 2: The Bible says, you know, if you pray, don't worry,

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Speaker 2: But if you worry, then why pray? So I just

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Speaker 2: don't worry anymore. I think stress is going to probably

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Speaker 2: even cause bigger things. So I think the more you stress,

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Speaker 2: the more you get things in your body, and worrying

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Speaker 2: about it is not going to change that. I got

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Speaker 2: cancer twice you know, don't you get mad though? Oh yeah,

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Speaker 2: of course, I'm just not mad right now.

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Speaker 3: So for this Maria's second battle with cancer, she's built

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Speaker 3: herself what she feels is an impenetrable suit of armor,

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Speaker 3: armor that's made up of her faith in God and

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Speaker 3: her new found faith in holistic healing. The first time.

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Speaker 2: Around, my first diagnoses was April first, a Profols twenty fifteen.

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Speaker 3: Maria all the things you're supposed to do when you

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Speaker 3: have breast cancer, chemo, a double mastectomy, and very potent

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Speaker 3: cancer drugs, but the surgery and especially the chemo and radiation,

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Speaker 3: Maria absolutely hated how it made her feel.

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Speaker 2: You lose your taste, buds, metallic mouth, constipation or diarrhea

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Speaker 2: and urbo infections, hospitalizations, weight, lost, stomach issues, you're tired.

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Speaker 2: I got mouth source and I couldn't eat anything. That's

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Speaker 2: when I lost the weight.

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Speaker 3: After the second diagnosis, Maria's oncologist and team of doctors

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Speaker 3: in San Diego said it was time for her to

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Speaker 3: prepare for round two surgery to remove the cancer, chemo

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Speaker 3: to kill anything left behind, and cancer drugs to help

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Speaker 3: keep it at bay.

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Speaker 2: And I told them I wasn't going to do it.

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Speaker 2: This time, I was going to go the holistic route

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Speaker 2: and I was going to do my own research.

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Speaker 5: You got something wrong with you, there is a Mexican

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Speaker 5: remedy for that.

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Speaker 3: So here's the thing about Mexican culture when it comes

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Speaker 3: to folk medicine. A lot of Latin people have stories

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Speaker 3: about our moms or abuelas, and there's special herbal remedies.

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Speaker 3: Here's a YouTuber named Ruby breaking.

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Speaker 5: It down and heal you as well.

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Speaker 3: There's always a tea.

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Speaker 5: There's a tea for when your stomach hurts, There's a

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Speaker 5: tea for when you're in pain. There's a tea for everything.

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Speaker 5: Your parent will do this to you, sana cal.

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Speaker 3: And maybe you've been to a botanica. There are these

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Speaker 3: little Mexican tiendas that sell folk medicine, religious candles and

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Speaker 3: other things that people believe are magical or can be

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Speaker 3: used for healing. So alternative medicine has long been a

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Speaker 3: thing in Mexico and now it's blowing up in the

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Speaker 3: US as well. Essential oils are everywhere of these days,

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Speaker 3: tons of people are taking CBD for all kinds of problems.

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Speaker 3: Healing crystals are I think there's actually a lot of

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Speaker 3: emerging heart signs on alternative models of healing, like the

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Speaker 3: real life chemical benefits for your brain when you meditate.

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Speaker 3: For example, I'm actually a lot like Maria, but not

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Speaker 3: everyone is personally.

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Speaker 9: When I heard it, I kind of freaked out for her.

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Speaker 3: Maria actually helps run a cancer support group for women.

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Speaker 3: So because I'm not a woman, my producers, Kinsey Morland

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Speaker 3: and Emily Jankowski stopped by instead.

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Speaker 6: Kinsey beautiful, Emi, and Maria is on her way.

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Speaker 3: So again. This was back in twenty nineteen, long before

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Speaker 3: the pandemic, and a group of about half a dozen

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Speaker 3: women sat in a circle of chairs crammed inside a

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Speaker 3: small room in the back of a hair salon in

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Speaker 3: Chula Vista. Chula Vista, by the way, is a city

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Speaker 3: in southern San Diego County, just a few exits away

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Speaker 3: from the US Mexico border.

