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December
11, 2003
Santa Barbara Independent
AeroMedicos
The Flying Doctors
Photos & Text by W. Dibblee Hoyt
 I flew to Baja California last June to photograph a medical
clinic run by a group from Santa Barbara called AeroMedicos.
I had heard about the organization from
Jim Gaskin, an old high school buddy. Jim owns an airplane and for several
years has been flying to Mexico nearly every month with AeroMedicos,
delivering medical
supplies and clothing as well as shuttling doctors, audiologists, translators,
and construction workers to the small town of Cadeje.
Cadeje is located on the Pacific side of Baja, about half way
down the peninsula. There is some local farming and fishing,
but there are no gas
stations, electricity,
or other signs of modernity. A boarding school and a few houses line
the dirt main street.
I flew to Cadeje with several dentists, who after touching
down went to work immediately extracting bad teeth and filling
cavities. In the
course
of one
day, the doctors, nurses, and their personnel tended to nearly 100
people; they didn’t
stop working until all those in need had been seen. It was clear that the medical
services offered by AeroMedicos have had a positive impact on the quality of
health in the whole region.
AeroMedicos was formed in the mid 1970s, serving the Yaqui
Indians in Sonora, Mexico. For nearly 20 years, pilots, doctors,
and medical
personnel
would
fly down on weekends and administer assistance to the indigenous
peoples. In 1995,
however, conflict between the ruling party in Mexico and the Yaqui — amid
other political difficulties the group encountered — caused the organization
to move its clinic to Cadeje.
W. Dibblee Hoyt is a freelance photo journalist and a photography
instructor for Allen Hancock College. For information about supporting
AeroMedicos,
visit their Web site at Aeromedicos.org.
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