Dr. Gabriela Ximena Cortes Siles: “My great-grandfather from Brač would be happy to know I live in Croatia”

For Gabriela Ximena Cortes Siles, returning to Croatia meant completing a journey her great-grandfather never could. He emigrated from Brač to Bolivia in 1933 and hoped to return, but died without making the trip.

Cortes Siles first came to Croatia in 2018 through an IFMSA student exchange. She completed practical training in English at Zagreb’s Merkur Clinical Hospital alongside students from several countries. The experience left her determined to return not as a tourist, but as a resident.

She finally moved to Croatia in 2024. Speaking excellent Croatian, although she says she still struggles with grammatical cases, she describes the move as crossing the world to reach the place where her family’s story began. Her family learned about Croatia through relatives and Bolivia’s community of descendants of Croatian emigrants.

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My great-grandfather from my mother’s side emigrated from Croatia to Bolivia in 1933.

That inherited image did not fully prepare her for everyday life in the country. “In the diaspora, an often very emotional image of Croatia is preserved, built from family memories and tradition,” she says. For her, the first visit turned a place known through stories into a real one.

In Zagreb, she has met people from Latin America and English-speaking communities who find it difficult to locate doctors with whom they can communicate clearly. Patients who do not speak Croatian may struggle to describe symptoms or understand medical instructions. Cortes Siles wants to become part of Croatia’s health system and help those patients. She believes her dream will be fully realized when she can work in her profession.

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In the diaspora, an often very emotional image of Croatia is preserved, built from family memories and tradition.