By day and deep into the night, Jorge L. Torres-Garza moves between two callings: medicine and music. The passion he has for both is the same. The difference is in his instruments.
One moment the fourth-year student at Texas Tech Health El Paso Paul L. Foster School of Medicine could be using a computer, stethoscope and medical manikins to study how to treat patients. The next, the musician could be playing his accordion or guitar at a church service.
The native of Nueva Rosita, Coahuila, Mexico, has been on stages as a performer since he was a child. For the past six years, he has been a content creator on Instagram, where approximately 12,500 followers have tracked his journey from immigrant roots to norteño band leader to medical school graduate through his handle of becoming.dr.torres.
On March 20, Torres, 27, learned that he would serve his residency as an internal medicine Point-of-Care Ultrasound at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio.
“I always say I didn’t choose internal medicine as a specialty,” Torres told El Paso Matters. “Internal medicine kind of chose me.”
The beginning
His journey started in Nueva Rosita, an industrial and mining town of about 50,000 people in northeastern Mexico. He is the son of Jorge Torres, an industrial and electronics engineer, and Cynthia Garza, a school uniform manufacturer. An older sister, Cynthia, rounded out the family.
Torres’ favorite question as a child was “why,” and his parents nurtured his curiosity. His father either answered Jorge’s questions or found the answer in a reference book. As several members of his family are diabetic, he often accompanied family on doctors’ visits and connected that profession to helping people.
His grandfather, Jose Luis Garza, who died in 2020, encouraged young Jorge’s interest in music and allowed him to join him on stage as a child. Jorge’s first professional gig was with Garza at age 11 at a quinceañera in San Antonio. Along with his guitar and accordion, he plays bass, drums and the piano.
His father, who worked for a global engineering firm, agreed to the company’s request and moved the family to Wausau, Wisconsin, when his son was 14.
The younger Torres enrolled in high school without knowing any English. The initial months were hard, but the immersion in English, from school to watching television news to changing the language on his cell phone to English, helped speed the process. He said he could keep up with his classes before the end of his first semester.
While he did not participate in extracurricular school activities, he kept busy with skiing and creating a home recording studio for his music.
After three years in Wisconsin, the father requested and was granted permission to move to Eagle Pass, Texas, about two hours east of San Antonio.
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The elder Torres said he tried to engage his son’s curiosity with nature walks and reading from science books. He remembered Jorge would ask question after question about diverse topics from the color of leaves to a person’s digestive tract for hours at a time, and he tried to answer each thoroughly.
The father recalled that his son displayed exceptional energy and quick-learning ability at an early age. Jorge learned to play the piano at age 3 by ear. He said he worked to balance his son’s artistic and analytical capabilities. He also quickly observed that Jorge was empathetic.
“As he was growing, he was developing his skills and personality, and that interest to continue learning,” he said.
Lone Star
Upon his return to the Southwest, the younger Torres joined his high school mariachi band as a singer and guitarist, and occasionally as an accordionist.
Outside of school, he started a norteño trio, Gente de Rancho, that would play for various occasions. Torres, who is known as “Coco” Torres outside of El Paso, continued with this band through his undergraduate years until he started medical school.
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He met his future wife, Odalys Rodriguez, in high school. The couple attended Southwest Texas Junior College in Eagle Pass for two years before they transferred to UT San Antonio. Both graduated in 2020. Rodriguez earned her bachelor’s degree in politics and law, and he got his in biology. Both took a gap year as she prepared for the Law School Admission Test and he for the Medical College Admission Test from their homes in Eagle Pass.
“It was a full-time job for those months,” he said.
Between MCAT study sessions, he would network more in the music industry and perform with other bands.
“I was living the dream – musically,” he said.
The Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University in Houston accepted Rodriguez in 2021. He started the following year at TTHEP. They married in May 2024.
Rodriguez said that she was attracted to his honesty, confidence, determination and perseverance. She said he was the kind of person who set a goal and achieved it. Additionally, he’s the kind of person who motivates people to believe in themselves and their abilities, she said.
“He’s always been that type of person,” said Rodriguez, a personal injury attorney with the Tawney, Acosta & Chapparo law firm. She will continue to work for the firm remotely after the couple moves to San Antonio.
El Paso
Torres said his life became more regimented when he got to medical school. He said people use the analogy that the amount of information you consume in medical school in a short period of time is like drinking water from a fire hydrant, but he thinks one of his medical school peers had a better comparison. It’s like drinking water from Niagara Falls.