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Speaker 6: Would you like some water or tea or coffee? I'm good.

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Speaker 9: Unless everybody gets here, I'll close the door. Did you

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Speaker 9: find a parking right front?

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Speaker 5: Oh?

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Speaker 4: Good?

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Speaker 5: Is it always here in the salon? It's usually at

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Speaker 5: Maria's house.

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Speaker 3: Right After settling in with some snacks and tea, the

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Speaker 3: night kicked off with a few heavy cancer war stories,

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Speaker 3: but actually most weren't about the cancer itself. They were

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Speaker 3: more focused on the treatments.

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Speaker 6: I mean, they never tell you the tail end of chemotherapy.

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Speaker 3: It's the devil. That's Delia Kilera. She was diagnosed with

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Speaker 3: breast cancer in twenty fifteen. She did a double mastectomy,

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Speaker 3: chemo and radiation and yeah, the cancer did go away,

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Speaker 3: but the chemo was really hard on her heart. And

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Speaker 3: actually she's one of a tiny percentage of people who

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Speaker 3: get congestive heart failure from chemotherapy.

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Speaker 6: There's only like a port two out of fifty where

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Speaker 6: they'll receive congestive heart failure and whoo I would of them. Yeah,

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Speaker 6: so it's it's really difficult. So I don't know. If

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Speaker 6: ever I had a second chance, i'd probably have to

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Speaker 6: double think it.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, right, because Chimo for you almost yeah.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I'm still doing it. I have a defibrillator,

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Speaker 6: I have a other machine. Yeah.

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Speaker 9: So the ill effects, like dal was saying, the ill

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Speaker 9: effects of chimo, once you go through treatment, it's not over.

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Speaker 3: This is Anna Maria Rico, another breast cancer survivor. Everyone

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Speaker 3: here knows her as snooky.

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Speaker 9: You know, the chemotherapy the way it ravages some people's bodies.

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Speaker 9: Stays with you, stays with you for the rest of

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Speaker 9: your life.

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Speaker 3: Snooky owns the salon where the cancer support group met

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Speaker 3: that night. She also runs a nonprofit that gives women

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Speaker 3: undergoing chemo a free makeover.

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Speaker 9: In a way, I'm still battling through a lot of

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Speaker 9: harmful effects of what the chemotherapy did, not to mention

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Speaker 9: the chemo brain that I had for a good three years.

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Speaker 9: You know, I'm a woman who's used to multitasking and

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Speaker 9: all that was taken away from me.

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Speaker 3: But even with the long list of side effects from chemo,

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Speaker 3: most of the women here aren't quite like Maria. They

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Speaker 3: aren't as confident in an alternative treatment's ability to beat

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Speaker 3: cancer the way chemo can.

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Speaker 1: I wish she would go a little bit. She could

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Speaker 1: do both.

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Speaker 3: This is Billy Carino, yet another breast cancer survivor.

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Speaker 2: She could do traditional medicine and go across the border

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Speaker 2: for alternative therapies.

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Speaker 3: Most of the ladies in the group agree with Billy.

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Speaker 3: They think Maria should consider doing more of the conventional

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Speaker 3: treatments her oncologist recommends.

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Speaker 6: When I first heard about it, I was like, Wow,

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Speaker 6: she's gonna do it. My opinion would be I still

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Speaker 6: would want her to try to go on traditional that

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Speaker 6: say what Maria is going to go towards over the border.

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Speaker 6: You know, I just hope everything goes well for her

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Speaker 6: and everything's going to be negative later on.

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Speaker 2: You know, I would do holistic, but I would also

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Speaker 2: go with the traditional treatment, just a combination.

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Speaker 6: Of the two.

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Speaker 3: Maria's mind, though, is made up.

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Speaker 2: Cancero is not a death sentence, right, it doesn't have

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Speaker 2: to be a dead sentence.

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Speaker 3: Maria did end up agreeing to some of the conventional

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Speaker 3: treatments her oncologist suggested. She got a lympectomy in San

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Speaker 3: Diego and she's taking a hormone therapy drug used for

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Speaker 3: breast cancer. But she just would not budge on the

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Speaker 3: chemo or radiation.

