From Coachella to Congress

BEFORE REPRESENTATIVE RAUL RUIZ WAS THE chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, or became a member of Congress in 2012, he was a doctor in California.

Ruiz sat down with Newsweek recently to talk about being a physician and a lawmaker during a pandemic, the ins and outs of getting Biden and Congress to move on immigration, the Latino vote, disinformation campaigns and more.

You grew up in Coachella, California, the child of farmworkers, and achieved your dream of becoming a physician. How does your life experience and background inform your work?

Growing up in a trailer park, son of farm workers, and being the first generation to graduate from high school and go to college, I understand from my own life story the hardships and struggles that many of our community members face. It gives me a real first-hand perspective, not just then, but even now, as my mother still lives in the home where we moved into in Coachella, where both my brother and sister are blue collar workers.

I have the street credibility of my childhood and being a student of science, a scientist myself and a doctor from Harvard, I utilize