Celestino Tomás Álvarez Lajonchere

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Born in La Moza (Manicaragua), now in the province of Villa Clara, on December 21, 1917, and of Asturian descent, Dr. Lajonchere enrolled in the Faculty of Medicine at La Universidad de La Habana in 1937, where he received his Doctor's degree on December 21, 1944, following a brilliant academic career in which he obtained one of the few positions as an internal resident at the University Hospital "General Calixto García" based on his record.

He likewise obtained through competitive examination the positions of internal physician and resident physician at the same hospital, where he served for six years in the "Dr. Enrique Núñez" Ward, where the Chair of Obstetrics was located. In this ward he worked alongside notable figures such as Doctors Sergio García Marrúz (father), José M. Ramírez Olivella, and Julio Ortiz Pérez, the latter being his true mentor and one of the most accomplished Cuban obstetricians of those times, with whom he performed the first puerperal sterilizations carried out in Cuba and assisted as his aide during the country's first televised cesarean section.

During the decade of the 1950s, after joining the obstetrics chair with his clinic No. 15 as an adjunct professor on November 3, 1950, he developed his principal contributions to obstetric practice in Cuba, such as the introduction of the Luikart-Simpson forceps (1947), replacing the old model of Professor Pinard; the radiological demonstration of the advantages of what would later be called "vertical delivery" (1952); the exposition of the theoretical foundations and practical aspects of prophylaxis in childbirth (1953); the modification of Thierry spatulas (1955); a suprapubic approach for cesarean operation (1956); and his study on the possibility of inducing labor and also abortion through separation of the ovular membranes from their uterine insertion (1956).

During this period he worked as an obstetrician at the Anti-tuberculous Sanatorium "La Esperanza" and also gained experience working in a mutual aid institution such as the Private Maternity of Vedado; he published numerous scientific articles in important specialized journals produced in Cuba and participated with interesting presentations at numerous national and international congresses.

After the triumph of the Revolution, the work of Dr. Álvarez Lajonchere acquired an unlimited dimension of social projection.

A full member of the Cuban Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and corresponding member of the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics headquartered in Switzerland, in 1962 he was called by the then Minister of Public Health to assume the position of National Responsible for Obstetrics and Gynecology.

In 1963, under his personal direction, the preparation of obstetric and gynecological standards began. He presided for 12 years over the Working Group on Sex Education, and he founded and presided over the Cuban Multidisciplinary Society for the Study of Sexuality (1986).

Among his most representative works during this stage can be mentioned "Immediate postabortion intrauterine contraception" (1966); "Population policy" (1967); "Health protection within the framework of women's liberation" (1968); "Bases for a demographic policy" (1969); "Youth and sex education" (1972); "Gynecology-Obstetrics: current situation and perspectives" (1973); "Care for mothers in Latin America" (1973); "Population and health" (1974); "The gynecologist-obstetrician facing population issues" (1974); "Population, family and human welfare" (1974); "Maternal mortality: how it is studied in Cuba" (1976); "Medical care and socio-biological factors" (1976); and "Pregnancy and adolescence" (1985).

He participated in numerous congresses and international scientific consultancies and received countless recognitions at both national and international levels. The National Commission of Scientific Degrees granted him, upon its creation, the highest degree of Doctor in Medical Sciences (February 10, 1981); the Cuban Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology elevated him to Honorary Member (December 18, 1986); the Latin American Federation of Societies of Obstetrics and Gynecology, in the Dominican Republic, named him "Master of Latin American Gynecology-Obstetrics" (October 15, 1984); the World Association of Sexology, during its ninth congress held in Caracas, Venezuela in January 1990, presented him with a well-deserved recognition for his brilliant scientific career, and noted on a distinctive plaque "his important and valuable contributions to the development and advancement of the specialty"; and in 1996, the Cuban Society of Public Health elevated him to Honorary Member and recognized him as one of the most outstanding social hygienists in the country.

Let these brief lines serve to honor the esteemed professor who today is in the pantheon of illustrious figures of Cuban science, and who in life was a teacher of the greatest marvel of nature: human birth.