March 1, 2025 • 15 mins
www.suavetv.netJoin host Abe Cortez on the Powerhouse Podcast for an engaging conversation with Dr. Raul Garcia, a prominent Latino leader and emergency medicine physician in Washington State. This episode dives into Dr. Garcia's passionate crusade against the fentanyl crisis, his impactful 185-mile walk to raise awareness, and his perspective on crucial issues such as immigration reform and community health.Throughout the episode, Dr. Raul Garcia discusses his early life journey from Cuba to the United States, his dynamic medical career including his participation in the reality show "Bronx 911 Life in the ER," and his significant role in founding Pacific Northwest University. As an outspoken advocate for health reform and community safety.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Like right here on the Powerhouse podcast kicking a lot
from the Pacific Northwest. I'm here at the Disruptors studio
with Bill and I'm here with one of the legends,
one of the Latino leaders in Washington State. I'm here
with the one and only doctor Rao, who got to
see who's run for many offices and come close. But
(00:26):
the thing is, this man has done it, and he's
also pioneered and brought up and did a walk hundreds
of miles about fentanyl. Kind of let the people know
what you're doing. And because you've done a lot of stuff, man,
and you've been on national news, CNN, everywhere all over
the US.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Well, I was born in Cuba. You know.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
I was able to immigrate to the United States when
I was eleven. Lived in Spain for about a year
because leaving Cuba you couldn't come to the United States directly.
So we emigrated to Spain, lived there, and then landed
in Miami. That's where I grew up. I went to
high school in Miami, went to the University of Miami,
(01:10):
so I'm a Hurricane for life, and went to medical
school in New York City. In New York, I studied
emergency medicine, became an emergency medicine physician, and before politics,
I was I was in a reality show called Bronx
nine point one.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Life in the Er.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
I was asked to come to Washington to start the
first medical school in sixty years in the Pacific Northwest,
and that is Pacific Northwest University here in Yakoma, and
that's why I came to Washington to start that That
has been very, very triumphant and successful. It has graduated
many medical students into being doctors that are practicing here
(01:56):
in central Washington where we needed it, and that dream
was accomplished by the people that wanted to start that
medical school. But it introduced me to the Pacific Northwest
and to the state of Washington, which I have come
to love very much and considered my home.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
I have now lived more.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
In Washington than anywhere else in the world, and certainly
my family and I are very happy in Yakima. We
ran unsuccessfully for governor in twenty twenty during the COVID pandemic,
and ran a very wonderful campaign for US Senate which
(02:36):
culminated in November. We unfortunately did not win, and my
hats off to Senator Cantwell, who's our senator, and I
have offered her my complete support after the loss, and
a lot of people have asked me if I have
been depressed, if I have been sad because I lost
(02:56):
that election. For me, for my wife, Everything that we
have sacrifice and put into the political process here in
the state is because we love the state, and it
has never been about us.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
It was always about you.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
It was always about representing the ideals of our people
in the state of Washington, of our Latino Latin American
people here in Washington State, and representing those marginalized cultures
that usually get the short end of the stick. So
one of our biggest pushes was to end the crisis
(03:33):
of fentanyl that we have in our state. I walked
one hundred and eighty five miles to honor everyone that
had died of this horrible drug and to give awareness
to everyone that this crisis is growing and I'm seeing
about four to ten overdoses every day in the er,
(03:56):
and that is not something that we could sustain. My
wife and I are going to continue that drive and
that fight. I think that we need something, to do,
something real to get that out of our streets. And
I look forward to working with everyone for that purpose.
(04:16):
And it doesn't matter if you're a Democrat or a Republican,
or the color of your skin, or what religion you are.
I think that this is a problem that affects all
of us, and we're going to continue to fight hard
for it, and we're going to continue to.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Fight hard for our families in Washington State.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
And whatever opportunities come in the future, we don't know,
but as for now, I'm very happy to be back
spending a lot of time with my family. I am
the medical director of a small hospital in Topennes, Washington
that has become a wonderful place of medical care.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
We have brought in a lot of services.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
And I really enjoy working in that hospital and making
it bigger as far as the services that we are
providing to a very needed community and the Yakama Nation
and the city of Topnish and the surrounding areas. So
that's how I've been spending my time since the election,
(05:15):
And of course I am so grateful to everyone that
supported me, that supported real really my wife and I
that were in this together. There was there has been
such support even after we lost in November, and so
many people have written to us, and I want to
(05:35):
express I were most sincere.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Thank you uh.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
To to all of you for everyone that participated that
helped us in any way, even with with with wishes
or prayers or time and money and their expertise. So
very grateful to be where we are. And I think
we have a wonderful stay. We need to fight for it.
