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José Eleuterio González
José Eleuterio González | |
|---|---|
 José Eleuterio González | |
| Born | February 20, 1813 Guadalajara, Province of Nueva Galicia, Viceroyalty of New Spain |
| Died | April 4, 1888 (aged 75) |
| Occupations | Physician, writer, university professor, botanist, politician and philanthropist |
| Writing career | |
| Genres | Medicine and Science |
José Eleuterio González | |
|---|---|
| Governor of Nuevo León | |
| In office October 17 – November 30, 1870 | |
| Preceded by | Jerónimo Treviño |
| Succeeded by | Jerónimo Treviño |
| Governor of Nuevo León | |
| In office December 4, 1872 – October 4, 1873 | |
| Preceded by | Narciso Dávila |
| Succeeded by | Ramón Treviño |
| Governor of Nuevo León | |
| In office January 2 – March 8, 1874 | |
| Preceded by | Ramón Treviño |
| Succeeded by | Ramón Treviño |
| Personal details | |
| Born | February 20, 1813 |
| Died | April 4, 1888 (aged 75) |
| Spouse | Carmen Arredondo (div.) |
| Profession | Physician, politician, historian, writer and philanthropist |
José Eleuterio González Mendoza "Gonzalitos" (Guadalajara, Nueva Galicia, Viceroyalty of New Spain; February 20, 1813 – Monterrey, Nuevo León; April 4, 1888) was a distinguished physician, botanist, politician and philanthropist in the Mexican city of Monterrey.
Gonzalitos founded a public hospital and a public university in the state of Nuevo León. He also served as Governor of the State of Nuevo León on 3 occasions (once constitutionally and twice on an interim basis). On his death he left his property to the School of Medicine[1] and to the Civil Hospital,[2] which today bear his name.
Early years
José Eleuterio González was born on February 20, 1813, in the city of Guadalajara, then part of the Province of Nueva Galicia (present-day Mexico), in the Viceroyalty of New Spain, into a family headed by Matías González, a soldier of the viceroyal army, and Josefa Mendoza de González.
His father died during the War of Independence when José Eleuterio was only five years old, and he was left in the care of his maternal uncle, who raised him until the age of twelve. At that age he entered the Seminary of Guadalajara to study philosophy, rhetoric, etymology and classical literature.
At 17 he enrolled in the School of Medicine of Guadalajara, one of the oldest in the country. He began working as his teacher's assistant at the Hospital of San Juan de Dios, run by the Juanino monks, a religious order dedicated to serving the sick. There he met Friar Gabriel María Jiménez, a patient from Monterrey who had arrived ill with tuberculosis. He spent more than a year under the care of Gonzalitos, and a great friendship was forged between them. For health reasons Jiménez had to travel to the city of San Luis Potosí, and he invited Gonzalitos to go with him, promising to find him a job in another hospital run by the same order. As his uncle had died around that time and he was beginning to experience financial difficulties, he accepted the invitation.
On October 7, 1830, he arrived in the City of San Luis Potosí and obtained employment as second intern at the hospital, earning a salary of twenty pesos a month and becoming an apprentice to Doctor Pablo Cuadriello and the internist Pascual Aranda. Friar Jiménez's health worsened, and Gonzalitos decided to accompany him to Monterrey so that he could spend his last days with his family. On November 12, 1833, he arrived in the city and was appointed first intern of the Hospital del Rosario, the only one that existed in the town.
Monterrey
The Hospital del Rosario was supported by Bishop Belaunzarán, who held him in great esteem for the services he had rendered to Friar Jiménez. Around that time the director of the hospital decided to leave for the city of León, and Gonzalitos was promoted to interim director of the institution. Being in charge of a hospital at such an early age and without a medical degree forced him to prepare himself in an almost self-taught manner. On April 1, 1835, he opened a course in pharmacy in the hospital's apothecary, given the pressing need to train apothecaries in the city. He began with only four students, whom he would graduate years later on his own authority, since there was still no school of medicine or pharmacy in the town.