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Speaker 2: I didn't want to put any more poison, you know,

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Speaker 2: in my body. I was tired, and obviously you know,

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Speaker 2: it came back even after the chemotherapy, after the double misseectomy,

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Speaker 2: and it came back on the same side. So how

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Speaker 2: is that effective. You can't convince me anymore to do

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Speaker 2: chemotherapy because I know what it did to me, and

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Speaker 2: I know what it does to women that I've talked

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Speaker 2: to many women that I've talked to their side effects,

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Speaker 2: you know, the consequences and even death. People die from

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Speaker 2: chemotherapy all the time.

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Speaker 3: So you can kind of hear Maria's working theory here.

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Speaker 3: She's convinced that her cancer never really went away in

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Speaker 3: the first place, even after doing all the things. Maria

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Speaker 3: does credit chemo for one big important thing, though. It

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Speaker 3: completely changed the way she takes care of herself. After

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Speaker 3: putting so much toxic stuff in her body to kill

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Speaker 3: the cancer, that's when she started incorporating all those natural

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Speaker 3: remedies into her life.

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Speaker 2: Some true seeing, you know, some detoxing, try to try

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Speaker 2: to drink more water, try to distress, you know.

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Speaker 1: So I do.

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Speaker 2: I diffew soils home every day. I do at work

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Speaker 2: as well, and I take him internally.

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Speaker 3: So yeah, this time around, Maria is leaning in on

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Speaker 3: her new healthier lifestyle and fighting the cancer her own

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Speaker 3: way in Tijuana without all the suffering, nota biam benitos regresso.

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Speaker 3: So back in December twenty nineteen, my producers and I

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Speaker 3: drove to Tijuana and we met up with Maria inside

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Speaker 3: a clinic called the Immunity Therapy Center. She had just

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Speaker 3: wrapped up the last of her treatments and was finishing

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Speaker 3: up lunch.

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Speaker 6: So Maria is there. What on Aria?

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Speaker 10: Good?

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Speaker 2: Good to meet you.

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Speaker 3: Oh my god, surprise.

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Speaker 6: It was good.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really good, really nice in here. It's really good.

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Speaker 3: After lunch, we sat down with Maria to talk about

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Speaker 3: all the different treatments she had done at the clinic.

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Speaker 2: There's a little machine called Macray, so it's like a

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Speaker 2: lot of heat. They give you a lot of heat.

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Speaker 2: So it was the mac Ray, so it was like

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00:20:29,400 --> 00:20:31,919
Speaker 2: a heat lamp. And then it's a mat that you

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Speaker 2: lay on. It's a different one and it's also heat.

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Speaker 2: And then they give you my have aport. So they

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00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:44,760
Speaker 2: give you therapies like vitamin C, vitamin B seventeen, a

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Speaker 2: Newcastle vaccine, and they give you there's this little light

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Speaker 2: it's called halo, so you kind of open your mouth

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Speaker 2: and let all the little particles go in and and

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Speaker 2: it kind of works. Everything works to destroy cancer. When

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Speaker 2: you ask them like what is this for the like

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00:21:00,400 --> 00:21:02,360
Speaker 2: for cancer, for cassa, forgatherer, So.

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Speaker 6: Everything's for cancer.

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Speaker 3: So yeah, so that day Maria was seriously like glowing.

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Speaker 3: She looked super refreshed and healthy. I personally haven't been

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Speaker 3: around too many cancer patients, but she definitely didn't look

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Speaker 3: like any I've ever seen, at least my producer Kinsey

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Speaker 3: Moreland brought that up.

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Speaker 6: Don't look like.

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Speaker 2: A cancer patient, right, that's good. What are cancer perations

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Speaker 2: supposed to look like?

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Speaker 6: You know?

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Speaker 2: You know, no correction, I don't look like a chemo patient.

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Speaker 3: So how many Marias are out there?

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Speaker 1: Like?

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Speaker 3: How many Americans leave the US and cross the border

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Speaker 3: to become medical tourists? The US government estimates that close

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Speaker 3: to one million people in California alone across to Mexico

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Speaker 3: every year for some kind of medical procedure or to

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Speaker 3: buy prescription drugs.

