Sergio Castro (L) makes a house call to a terminally ill resident in San Cristobal de Las Casas in Mexico’s Chiapas state. The patient and his family are among many who trust Castro (known as “Don Sergio”) more than they do public hospitals. Castro previously treated predominantly burn victims from rural Mayan communities, but his reputation followed him to the city where families seek him out to treat any type of wound, including bedsores and diabetes ulcers.

Sergio Castro (L) and Patricia Ferrer (R) make a house call to a terminally ill resident in San Cristobal de Las Casas, in Mexico’s Chiapas state. The patient and his family are among many who trust Castro more than they do public hospitals. Castro previously treated predominantly burn victims from rural Mayan communities, but his reputation followed him to the city where families seek him out to treat any type of wound, including bedsores and diabetes ulcers.

Accompanied by his wife (front left) and aunt (back left) Diego López Sánchez, 27, who became a quadriplegic after a tragic motorcycle accident, receives treatment for his bedsores from Sergio Castro inside his home. Frustrated with the lack of physical therapy options available for Lopez, Castro used his own funds to pay for a chiropractor to treat Lopez weekly, to ease his neuropathic pain.

Carrying a medical supply bag weighing 25 kilos, Sergio Castro,72, makes his way up a steep long hill to visit a patient in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas. Castro makes daily visits to bedridden patients and treats primarily burns and diabetic ulcers that often require weeks or months to heal. his patients are often too poor or too debilitated to go to hospitals. They mistrust doctors and prefer Castro’s gentle way of combining modern medicine with sensitivity to local customs.

Sergio Castro leaves a Mayan home where he treated a man for an infected skin ulcer. The patient's daughter revels at a fancy dress she found in a box of used clothing Castro brought the family. On a typical day, Castro sees patients in his clinic before setting out to perform home visits within San Cristobal and surrounding rural areas. He returns to his clinic and treats more patients from 4 until 7p.m. He sees around 120 patients weekly and refuses to charge them.

A Mayan woman feeds her child in a marginal community overlooking San Cristobal de Las Casas in Mexico’s Chiapas state. For centuries, the Maya have populated the highlands in and around San Cristobal and maintain many of their ancient belief systems and traditions, even today. As they attempt to integrate into mainstream society, some resist and many complain of continued discrimination and lack of access to healthcare and education.

A boy stands in the courtyard of his home in the small Maya community of Santa Cruz Obispo, in Mexico’s Chiapas state. Sergio Castro, known by most as “Don Sergio” built a water system in this community with help from a U.S. foundation. In 1966, Castro began working in Chiapas as an agronomist and veterinarian. After witnessing alarming conditions in many isolated villages, he tried to help by building schools and potable water systems. He also taught himself to treat complicated wounds, and filled a void in the public healthcare system.

Sergio Castro cleans and dresses Mariano Lopez’s cancer tumor during his last days alive in a remote village in Mexico’s Chiapas state. Although unable to heal Lopez’s ailment, Castro provided palliative care first in his clinic, and then in the man's home, giving him dignity until his death.

Expressing shock and sadness, family members observe closely while Mariano Lopez receives medical attention from Sergio Castro in his home near Zinacantan, a remote indigenous community in Mexico’s Chiapas state. During his final months, Castro, a revered humanitarian known to many as “Don Sergio” took Lopez under his care, first at his clinic, and then at his home. Although he knew he could not cure Lopez, Castro provided palliative care, giving him dignity until his death.

With his only possessions, a small leather wallet and a photo album, Mariano Lopez, 53, suffers a bout of pain on the floor of his home, near Zinacantan, an indigenous community in the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico. Lopez is among thousands of indigenous Maya in Chiapas with a chronic disease and no resources to pay for hospital care. He survived by begging from tourists in nearby San Cristobal de las Casas. In December 2012, his illness worsened, and he could no longer eat or walk. Sergio Castro, known to many as “Don Sergio” took him under his care. With only limited resources at his disposal, Castro knew he could not cure Lopez, but he eased his pain and gave him dignity.

Flowers and an iron cross adorn the grave where Mariano López was buried in a small indigenous community near Zinacantan, in Mexico’s Chiapas state. Lopez was among thousands of indigenous Maya in this region who suffer from chronic disease with no resources to pay for hospital care. Crippled and unable to walk, Lopez survived by begging from tourists in San Cristobal de las Casas. During his final months, Sergio Castro, known to many as “Don Sergio” took him under his care, first at his clinic, and then at his home. With only limited resources at his disposal, Castro knew he could not cure Lopez, but he eased his pain and gave him dignity until the end.

During Día de San Pedro, two Maya women pray and celebrate their patron saint inside the main church in San Pedro Chenalhó, a highlands town in Mexico’s Chiapas state. The highland Maya celebrate a number of fiestas, the most colorful and elaborate ones being those held in honor of their patron saints. These festivities include traditional music, costumes, fireworks, processions, and tend to last several days.

