Joaquín García Lebredo Lladó

Cuban physician and educator. He worked as a professor at different institutions in La Habana and collaborated in numerous scientific newspapers and journals.

He was born in the city of Matanzas. Starting in 1848, he studied at the Real y Literaria Universidad de La Habana, where he graduated as a bachelor of sciences in 1852, as a licentiate in Philosophy in 1856, and as a doctor of medicine in 1868.

He taught optics and plane trigonometry at the Chair of Physical-Mathematical Sciences at the aforementioned University (1856-1857), where he also served as librarian (1858-1859) and as professor of the Chair of Hygiene of the Faculty of Medicine (1880). Similarly, he taught algebra, arithmetic, physics, and chemistry at the Instituto de Segunda Enseñanza de La Habana from its founding in 1863, and was a professor at the colegio El Salvador, where he was in charge of geometry, algebra, and trigonometry (1868-1864). At the colegio San Francisco de Asís, he taught physics and mathematics.

He collaborated in various scientific newspapers and journals in La Habana: Revista Médica de la Isla de Cuba, Crónica Médico Quirúrgica de La Habana and El Genio Científico. His philosophical thought, characterized by reflections derived from natural sciences, identified with French positivism. Some of his articles, signed under the pseudonym of Arteo, were published in 1858 in the Revista Médica de la Isla de Cuba, directed by Julio Jacinto Le Riverend y Longrou.

After the outbreak of the Guerra de los Diez Años, he emigrated to Spain, where he was a member of several institutions; among them, the Sociedad de Ginecología. A work of his related to organic chemistry and its applications to physiology and therapeutics was awarded by the Real Academia de Medicina de Madrid. Similarly, he was a member of the Sociedad de Anatomía de París and the Sociedad de Biología de Francia, and was a corresponding member of the Sociedad de Medicina Legal de Nueva York, Estados Unidos.

He was a founding member of the Real Academia de Ciencias Médicas, Físicas y Naturales de La Habana in 1861, and from April 14 of that year he assumed the position of vice secretary of its Board of Directors. He was also part of the Medicine and Hygiene Section of the Academy, and in 1885 received the status of Honorary Academician. He was a member of the Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País (SEAP) of La Habana, the Liceo Artístico y Literario de La Habana, and the Sociedad del Pilar, where he held the position, in 1864, of director of the Literature Section.

He was one of the thirty founding members of the Academia de Ciencias Médicas, Físicas y Naturales de La Habana. José Martí said of him: "A wise physician, conqueror of death and honor of his homeland."

Source: EnCaribe.org