Special Report: Borderland philanthropist continues life-long effort to help others

There’s a woman who saw the need for healthcare in her city and opened a hospital.

She saw the need for nurses and created a school.

Guadalupe Arizpe de la Vega is one of Juarez’s best known and generous residents. She now calls El Paso home.

Sporting a simple red dress and her signature coiffed hair, she greeted the nursing students enjoying a break between classes.

Lupita, as she likes to be called, doesn’t extend her hand to say hello – she extends herself.

“I love it if I feel the people,” she said. “The give me life! When I come here, it gives meaning to my life. It makes me happy.”

These are just some of the thousands of young men and women whose lives have been changed by Lupita’s vision.

Joanna is one of 560 students studying to become a nurse.

“I don’t like watching people suffer,” Joanna said in Spanish.

The Hospital de la Familia, or Family Hospital, is a teaching hospital, nursing school and financial institution.

It is here where expectant mothers get pre-natal care, babies get a good start in life, doctors practice their calling and women can even get small loans to open a business.

“It’s a good complement, education, heath and loans,” said Daniel Suarez of the micro-loan program. “We have a 93 percent repayment rate.”

In 1972, Lupita vowed to improve the quality of life for her impoverished Juarez.

“This is a hospital that, through education, can empower people,” she said.

More than a quarter of a million people receive services at the hospital every year.

One-hundred-thousand babies have been delivered at the hospital – an average of 16 a day.

Ana Maria Cervantes, 27, was just hours away from delivering her fifth child.

Although the hospital is right near the bridge, it doesn’t know borders. Some El Pasoans see doctors and get their medication at the Family Hospital.

“It is cheap to see a doctor here,” Cervantes said.

Prescriptions are filled in the next window for about $12 dollars.

Every corner of the hospital has Lupita’s special touch.

Beautiful artwork is displayed on every floor and in one corner, an altar to offer healing of a different kind.

“The people are full of suffering …you need spiritual help,” Lupita said.

More than 110 doctors and 140 nurses work at the hospital providing care for the sick.

Lupita hopes that when these women and their babies go home they will take with them hope in humanity and hope for a better future.

She gives credit to her team for helping spread her vision to improve healthcare in Juarez – and not just in the hospital.

“This is the miracle of love,” Lupita said. “All those doctors and nursed are the unknown heroes.”

Coming up at 10 p.m. Thursday ABC-7 will introduce you to a “promotora” — a health promoter – who takes health education to neighborhoods and has been doing it for nearly 40 years.

Lupita’s FEMAP foundation will have its 7th annual gala at the convention center Friday.