A Jacksonville neurosurgeon who crossed the border in search of a better life will soon be the center of a major movie.
Dr. Alfredo Quinones is an internationally renowned neurosurgeon at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, but the journey that led him into scrubs wasn’t easy.
Originally from Mexico, he began working at just 5 years old at a gas station.
When he was 14, Quinones entered the United States illegally for the first time. “I got in the back of a pickup truck and covered myself with a tarp,” he said to our partners at Action News Jax.
Every summer, Quinones would cross the border to work in Southern California as a migrant farmer. He earned money and would send it back to his parents.
But while crossing the border one summer at age 19, border police picked him up and took him back. He entered back into the United States on the same day in search of an education and the American dream.
While learning English, Quinones was accepted into a community college. He later attended and graduated from UC Berkley as well as Harvard Medical School. While attending Harvard, he officially became a U.S. citizen.
With hard work, Quinones' quest for a better life in America eventually came true. “You come from nothing to something. But that reality is the American dream," Quinones said. "That’s the way this country is.”
A movie is in the works about Quinones' story and is currently in the final scripting stages.