I think we need to continue to make it better
(06:05):
for our children, and that's what we're going to.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Do real quick.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Doctor got to see you mentioned the fetanohl. Is there
something you want to do further with that? And if
you want to do something further with that, how do
they How do people get a hold of you to
support you? Because when I mentioned your name and conversation
that everybody remembers your walk and the way you did
it was not only it was heartfelt and it was
(06:29):
like pretty much like a Rocky story man, somebody like
you're in your position to walk hundreds of miles was phenomenal,
you know, So I know that's something that that's you know,
like you use a doctor see people overdose and it's
it's horrible. If you're going to do something in the future,
how can people get a hold of you. Is there
(06:49):
an email address, a phone number to support your cause,
because this podcast can go all over the US. Of
course it goes to Washington, Oregon, you know, so if
somebody's listening and how do they support.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
You, well, yes, and I you know, purposely taken about
three months away from politics and concentrated on the family.
But it is that time that we are going to
move forward and very possibly create a foundation, the Freedom
from Fetanyl Foundation, to go on with the Freedom from
(07:23):
Fentanyl Walk that we did and on our fight because
no family is immune from this, you know, and I
could tell you even our own right, we almost lost
one of our kids to fentanyl. So it's really important
that we fight this together and that we succeed together.
So at this point there there, we are developing the
(07:47):
idea and developing the website for it. But you could
always reach us on Messenger, on Facebook, on Instagram, on
TikTok x and we will change the name soon, but
as doctor row Garcia for US Senate. Obviously I'm not
running for US Senate anymore, but you could certainly write
(08:09):
us in any of those social media platforms or.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Send a direct email to.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
Me and that would be at r J G R
d O at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Okay, somebody's just having to be listening. Can you say
that one more time?
Speaker 4 (08:33):
R J G R d O at gmail dot com
and you can send us. You can send me an
email directly. I had a lot of email addresses and
I'm trying to get back to making sure that I
check my emails. So give me some grace if I
don't answer you immediately. But I am getting back into
(08:56):
the swing of things of doing all of it myself
and with my wife. You know, of course, when you
have a team on a running for office, there are
things that you don't get to do on a daily
basis anymore. And we're getting back to doing it ourselves.
And I'm very proud of that.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Yeah, and I got to say this, We're going to
be Doctor Garcia has been gracious and nice enough to sponsor,
like we did a sink of the Model Tournament, car
show and festival. Even though we got rained out, you
financially supported us. So anything you have about your Fentanyl Foundation,
any information, you can listen into the Powerhouse podcast or
(09:35):
I also have a channel on the rocul system which
is Z and then s U A v E TV channel.
We also have a website which is suavetv dot net
and I'm going to be working with doctor Garcia to
put together public service announcements, information, so anything you want
to know. But it's all about like I said, it's
(09:55):
all about working together in the Latino community and the
community and building unity, working together because it's just like
you said, there's been overdoses on fentanyl. This is this
is a problem nationwide at this point. So the more
people are educated, the more knowledge, the more education out there,
the better. Really, especially coming from you, a doctor that
(10:19):
sees this firsthand.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
You know, one of the biggest things that I learned
running for office is that you know, at the end
of it, it's not about line, it's not about the
color of our skin.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Or what religion we are.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
Is what we want to do for our communities and
that comes from every walk of life. So I think
that we can do it together and create a movement
that comes from all walks of life because this problem
will affect everybody. So I'm very excited about it.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
I will put my drive and passion behind it, and
thank you so much for helping us out.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Hey, welcome back to the Powerhouse. Podcast. I've got special
guests Doctor Rajo got to see it talking about the
fittanyl crisis. But I got to ask you this secret
to see it. And I wouldn't be a host of
this show if I didn't ask you. What is your
opinion or what's your thoughts about this whole immigration thing
going on.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
Well, I have always said every sovereign nation should have
the right to know who comes in and out of
our country, Okay, And when you don't have that anymore,
then you stop being a sovereign nation. And I think
that unfortunately, the pendulum swung so much to one side,
(11:41):
letting a lot of individuals into our country that we
didn't know about, that came here to commit crimes, that
came here to make our country worse. And I think
that now what this administration is trying to do is
bring the pendulum all the way to the other side.