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Speaker 5: Hi, I'm blessing less.

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Speaker 3: So a few weeks after we met up with Maria

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Speaker 3: that first time, my producer Kinsey wandered through the traffic

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Speaker 3: jam at the border crossing, poking her microphone inside cars

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Speaker 3: waiting in Tijuana to cross to the US.

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Speaker 5: Can I ask you just why you're crossing today?

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Speaker 11: Well, we are crossing because we have patients from Mexico.

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Speaker 12: She's one of US patients for cosmetic surgery.

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Speaker 6: Really, that's right.

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Speaker 3: She stood near a lane that's actually reserved for people

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Speaker 3: just like Maria a designated medical lane for people undergoing procedures.

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Speaker 12: I work on the medical fields. This is people have

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Speaker 12: a surgery and we are crossing on the way back

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Speaker 12: for them.

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Speaker 5: So it's mostly your clients are all from.

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Speaker 12: The US exactly, US, in Canada and around the world.

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Speaker 12: And is it cosmetic or it's kind of cosmetic down

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Speaker 12: it's all in plastic Okay, everything one?

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Speaker 2: Yeah?

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Speaker 5: Yeah, how's everyone feeling? You ready to get back to

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Speaker 5: the United States? Yeah, oh, lod you.

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Speaker 3: Medical tourism in Tijuana is a welcome trend when it

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Speaker 3: comes to the money it brings in. A local tourism

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Speaker 3: group says medical visitors are bringing in over one point

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Speaker 3: five billion dollars a year to Baja California. So for

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Speaker 3: the most part, it's basic math that's driving the exponential

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Speaker 3: growth of medical tourism in Tijuana because things are just

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Speaker 3: so much more affordable here. But as we've said, for

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Speaker 3: people like Maria, it isn't always about the money. Sometimes

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00:23:44,119 --> 00:23:47,560
Speaker 3: people like Maria are crossing to take advantage of Mexico's

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Speaker 3: looser rules and regulations, and they're paying lots of money

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Speaker 3: to try things they can't easily access in the US.

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Speaker 3: For instance, if Maria had just done the things her

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Speaker 3: oncologists recommended, her insurance would have paid for almost all

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00:24:01,920 --> 00:24:05,760
Speaker 3: of it. But of course, no insurance company is willing

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00:24:05,800 --> 00:24:09,480
Speaker 3: to cover therapies in Tijuana that are either not widely

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Speaker 3: accepted or even outright banned as pseudoscience in the US.

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Speaker 2: And I think that's what I'm more upset about. I

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Speaker 2: think is the doctors, the insurance companies, the pharmaceutical companies.

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Speaker 2: You know, they don't give you a choice, you know,

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Speaker 2: they just go, this is what we're going to pay for.

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Speaker 2: You take it or leave it, and if you leave it,

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Speaker 2: then you're on your own.

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Speaker 3: People like Maria honestly don't care that the therapies that

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Speaker 3: Tijuana clinics are offering are officially unproven or even written

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Speaker 3: off in the US as scams and a total waste

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Speaker 3: of money. They believe in the treatment's efficacy and that's

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Speaker 3: all that matters to them. And then there's this whole

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Speaker 3: other market of people with cancer who just run out

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Speaker 3: of treatment options in the US. So some of those

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Speaker 3: late stage cancer patients there will to try anything, including

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Speaker 3: going to Tijuana.

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Speaker 11: People that comes to US.

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Speaker 6: I mean there have been.

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Speaker 11: Is when conventional methods fail them.

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Speaker 3: This is Carlos Albarees. He works at the clinic in

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Speaker 3: Tijuana where Maria is treated.

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Speaker 11: We believe that it would be better if they come

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Speaker 11: to us first, okay, because this is for us more

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Speaker 11: comprehensive in program. That's why we receive a lot of

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Speaker 11: stage four cancer patients, because they wait until the end

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Speaker 11: and then come to us.

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Speaker 3: After a short interview, Carlos took us on a quick

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Speaker 3: tour of the place.

