“Doctor Q,” the Mexican neurosurgeon who inspired a Brad Pitt film

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Feeling invisible is what Mexican neurosurgeon Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa, known as Doctor Q., who jumped the border wall in 1987 and now inspires a Brad Pitt film that portrays his life and his efforts to find a cure for brain cancer, best recalls about being undocumented in the U.S.

“I think I’m starting to use my voice to give a face to those who feel this way,” says the chairman of Neurological Surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, in an interview.

“Being invisible is a difficult thing, really, I think about it, and I continue to see it, not only with immigrants who come to the United States but also with immigrants who go to any country in the world to pursue their dream,” he adds.

At 53, Quiñones-Hinojosa celebrates that Plan B, Pitt’s production company, continues to address social and universal issues as it did with “Twelve Years a Slave”, “Selma” or “Moonlight.”

“I think this is a universal message; not being invisible is something that makes us fight, work hard, that makes us keep dreaming of trying to live a better life,” he says.

He points out that migration affects millions of people, some even with documents, who, despite having lived in new countries for generations, “still feel as if they were foreigners.”

He says that he knows little about the production, that several actors have been mentioned, including Pitt himself to play Doctor Q., and that he only knows that the script is in its final stage.

About Pitt, whom he has yet to meet in person, he jokes, noting that he is not as athletic as himself to play him. “He’s going to have to work out a lot,” he comments humorously.

The neuroscientist, who when he’s not working escapes by jogging and listening to the soundtrack of Rocky, thanks to Pitt’s production company for trying to change the stereotypes of Latinos in cinema, such as “narcos.”

“What they are trying to tell the world is that there are humble people who have made it to the top of the top,” he adds but clarifies that his work is owed to a great team.

“AL QUINN”

The film has plenty of material to draw from: His work as a farmer and welder to support his family in Mexico, his AMC Gremlin car, where he slept during those times, or his reluctance to shorten his name to please those at Harvard University who did not know how to pronounce Quiñones.

Source: efe