Mexican healer father inspired first-generation college grad
Will Mundo thought his dad was a doctor.
Growing up in a Leadville trailer park, Mundo watched his immigrant father treat the injuries and maladies of the largely lowincome, uninsured and undocumented population in their community. He saw his father treat a wood chopper’s lacerated hand, applying pressure and coffee grounds to stop the bleeding.
It wasn’t until later in Mundo’s life that he realized his father never went to medical school or even college. He was a healer who used his knowledge of traditional Mexican medicine and first aid to help a neighborhood in need.
“That’s where I first had that image of what a doctor is,” Mundo said. “From there, it just blossomed. It became a dream and then a goal and, shortly after that, it became reality.”
Mundo, a child to two Mexican immigrants and a first-generation college graduate of the University of Colorado Denver, is halfway through his residency in Denver Health’s emergency medicine program. The 29-year-old Coloradan knows his path to medicine and his future career as a doctor are fortified by his culture every step of the way.
Even as a child, Mundo noticed the disparities that made it feel like a career in medicine was stacked against him. He attended school in a district known at the time for its well-below-average graduation rates and lower test scores. Yet about 30 miles up the road in Vail, Mundo said, it was a totally different story.
“A lot of wealthy people live in those communities and with the property taxes funding the schools, you can just see the disparities,” Mundo said. “It was a bumpy ride.”
Inspired by his father, Mundo knew he wanted to go into medicine, but no one in his family knew much about college or how to get there. Luckily, Mundo said, his family was supportive of his dreams, and he reached out for help from local mentors and educators.
“I had the support system available to be able to counteract all those negative forces trying to maintain the status quo,” he said.
Mundo became a lifeguard at 16 and learned first aid. Next, he earned his wilderness first responder certificate and then his emergency medical technician certification.
Mundo studied at CU Denver and graduated from the University of Colorado School of Medicine in 2022. An interest in health equity and learning about the worse health outcomes marginalized people often experience made him vow to make a difference as a doctor.
“While Will has seen extraordinary results because of his hard work and determination to receive an education and give back to his family and community, so many people can relate to Will’s story and experiences,” said Marie Williams, CU Denver’s vice chancellor of marketing and communications. “That’s because he represents what CU Denver is all about. From being a firstgeneration American growing up in Colorado and the first person in his family to attend college, to earning multiple degrees and actively making his community healthier, he shows the possibilities of what CU Denver can help students achieve.”
According to 2022 data from the Pew Research Center, Hispanic adults are less likely than other Americans to have health insurance and get preventative medical care. Reasons for this disparity include language and cultural barriers, as well as economic barriers like higher levels of poverty among Hispanic people, particularly recent immigrants, the researchers found.
Now, Mundo is working with Denver Health’s language and interpretation office on a mandatory training program about how to offer language services and work with translators for patients.
Mundo remembers acting as a translator at his grandmother’s doctor appointments as a little kid and feeling the pressure of translating important medical information without understanding adult conversations.
“The hope is for patients to be able to communicate with their doctors and tell them what’s going on rather than relying on a little kid or just not being able to communicate at all,” Mundo said.
Mundo’s hopes to one day work at a level 1 trauma center like Denver Health. During his career, Mundo hopes to be a mentor and inspiration for other aspiring Latino doctors.
Only 7% of all physicians and surgeons in the United States are Hispanic, according to Pew, compared to making up roughly 19% of the nation’s population.
“A lot of people doing the work to help reduce health disparities are minority people,” Mundo said. “And we need this work. If we don’t, who else is going to do it? We need new ideas, we need people to challenge the way that things have been done in the past. One easy way to do it is increasing representation or diversity — socioeconomic diversity, gender diversity and thinking about different types of abilities, as well.”