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Speaker 11: So we're going to the second floor. Second floor, we

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Speaker 11: have a few treatment areas that we use to treat

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Speaker 11: the patients there are outpatient.

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Speaker 3: So the clinic looks like what you might expect, lots

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Speaker 3: of beds covered in crisp clean sheets, private patient rooms,

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00:26:12,440 --> 00:26:16,400
Speaker 3: nurses stations, and then the treatment areas, and that's where

400
00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:19,560
Speaker 3: things diverged a bit. There were a few tools and

401
00:26:19,600 --> 00:26:24,480
Speaker 3: instruments that didn't look like standard medical devices. Carlos described

402
00:26:24,520 --> 00:26:33,840
Speaker 3: them as quote special equipment that kills cancer cells. After

403
00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:36,200
Speaker 3: the tour, we stood on the sidewalk in front of

404
00:26:36,200 --> 00:26:39,080
Speaker 3: the clinic with Maria where we waited for a minivan

405
00:26:39,119 --> 00:26:41,440
Speaker 3: to come pick us up, take us through the borderline,

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Speaker 3: then drop us off at Maria's house on the other

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Speaker 3: side of the border.

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Speaker 2: Here we go an adventure back to US guys.

409
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Speaker 3: After a quick drive from the clinic to the borderline,

410
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Speaker 3: the driver headed to the special medical lane.

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Speaker 4: Well, the medical line is empty.

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Speaker 5: It's empty.

413
00:26:58,359 --> 00:26:59,080
Speaker 3: It's empty.

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Speaker 2: It's okay, but it's not.

415
00:27:00,480 --> 00:27:03,199
Speaker 4: Initially, yeah, traffic through the.

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00:27:03,200 --> 00:27:06,040
Speaker 3: Medical it was shorter than the normal lanes of traffic,

417
00:27:06,119 --> 00:27:07,359
Speaker 3: but we still had to wait.

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00:27:14,640 --> 00:27:20,160
Speaker 2: We are now in a medical lane at the border.

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00:27:21,800 --> 00:27:23,600
Speaker 2: See a lot of vendors here. If you roll down

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00:27:23,640 --> 00:27:27,680
Speaker 2: your windows, you better buy something because they're gonna want

421
00:27:27,720 --> 00:27:30,320
Speaker 2: you to buy something. And if you look at anything,

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00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:31,399
Speaker 2: be ready to buy it.

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00:27:34,359 --> 00:27:39,760
Speaker 3: Same. So, waiting in this beast of a borderline. After

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00:27:39,800 --> 00:27:44,360
Speaker 3: getting cancer treatments, Maria says the experience has actually played

425
00:27:44,480 --> 00:27:49,240
Speaker 3: a surprising and important role in her healing process. On

426
00:27:49,320 --> 00:27:52,800
Speaker 3: the day we crossed, a young mother with a baby

427
00:27:52,840 --> 00:27:55,240
Speaker 3: strapped to her chest was standing in between the lines

428
00:27:55,280 --> 00:27:59,000
Speaker 3: of traffic at the border asking people driving by for

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00:27:59,119 --> 00:28:02,879
Speaker 3: money in exchange for chicle. Then there's the guy in

430
00:28:02,880 --> 00:28:10,040
Speaker 3: the wheelchair who can't move his arms. His wife is

431
00:28:10,119 --> 00:28:13,160
Speaker 3: always holding their baby as she pushes her husband through

432
00:28:13,160 --> 00:28:16,359
Speaker 3: the lanes of traffic and holds a microphone in front

433
00:28:16,359 --> 00:28:19,800
Speaker 3: of him so he can sing Mexican classics in exchange

434
00:28:19,800 --> 00:28:32,960
Speaker 3: for tips. Seeing these heartbreaking things, Maria says, it puts

435
00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:34,320
Speaker 3: things into perspective.

436
00:28:35,080 --> 00:28:37,919
Speaker 2: You know, people go through way worse things than what

437
00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:40,600
Speaker 2: I've gone through and they don't complain. You know, just

438
00:28:40,640 --> 00:28:43,120
Speaker 2: walk coming across the border. I see people with no

439
00:28:43,240 --> 00:28:49,440
Speaker 2: legs selling you know, candy or sodas or chips. You know,

440
00:28:49,480 --> 00:28:54,760
Speaker 2: who am I to complain? You know, And it's just hard,

441
00:28:54,800 --> 00:29:02,320
Speaker 2: and it's just there. It's really sad.

