Team Spotlight: Liz Cortes Perez, Spanish interpreter

Liz Cortes Perez has been working as a Spanish interpreter at the IU Health academic health center since May. Before joining IU Health, she first discovered a passion for interpretation while working at the front desk of an urgent care clinic. “That’s when I realized I wanted to work in interpretation services,” she says. “[Co-workers] would ask me to help interpret when they couldn’t understand a patient. That’s when my passion first came,” she says.

Helping patients feel empowered

Now, she loves her job interpreting for patients at Methodist Hospital, University Hospital and Riley Children’s Health. She enjoys connecting with patients and helping them gain a strong understanding of the care they are receiving.

“Patients are always very grateful that we are there to help them. And same with providers—they really care about interpreters,” she says.

For Cortes Perez, the most challenging part of her job is interpreting for end-of-life care situations. Still, she feels honored to be a part of these moments. “I always try to show compassion. At the end of the visit, I go over and say I’m sorry and wish them the best,” she says. “It’s rewarding to know that I’m doing something good—helping people.”

Celebrating Día de los Muertos

When she’s not at work, Cortes Perez enjoys salsa dancing, walking her dog and being involved in cultural events. She is originally from Mexico and moved to the United States in 2015 through an exchange program. She just recently received her U.S. citizenship.

Though her entire family still lives in Mexico, she stays connected to her heritage in many ways. For Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), which is coming up on Nov. 1 and 2, she created a “DIY” dress for a local competition, where she received third place. Along with some help from her friends, she crafted dozens of crepe-paper flowers for the dress, designed to look like marigolds, a traditional flower used for the altars honoring the dead.

“The tradition is that we honor the dead, and they come to visit us on those two days,” she explains. “One of the days is for the little angels—babies or kids. We put the food that they like, the drinks that they like [on the altar.] The legend is that they take the scent of these things, and they take it with them.”

Dia de los Muertos celebrations often include feasts of delicious food, like tamales, pan de muerto (a festive bread), candy and hot cocoa. “It’s a long-held tradition. My parents have been doing it for years,” she says.

Finding her calling in healthcare

When Cortes Perez first left Mexico to come to the United States, she did not expect that she’d end up working at a hospital years later. “I didn’t know where life was going to take me, so it’s been a roller coaster,” she says. But now that she’s found a passion for helping patients, she’s hooked. "Now I cannot see myself working anywhere else.”