ORLANDO, Fla. — Dr. Raul Pino may be a household name in Orlando because of his weekly press conferences to update Orange County on the latest of the coronavirus pandemic, but his journey to get to where he is now wasn’t easy. 

What You Need To Know

Pino, 56, was born and raised in Cuba and he credits his grandmother as his inspiration to enter the medical field.

“The reason I got into medicine is my grandmother who was a healer,” he said.

He joined the Cuban military where he studied burn treatments and plastic surgery.

In 1993, he sought refugee status to move to the U.S. but was unsuccessful.

“I was detained, interrogated, all the things that happen in Cuba,” Pino said.

He finally made that move two years later in 1995 and settled in Connecticut.

Despite his medical qualifications, like millions of immigrants he started off as a farmer.

“That was hard,” Pino said. “I think I was traumatized. I didn’t eat blueberries for years.”

After a year in the fields, he found other jobs. He worked weeknights at a hospital and weekends at a grocery story.

“Like another immigrant, it’s the same thing,” he said.

Around the same time he pursued his master’s degree in health at the University of Connecticut.

His true medical breakthrough came when he began his work at an outreach program where he created one of the state’s first needle exchange program.

“I was picking up needles from drug users around the city, the needles at the time where to be analyzed and traced for HIV,” Pino said.

He continued his medical work abroad and returned to work in the U.S. until he became Connecticut’s medical commissioner.

Florida hired him in May 2019 to lead its health department in Orange County. He was met with the pandemic before the end of his first year.

“The first year here of my work, everything had to be postponed,” he said.

He credits help from county and state officials in managing the crisis.

 “We have found wonderful support in the community,” Pino said.

He said as the outbreak begins to calm, he wants to begin the HIV prevention program he wanted to do when he first took the position.

Pino said he hopes his story can inspire the Hispanic community and other immigrants to follow their dreams.

“It pleasantly surprised me, but I’m glad I can do a little bit to enhance our community,” he said.

The PEW Research Center reports around 40 million people who live in the U.S. were born in another country.