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00:29:18,160 --> 00:29:21,440
Speaker 3: Mostly, Maria says she's confident in this choice of hers

443
00:29:21,520 --> 00:29:26,160
Speaker 3: to refuse chemo and radiation and do alternative treatments instead,

444
00:29:26,840 --> 00:29:31,520
Speaker 3: but her life is literally on the line, so yeah,

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Speaker 3: of course she feels a little nervous. Sometimes I worry.

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Speaker 2: I mean, I'm not saying that I don't worry. It's

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Speaker 2: always in the back of my mind, you know, the

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Speaker 2: what if, the what if, the what if. But I

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Speaker 2: don't stay there. I don't stay in that moment. I'm

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Speaker 2: not gonna sit in in the worry.

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Speaker 6: I worry.

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Speaker 2: I said, well, what if it happens again? You know,

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Speaker 2: I'll deal with that when it gets here. For now,

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Speaker 2: I'm going to get up and go to work. For now,

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Speaker 2: I'm going to get up and enjoy the sun.

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Speaker 3: So to be honest, I was a little worried for

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Speaker 3: Maria when the pandemic hit and we pushed this episode

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Speaker 3: back further and further. I was hoping she was doing well,

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Speaker 3: but also a little scared that the next time we

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Speaker 3: called to check in on Maria she might be super

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Speaker 3: sick or I don't know, maybe even gone. How are

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Speaker 3: you doing, Maria?

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Speaker 2: I'm doing good, thank you? How are you so?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm happy to report that Maria is doing really well. Great.

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Speaker 2: Even I went to my own colleges here about three

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Speaker 2: months ago and he did the NMRI of my breast

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Speaker 2: and everything was clear, clear scans.

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Speaker 3: Look, there's no way to know for sure if those

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Speaker 3: clear scans are because of the alternative of treatments Maria

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Speaker 3: did in Tijuana or the lumpectomy she got in San Diego,

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Speaker 3: or maybe even a combination of both. And her clear

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Speaker 3: scans now don't mean the cancer won't ever come back.

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Speaker 3: But Maria isn't letting herself worry too much. She says

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Speaker 3: she's happy with how things turned out. Are you technically

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Speaker 3: in remission right now?

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Speaker 2: Yes, I'm in remission.

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Speaker 3: That's great. Port of Entry is written and produced by

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Speaker 3: Kinsey Morland. Emily Jankowski is the co producer and director

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00:32:08,040 --> 00:32:12,200
Speaker 3: of sound design. Alissa Barba edited this episode. Lisa Morisset

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00:32:12,240 --> 00:32:15,600
Speaker 3: is Operations manager, and John Decker is the INTRAM Associate

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Speaker 3: General Manager of Content. This program is made possible in

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Speaker 3: part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation

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00:32:23,600 --> 00:32:26,640
Speaker 3: funded by the American people. I am a La Lilienthal

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Speaker 3: Graskes person.

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Speaker 10: Latino USA is made possible in part by the Heising

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00:32:50,080 --> 00:32:57,240
Speaker 10: Simons Foundation Unlocking Knowledge, opportunity and possibilities more at Hsfoundation

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00:32:57,520 --> 00:33:02,560
Speaker 10: dot org, w k Kell Foundation, a partner with Communities

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00:33:02,880 --> 00:33:06,760
Speaker 10: where Children Come First, and the wind Coat Foundation.

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Speaker 1: I'm Maria Inojosa. Next time on Latino USA. It was

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Speaker 1: an anti immigrant initiative that pushed Alex Badilla into politics.

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Speaker 1: Now he's making history as the first Latino to represent

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Speaker 1: California in the US Senate.

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Speaker 8: I'll tell you why that light bulb went off in

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Speaker 8: my mind seeing hundreds of thousands of primarily Latinos march

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Speaker 8: against Prop seven.

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Speaker 1: That's next time on Latino USA.