Dago Rivera was born in Havana, Cuba, and grew up in Candelaria, a quaint small rural town in the western province of Pinar del Rio. He began his formal college education in the historic Havana University, Medicine school “General Calixto Garcia Hospital” finalizing in 1995 after six years of studies with a
medical doctor degree. Dago could achieve his childhood dream of taking care of and healing other people when he was just 24 years old.

By the end of 2003, he had studied Family Practice and Anesthesiology specialties at Havana University’s “Calixto Garcia” and “Hermanos Ameijeiras” Hospitals.
But, he was forced to abandon his country on a wooden raft due to his political ideas against Castro-Communism. After being rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard in the sea, he was transferred to the Guantanamo Naval Base. There he helped as a
(Spanish-French-English) translator for the Navy Medical Corps that cared for the Cubans and Haitians refugees. Then, in December 2004, he moved to San Jose, Costa Rica as a political refugee and worked as a Medical Advisor for the European Red Cross. A year later, he finally relocated to Florida, the U.S., where
he focused on recovering his health professional career.
Living in Miami, Florida, he became a Medical Assistant and Phlebotomist working for the Miami Children’s Hospital. Later on, he was certified as a medical billing and coding specialist at the New Professions Technical Institute (NPTI),
which allowed him to step up in the healthcare field toward his career goals. As a foreign medical graduate (FMG), he chose the nursing profession as the best pathway to becoming a practitioner in the new country that sheltered him.

In 2010, he moved to Tampa, Florida, became a proud American Citizen, studied his Associate Degree in Nursing (RN), made the Dean’s list, graduating with honors in 2016 at Breckinridge School of Nursing and Health Sciences, ITT-Technical Institute. Then, he started to work as an R.N. at the Kindred Hospital
and the home health field. Two years later, he finished, also with honors, the Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing at Rasmussen College but continued toward the Master of Science in nursing at the prestigious Walden University of Minnesota. Finally, he could successfully recover his professional dream after obtaining the
Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) certification from the Florida Board of Nursing. Dago lives in the Forest Hills neighborhood in Tampa with his wife, mother-in-law, and two loved daughters. He is a political refugee Cuban medical doctor with 25 years of experience in the healthcare field. He is a native Spanish speaker with some French language studies at the French Alliance who belongs to a devoted Catholic family that enjoys helping others in need.