(12:02):
And I think that the answer really lies somewhere in
the middle. As everything else, right, we could look at
the silver lining with this immigration crisis, and the silver
lining is that we will get immigration reform that we
have needed and has never happened. I think that we
(12:23):
will get this immigration reform. Do I agree with criminals
being deported.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
I do.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
I think that if you come to this country and
want to make this country worse, then you shouldn't be here.
But I do defend those families that have been here
for ten, fifteen years, twenty years even more that made
a mistake, you know, they cross the border, and ever
since that mistake, they have been trying to prove that
(12:53):
they are part of America. They have worked, they have
paid taxes, they have had children in this country that
have studied in our universities, that have their own businesses,
and those families I think that we need to fight for.
I think that we need to protect them. I think
that we need to find a way for those families
(13:15):
to be legal. I think the last person to do
this was Ronald Reagan, and I think that it's something
that we could get behind and that we could succeed
at the end of all this. You know, we have
to pick our fights, and I think that that is
a fight that we could be successful at the end,
(13:37):
protecting those people that really have been model citizens and
we don't even know that they're illegal.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Washington State itself.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
Has a large population of workers provide the food in
our table, and I think that there are middle ground
on not being too far to the left or too
far to the right, on this solution that will enable
us to continue to have food on our table and
(14:11):
make everyone comfortable that the people that are here working
for us are decent people and just want the living
and just want to help their families as we do. So.
As I said before when I started this, I think
that the answer lies in the middle, and I think
that we need to come to the table and have
(14:31):
accommodations on both sides to make sure that we find
a solution that is.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Good for our people, good.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
For our families, and that will make us have a
better future.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
All right, well, I got to thank you the one
and only doctor. We've got to see it right here
on the Powerhouse podcast, the only bilingual podcast coming out
of the Pacific Northwest. And to me, it's all about
being a unity in the community and and Spanish us
in English is Maine portante some almost some eagles. It's
translated in English. It's really important that all the Latinos,
(15:07):
all the African Americans, all the Asians, all the whites,
all the people work together in unity, regardless of who
you are, where you came from what you're doing, because
if you're not unified, we can't get anything done. So
it's all about building unity in your community. So let's
do it.
Like right here on the Powerhouse podcast kicking a lot
from the Pacific Northwest. I'm here at the Disruptors studio
with Bill and I'm here with one of the legends,
one of the Latino leaders in Washington State. I'm here
with the one and only doctor Rao, who got to
see who's run for many offices and come close. But
(00:26):
the thing is, this man has done it, and he's
also pioneered and brought up and did a walk hundreds
of miles about fentanyl. Kind of let the people know
what you're doing. And because you've done a lot of stuff, man,
and you've been on national news, CNN, everywhere all over
the US.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Well, I was born in Cuba. You know.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
I was able to immigrate to the United States when
I was eleven. Lived in Spain for about a year
because leaving Cuba you couldn't come to the United States directly.
So we emigrated to Spain, lived there, and then landed
in Miami. That's where I grew up. I went to
high school in Miami, went to the University of Miami,
(01:10):
so I'm a Hurricane for life, and went to medical
school in New York City. In New York, I studied
emergency medicine, became an emergency medicine physician, and before politics,
I was I was in a reality show called Bronx
nine point one.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Life in the Er.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
I was asked to come to Washington to start the
first medical school in sixty years in the Pacific Northwest,
and that is Pacific Northwest University here in Yakoma, and
that's why I came to Washington to start that That
has been very, very triumphant and successful. It has graduated
many medical students into being doctors that are practicing here
(01:56):
in central Washington where we needed it, and that dream
was accomplished by the people that wanted to start that
medical school. But it introduced me to the Pacific Northwest
and to the state of Washington, which I have come
to love very much and considered my home.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
I have now lived more.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
In Washington than anywhere else in the world, and certainly
my family and I are very happy in Yakima. We
ran unsuccessfully for governor in twenty twenty during the COVID pandemic,
and ran a very wonderful campaign for US Senate which
(02:36):
culminated in November. We unfortunately did not win, and my
hats off to Senator Cantwell, who's our senator, and I
have offered her my complete support after the loss, and
a lot of people have asked me if I have
been depressed, if I have been sad because I lost
(02:56):
that election. For me, for my wife, Everything that we
have sacrifice and put into the political process here in
the state is because we love the state, and it
has never been about us.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
It was always about you.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
It was always about representing the ideals of our people
in the state of Washington, of our Latino Latin American
people here in Washington State, and representing those marginalized cultures
that usually get the short end of the stick. So
one of our biggest pushes was to end the crisis
(03:33):
of fentanyl that we have in our state. I walked
one hundred and eighty five miles to honor everyone that
had died of this horrible drug and to give awareness
to everyone that this crisis is growing and I'm seeing
about four to ten overdoses every day in the er,
(03:56):
and that is not something that we could sustain. My
wife and I are going to continue that drive and
that fight. I think that we need something, to do,
something real to get that out of our streets. And
I look forward to working with everyone for that purpose.
