For Dr. Alvaro Encinas, medicine is about more than prescribing treatment—it’s about helping people recognize their own power to heal.
“My favorite thing about being a doctor is making a difference in one’s life and being a positive force for patients to make a positive change,” he said. “It comes to basic things like diet and exercise. Trying to educate patients that they have all the tools available. They just need to learn how to use those tools, how to use food as medicine.”
An Illinois-based family physician, Encinas has spent 14 years caring for patients “from cradle to grave.” But once a year, he travels to Bolivia, the birthplace of his parents and grandparents, to volunteer with Solidarity Bridge, a nonprofit that partners with local hospitals to expand access to surgical and medical care for those most in need.
For over a decade, Dr. Encinas has worked to improve health care for Illinois’ Latino communities, including in his former role as regional medical director at the Lake County Health Department, serving Spanish-speaking patients in Waukegan and Round Lake Beach until 2022.
A longtime Chicago resident, he led the Bolivian American Medical Society for 10 years, a Chicago-based organization advancing medical education, supporting hospitals and organizing medical missions in Bolivia, reflecting his career-long dedication to improving health care access both locally and abroad.
Dr. Alvaro Encinas partnering with the local medical team at the Tiquipaya Hospital during a 2025 Solidarity Bridge medical mission trip to Cochabamba, Bolivia./ Solidarity Bridge
Encinas first learned about the organization at a Bolivian American Medical Society event in Chicago. He met the organization’s leaders and was impressed with their work.
“I went on a medical mission a year later, and then a year later became part of the board,” said Dr. Encinas. This fall marked his seventh mission trip with the group.
During mission weeks, he sees familiar health challenges, “lots of diabetes, hypertension and back pain,” but in a very different context.
“In Bolivia, it’s a lot of access-to-care issues,” he said. “Back home, if I need to get a patient to a specialist, I can do it in a week or two. In Bolivia, it can take much longer, and a lot can go on between when you put in the referral and when they can be seen.”
What keeps him coming back, he says, is the commitment to long-term care.
“One unique thing about Solidarity Bridge is that we have a base here in Bolivia. So yes, we come here for seven or eight days on a mission, but there’s a whole group of people who follow up with patients after we leave,” said Dr. Encinas
The trips also reconnect him with his roots.
“I can understand their colloquialisms, their diet. It allows me to relate to patients better,” he says. “And when you see a patient who’s waited hours just to see you and they’re so grateful, it reminds you why you became a physician.”
“Solidarity Bridge allows me to combine two loves of my life, medicine and Bolivia,” said Dr. Encinas. “I’m able to travel to the birthplace of my parents and grandparents and, of course, practice medicine to serve those patients that I meet.”
Solidarity Bridge is a 501c3 organization based in Evanston, IL, that increases access to safe and affordable surgical care to low-income patients in Bolivia and Paraguay. With our partners, we operate four year-round surgical programs and supply medical equipment to local hospitals, physicians, and patients. Through year-round virtual exchanges and short-term medical mission trips, we connect US medical practitioners to their peers in each country. Learn more: SolidarityBridge.org
Feature Image: Dr. Alvaro Encinas treating a patient during a 2025 Solidarity Bridge medical mission in Cochabamba, Bolivia./ Solidarity Bridge