On January 6, 1836, Gonzalitos married Carmen Arredondo, daughter of General Joaquín Arredondo, Military Commander of the Eastern Internal Provinces during the War of Independence. Six years later the couple separated without having had children. According to some accounts, the break with his young wife would affect him until the day of his death and would motivate him to devote himself full-time to the practice of medicine. It is said that Doña Carmen Arredondo had set her eyes on a general who had arrived in Nuevo León; that general was Mariano Arista, who had come to the State to put down the guerrillas.
Don Mariano Arista had orange blossoms brought from Montemorelos to hold a soirée and present his beloved to Nuevo León society. It is told that one night someone knocked on Doctor González's door, reporting that there was a wounded man; upon arriving at the hut where the wounded man lay, he was greatly surprised to discover that it was General Arista, who had stolen the love of his life; without a second thought, Gonzalitos treated him. He even visited him several times until he was sure he was well.
On March 8, 1842, nine years after taking charge of the Hospital del Rosario, he obtained his medical degree by passing the examination of the Board of Health. A month later he opened a course in medical sciences, for which he decided to use the texts and curriculum of the School of Medicine of Mexico, supplemented with his personal notes. Four of his first five students would finish their studies at other institutions. The fifth, Blas María Diez, would eventually become the first physician to graduate in Nuevo León.
The School of Medicine
In 1853 he opened a course in obstetrics for men and women. Two years earlier he had been elected President of the Health Council of the state. He began to focus his efforts on opening the first public university in the region, which he achieved in 1859 with the opening of the Colegio Civil, whose School of Medicine he took charge of.
In its first year the School of Medicine operated in a room of the Bishop's mansion, which had been seized during the Reform War, and it had six professors and fifteen students. Upon the arrival of the French army it was forced to close its doors and to operate clandestinely between 1865 and 1866, with classes taught in the professors' homes. Count Liverman, an Austrian physician who arrived with the French troops, decided to nominate him for the Order of Guadalupe, awarded by Emperor Maximilian, an honor he declined.
After the arrival of the troops of Mariano Escobedo, Monterrey was once again in the hands of the republican army, and with this the Faculty of Medicine was able to reopen its doors. Gonzalitos had previously struck up good friendships with the senior liberal leadership a couple of years earlier, when he assisted the wife of President Juárez in childbirth while the couple was temporarily residing in the city. His forays into politics were sporadic but important: on several occasions he served as governor of the state, mostly on an interim basis during the administration of Jerónimo Treviño.
Shortly afterward Gonzalitos began to experience vision problems as a result of a complication in a cataract surgery and of a liver ailment that was detected in 1883. He spent his last years blind; nevertheless, he did not interrupt his teaching work and his supervision of the hospital, which he carried out with the help of students and assistants. Finally, at eleven o'clock on the night of April 4, 1888, he died, and he was buried in the chapel of the Civil Hospital. His remains were exhumed on two occasions, and since 1982 they have finally rested in the garden of the Faculty of Medicine of the Autonomous University of Nuevo León.
He was declared Benemérito of the State in 1867, ratified by a second decree in 1873, as protector of youth and benefactor of humanity. During his lifetime the municipality of Doctor González was established in his honor, by Decree No. 18 of November 5, 1883.
The legacy of Gonzalitos and his teaching method has endured for years. Today the Faculty of Medicine is renowned for its self-directed teaching method, applying the same principles that Gonzalitos used from his earliest years of learning and teaching. Today the inhabitants of the City of Monterrey, especially the elderly, still consider the Faculty of Medicine and the "Dr. José Eleuterio González" University Hospital the best in the State of Nuevo León for their tradition of quality teaching and humanism.
He is remembered with monuments at the University Hospital (by Joaquín Arias), at the Faculty of Medicine (by Miguel Giacomino) and on José Eleuterio González "Gonzalitos" Avenue in the capital of Nuevo León, which bears his name.
His spirit continues to fuel the flame of truth at the University Hospital.
See also
External links
- ↑ Escuela de Medicina
- ↑ Hospital Civil Hospital Civil