(04:16):
And it doesn't matter if you're a Democrat or a Republican,
or the color of your skin, or what religion you are.
I think that this is a problem that affects all
of us, and we're going to continue to fight hard
for it, and we're going to continue to.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Fight hard for our families in Washington State.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
And whatever opportunities come in the future, we don't know,
but as for now, I'm very happy to be back
spending a lot of time with my family. I am
the medical director of a small hospital in Topennes, Washington
that has become a wonderful place of medical care.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
We have brought in a lot of services.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
And I really enjoy working in that hospital and making
it bigger as far as the services that we are
providing to a very needed community and the Yakama Nation
and the city of Topnish and the surrounding areas. So
that's how I've been spending my time since the election,
(05:15):
And of course I am so grateful to everyone that
supported me, that supported real really my wife and I
that were in this together. There was there has been
such support even after we lost in November, and so
many people have written to us, and I want to
(05:35):
express I were most sincere.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Thank you uh.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
To to all of you for everyone that participated that
helped us in any way, even with with with wishes
or prayers or time and money and their expertise. So
very grateful to be where we are. And I think
we have a wonderful stay. We need to fight for it.
I think we need to continue to make it better
(06:05):
for our children, and that's what we're going to.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Do real quick.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Doctor got to see you mentioned the fetanohl. Is there
something you want to do further with that? And if
you want to do something further with that, how do
they How do people get a hold of you to
support you? Because when I mentioned your name and conversation
that everybody remembers your walk and the way you did
it was not only it was heartfelt and it was
(06:29):
like pretty much like a Rocky story man, somebody like
you're in your position to walk hundreds of miles was phenomenal,
you know, So I know that's something that that's you know,
like you use a doctor see people overdose and it's
it's horrible. If you're going to do something in the future,
how can people get a hold of you. Is there
(06:49):
an email address, a phone number to support your cause,
because this podcast can go all over the US. Of
course it goes to Washington, Oregon, you know, so if
somebody's listening and how do they support.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
You, well, yes, and I you know, purposely taken about
three months away from politics and concentrated on the family.
But it is that time that we are going to
move forward and very possibly create a foundation, the Freedom
from Fetanyl Foundation, to go on with the Freedom from
(07:23):
Fentanyl Walk that we did and on our fight because
no family is immune from this, you know, and I
could tell you even our own right, we almost lost
one of our kids to fentanyl. So it's really important
that we fight this together and that we succeed together.
So at this point there there, we are developing the
(07:47):
idea and developing the website for it. But you could
always reach us on Messenger, on Facebook, on Instagram, on
TikTok x and we will change the name soon, but
as doctor row Garcia for US Senate. Obviously I'm not
running for US Senate anymore, but you could certainly write
(08:09):
us in any of those social media platforms or.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Send a direct email to.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
Me and that would be at r J G R
d O at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Okay, somebody's just having to be listening. Can you say
that one more time?
Speaker 4 (08:33):
R J G R d O at gmail dot com
and you can send us. You can send me an
email directly. I had a lot of email addresses and
I'm trying to get back to making sure that I
check my emails. So give me some grace if I
don't answer you immediately. But I am getting back into
(08:56):
the swing of things of doing all of it myself
and with my wife. You know, of course, when you
have a team on a running for office, there are
things that you don't get to do on a daily
basis anymore. And we're getting back to doing it ourselves.