Juana Pérez Hernández, holds her son, Brian Osvaldo Hernández, while he receives a limpia, or spiritual cleansing, from his grandfather Cristóbal Vásquez Hernández, 70, who is a traditional healer in Linda Vista, a highland village in Mexico’s Chiapas state. In Mayan culture, sickness is as much a physical manifestation as well as a spiritual ailment. In rituals referred to as limpias, or spiritual cleansings, healers will employ different components that assist in ridding one’s spirit from negative elements, including candles, incense, prayer, soda, and roosters.

Catalina Ordoñez Rodriguez (M), and her husband, Sebastian Lopez Mendez (R) wait with other family members to hear news about their nine month-old granddaughter’s condition. After seeing no improvement in the infant’s grave condition after one week at another local hospital, the family rushed her to Hospital de Las Culturas (pictured), with hopes of having a better result. Despite being able to benefit from the hospital’s well equipped modern intensive care unit, the family suffered language and financial challenges. They could not understand instructions given in Spanish by doctors who did not speak Tzotzil. They were also forced to buy many medications unavailable at the hospital, which they could not afford, along with being ordered to secure blood from the blood bank of another hospital on their own.

Catalina Hernandez, 19, weeps quietly beside her nine month-old daughter, Maria, in the pediatric intensive care unit at Hospital de Las Culturas, a primary public hospital in San Cristobal de Las Casas, in Mexico’s Chiapas state. After seeing no improvement in the infant’s grave condition after spending one week at another local hospital, the family rushed her to Hospital de Las Culturas (pictured), with hopes of having a better result. Although they benefitted from the hospital’s well equipped modern intensive care unit, the family encountered debilitating language and financial challenges. They could not find doctors who spoke their language (Tzotzil). They were forced to buy numerous medications unavailable at the hospital, which they could not afford, along with being ordered to secure blood from the blood bank of another hospital on their own and pay for diagnostic scans the hospital could not perform due to malfunctioning imaging equipment.

Far from their communities and lacking the resources to pay for lodging, relatives visiting and caring for patients gather and settle down for a night’s sleep inside the waiting room of Hospital de las Culturas, in San Cristobal de Las Casas. Often, they must stay for weeks, managing with few belongings and sleeping on the hospital floor. Opened in May, 2010, the hospital was designed to serve 17 municipalities in the highlands of Chiapas, including some of Mexico’s most marginalized indigenous communities, but in actuality, patients come from all over the state. Overcrowding and lack of supplies of critical medicines overwhelm doctors and patients.

Sergio Castro applies wound dressing to Lupita Gomez, 3, accompanied by her sister, Teresa Gomez, 8. The young girl suffered severe burns after falling into an open cooking fire. Extended family members prohibited her mother, a widow, from taking the girl to the hospital, since they mistrusted doctors and couldn't pay. Instead, they sought treatment with Castro, known as "Don Sergio" by many. He treated the child at their home for several weeks free of charge, helping the single mother at times with food and basic necessities.

Carolina Hernández López, 34, takes shelter from torrential rains surrounded by her children, inside their one room home, near San Cristobal de Las Casas in Mexico’s Chiapas state. She embraces one of her daughters, Lupita, 3, who suffered a severe burn to her back when she fell into the cooking fire (pictured behind them). Accidents like these are commonplace in Chiapas, the poorest state in Mexico. Residents use open fires to warm their homes and cook their food. Hernandez is grateful to Sergio Castro, who treated her daughter’s burn wounds. The revered humanitarian, known by many throughout Chiapas as “Don Sergio” has treated burn victims for decades, free of charge.

Sergio Castro, known to many as “Don Sergio” is a revered humanitarian and wound care specialist in San Cristobal de las Casas, in Mexico’s Chiapas state. In 1966, he began working in Chiapas as an agronomist and veterinarian in remote indigenous communities. After witnessing alarming conditions in many isolated villages, he tried to help by building schools and water systems. He also taught himself to treat complicated wounds, and became renowned for treating deep skin injuries caused by burns. At 72, he continues to make daily house calls to patients in and around San Cristobal and also treats patients in his small clinic. He typically sees over 120 patients a week. He refuses to charge any of them, believing that placing economic stress on top of injury impedes patients’ healing.

Sergio Castro, 72, walks home after another long day assisting patients in their homes and at his clinic in San Cristobal de Las Casas, in Mexico’s Chiapas state. He treats over 120 patients a week, free of charge, most of whom suffer from deep skin wounds caused by burns or diabetic ulcers. Known as “Don Sergio” to most people, Castro has dedicated his life to being a humanitarian. In 1966, he began working as an agronomist and veterinarian in remote Mayan villages. To help strengthen communities, he built schools and water systems. He also taught himself how to cure complicated skin wounds and treat other human illnesses. Throughout the highlands of Chiapas, people seek him out, drawn to his gentle way of combining modern medicine with a sensitivity to local customs and belief systems.