Once he felt comfortable with what he needed to do for academic success, he started to get more involved as a volunteer on and off campus.
He shares some tips with first-year students in what he calls his “Foster 101: Surviving and Thriving at the Foster School of Medicine.”
The two-hour workshop is conducted near the end of the three-week immersion where students learn about El Paso prior to the official start of the fall semester. He said the institution offered help on how to use campus resources, but added that success in medical school is up to the individual.
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Among those who benefited from the workshop was first-year medical student Patrick Andrade. He said the workshop was like a survival guide on how to utilize campus resources and how to study.
“(Torres is) not a gatekeeper,” said Andrade, a paramedic for three years before he enrolled at TTHEP. “He shares helpful information. That sets him apart.”
Andrade, who grew up in the Rio Grande Valley, said Torres helped him get over his “imposter syndrome” of not deserving to be in medical school. He called Torres helpful, relatable and tolerant. Torres quickly became his mentor.
He appreciated Torres’ advice to seek out leadership opportunities. With that encouragement, Andrade ran for and was elected president of TTHEP’s emergency medicine interest group starting next fall.
While no longer performing at gigs, Torres began to volunteer as a music minister at Abundant Church with three locations around El Paso. While medical school took a lot of his time, his non-negotiables with free time were faith, fitness and family.
Edgar Cabada, 29, plays guitar at the Abundant services on the Eastside. He has known Torres for about 18 months. Whether through online conversations or chance meetings at music stores, Cabada said he cannot help but learn from and admire Torres.
“He taught me … how to connect with people and how to build a network with people, which has helped me a lot,” said Cabada, who works in the health insurance field and has been part of Abundant’s music ministry for 10 years.
He said Torres is a “phenomenal” multi-instrument musician who inspires others because of what he has accomplished. In his case, Cabada said Torres inspired him to work more on his music.
“He’s pushing me to push myself a little more,” he said.
One of Torres’ favorite non-medical school memories, not counting his wedding on May 4, 2024, (no, he is not a Star Wars fan) happened Nov. 2, 2025.
The story started the previous May when he bought a 2022 Gibson Custom Shop Sergio Vallín 1955 Les Paul Goldtop Murphy Aged guitar from a collector in Mexico City. The company only made 100 of them. Vallín is the highly versatile lead guitarist of Maná, considered the most successful Latin rock band of all time.
Torres contacted Vallín to request he autograph the guitar. The two agreed to meet at a Dallas concert. Torres said that Vallín mentioned that he had seen Torres perform in YouTube videos and invited him to play the challenging guitar solo on the band’s massive hit “Clavado en Un Bar” (Literally, “Nailed to a Bar,” but contextually, “Stuck in a Bar”) during the sold-out Nov. 2 show at the American Airlines Center. He said he was more nervous meeting Vallín than performing in front of more than 15,000 Maná fans.
Match Day – March 20, 2026
Torres was anxious in the minutes leading up to opening the match day envelope at 10 a.m. sharp in the TTHEP Medical Science Building II auditorium. The hall was filled with future doctors and their families, friends, as well as TTHEP faculty, staff and administrators. Torres sat in a front section with his parents, wife and extended family.
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As part of an inside joke, event staff, who know Torres, put extra staples to seal his envelope to make sure he would not peek inside.
Torres had been exposed to many medical specialties and he said each was attractive in its own way. Through his experiences at University Medical Center and the Hospitals of Providence Transmountain campus and during a summer helping physicians at medical centers in Del Rio and Eagle Pass, he decided to pursue a career in internal medicine because he wanted long-term relationships with patients.
After a countdown, the medical school students tore open their envelopes. Torres learned that he would return to San Antonio. There were hugs and tears from his family and friends. The family called loved ones to share the news.
What’s next
As a resident for the next three years, Torres said he may work up to 80 hours per week. Internal medicine is comprehensive, non-surgical diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diseases for adult patients.
After he becomes comfortable with his medical duties, he plans to follow his passion for aviation to become a private pilot. After that, he may pursue a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering “for fun.”
Foster School of Medicine Commencement
What: Texas Tech Health El Paso will celebrate the graduation of more than 100 students from its Paul L. Foster School of Medicine.
When: 7 p.m. Saturday, May 16
Where: Plaza Theatre, 125 W. Mills Ave.
Information: commencementelp@ttuhsc.edu
The post Becoming Dr. Torres: El Paso medical school student’s journey balances music, faith, family appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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