And I'm very proud of that.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Yeah, and I got to say this, We're going to
be Doctor Garcia has been gracious and nice enough to sponsor,
like we did a sink of the Model Tournament, car
show and festival. Even though we got rained out, you
financially supported us. So anything you have about your Fentanyl Foundation,
any information, you can listen into the Powerhouse podcast or
(09:35):
I also have a channel on the rocul system which
is Z and then s U A v E TV channel.
We also have a website which is suavetv dot net
and I'm going to be working with doctor Garcia to
put together public service announcements, information, so anything you want
to know. But it's all about like I said, it's
(09:55):
all about working together in the Latino community and the
community and building unity, working together because it's just like
you said, there's been overdoses on fentanyl. This is this
is a problem nationwide at this point. So the more
people are educated, the more knowledge, the more education out there,
the better. Really, especially coming from you, a doctor that
(10:19):
sees this firsthand.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
You know, one of the biggest things that I learned
running for office is that you know, at the end
of it, it's not about line, it's not about the
color of our skin.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Or what religion we are.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
Is what we want to do for our communities and
that comes from every walk of life. So I think
that we can do it together and create a movement
that comes from all walks of life because this problem
will affect everybody. So I'm very excited about it.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
I will put my drive and passion behind it, and
thank you so much for helping us out.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Hey, welcome back to the Powerhouse. Podcast. I've got special
guests Doctor Rajo got to see it talking about the
fittanyl crisis. But I got to ask you this secret
to see it. And I wouldn't be a host of
this show if I didn't ask you. What is your
opinion or what's your thoughts about this whole immigration thing
going on.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
Well, I have always said every sovereign nation should have
the right to know who comes in and out of
our country, Okay, And when you don't have that anymore,
then you stop being a sovereign nation. And I think
that unfortunately, the pendulum swung so much to one side,
(11:41):
letting a lot of individuals into our country that we
didn't know about, that came here to commit crimes, that
came here to make our country worse. And I think
that now what this administration is trying to do is
bring the pendulum all the way to the other side.
(12:02):
And I think that the answer really lies somewhere in
the middle. As everything else, right, we could look at
the silver lining with this immigration crisis, and the silver
lining is that we will get immigration reform that we
have needed and has never happened. I think that we
(12:23):
will get this immigration reform. Do I agree with criminals
being deported.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
I do.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
I think that if you come to this country and
want to make this country worse, then you shouldn't be here.
But I do defend those families that have been here
for ten, fifteen years, twenty years even more that made
a mistake, you know, they cross the border, and ever
since that mistake, they have been trying to prove that
(12:53):
they are part of America. They have worked, they have
paid taxes, they have had children in this country that
have studied in our universities, that have their own businesses,
and those families I think that we need to fight for.
I think that we need to protect them. I think
that we need to find a way for those families
(13:15):
to be legal. I think the last person to do
this was Ronald Reagan, and I think that it's something
that we could get behind and that we could succeed
at the end of all this. You know, we have
to pick our fights, and I think that that is
a fight that we could be successful at the end,
(13:37):
protecting those people that really have been model citizens and
we don't even know that they're illegal.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Washington State itself.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
Has a large population of workers provide the food in
our table, and I think that there are middle ground
on not being too far to the left or too
far to the right, on this solution that will enable
us to continue to have food on our table and
(14:11):
make everyone comfortable that the people that are here working
for us are decent people and just want the living
and just want to help their families as we do. So.
As I said before when I started this, I think
that the answer lies in the middle, and I think
that we need to come to the table and have
(14:31):
accommodations on both sides to make sure that we find
a solution that is.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Good for our people, good.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
For our families, and that will make us have a
better future.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
All right, well, I got to thank you the one
and only doctor. We've got to see it right here
on the Powerhouse podcast, the only bilingual podcast coming out
of the Pacific Northwest. And to me, it's all about
being a unity in the community and and Spanish us
in English is Maine portante some almost some eagles. It's
translated in English. It's really important that all the Latinos,
(15:07):
all the African Americans, all the Asians, all the whites,
all the people work together in unity, regardless of who
you are, where you came from what you're doing, because
if you're not unified, we can't get anything done. So
it's all about building unity in your community. So let's
do it.
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It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.