Jonathan Calixto says he’s proud of what he gave up for his father — donating a kidney to him last year.

“I immediately knew I wanted to step in, in any way I could,” Calixto said.

In 2021, Calixto’s dad got sick with what they thought was a bad cold and flu. After being hospitalized, he had to undergo dialysis every day.

“He struggled a lot just to find resources, and he leaned on so many experts for advice, and so I know that because of that, my culture and heritage played a part in that,” he said.

His father mostly speaks Spanish, and the Centers for Disease Control says hurdles like language barriers and a lack of outreach and education play a part in how sick people get and how they recover.

“As someone who can speak English and Spanish, there is a responsibility there,” he said.

The CDC says Hispanics, like African Americans and American Indians, are at a high risk for kidney failure because of high rates of diabetes and high blood pressure in these communities.

The American Kidney Fund reports Hispanic Americans are twice as likely as white Americans to develop kidney failure, but are less likely to receive a transplant.

“Hispanic population are affected more than the white population in this country with all the associated cardiovascular conditions such as heart attacks, stroke and amputations — makes the lives of people in any stage of adrenal disease very difficult,” Dr. Jose A. Goris, internist from SOMOS Community Care, said.

Goris says he had diabetes for 30 years, which led to kidney disease and a kidney transplant a month ago from a distant relative.  

One of the biggest problems for many, he says, is the lack of organs available — some people, he says, wait years.

“I’m grateful for life, this gift of life,” Goris said.

He says it’s his responsibility to raise awareness, and promote the importance of being an organ donor.

“We should make the population more aware and donate kidneys to their family and loved ones even to the people you don’t know,” he said.

Calixto, about a year and a half later,  is doing well, and showed NY1 the neighborhood where his dad used to work as a doorman — the goal for him to get back to work.

Calixto, like the doctor, encourages others to become organ donors.

“I just want to continue sharing my story, my experience, but also speak to other people who are Queer, Latinx that are going through this and maybe want to be, and I say they can be a superhero to one of their family members,” he said.