José Antonio López del Valle Valdés

One of the most representative figures of the Cuban School of Hygienists at the beginning of the twentieth century, which emerged from the sanitary work of the wise researcher doctor Carlos J. Finlay Barrés (1833-1915), is undoubtedly doctor José A. López del Valle y Valdés (1875-1937), a public health specialist who achieved international prestige for his important work in various positions in national health during the first four decades of the past century.

He was born in Havana on November 8, 1875. His father, Mr. José López Menéndez, a native of San Esteban de Molleda, Asturias, was in turn the son of Manuel López and González del Valle, a public schoolteacher, and María Menéndez Valdés y San Argudín, who emigrated to the capital of the Island in the early second half of the nineteenth century.

He married Miss Enriqueta Valdés, a native of Havana and a foundling of the Royal House of Maternity and Charity of the colonial capital, hence his only surname Valdés, and therefore the original name of the wise Cuban public health specialist is José Antonio López y Valdés.

He received his primary education at the "San Nicolás de Bari" School, under the illustrious pedagogue Don Andrés Cobreiro, and at the Royal School of "San Fernando," both in the capital of the colony.

He pursued his secondary education at the "Habana" schools, under the direction of Don Domingo Frades, a distinguished pedagogue, and "El Redentor," and at the Institute of Secondary Education of Havana, where he completed the exercises for his Bachelor's degree on June 23, 1891, with a passing grade, and his diploma was issued on May 25, 1892.

In this latter institution, in the 1888-1889 academic year, he passed with distinction both courses in French language, and in 1891-1892 he passed the German language course with a passing grade, all required courses for pursuing a degree in Medicine at the Royal and Pontifical University of Havana.

It is interesting to know that at age twelve (1887) he worked as a teacher at his grandfather's school, Don Manuel López y González del Valle, and that at age fourteen (1889) he was an auxiliary professor at the Municipal School in the Monserrate neighborhood.

He began his medical studies at the University of Havana in the 1891-1892 academic year, and for this he abandoned his teaching work in primary education. That same year he was admitted as a resident intern at the Aldecoa Hospital, a position he maintained throughout his studies and on which he published his first book in 1901, titled "Memories of an Intern (Recollections from the Hospital)."

He pursued his university studies with great success, obtaining a distinction grade in 11 of 26 subjects, a notable grade in 7, a good grade in 6, and a passing grade in 2. He completed the exercises for his degree in Medicine on June 24 and 25, 1897, with a final distinction grade, having diagnosed a case of malaria in the practical exercise. His diploma was issued on July 28 of that same year.

Six years later, at his Alma Mater, he completed the exercises for his degree in Medicine on June 29 and 30, 1903, with a final distinction grade, before a tribunal composed of the eminent professors, doctors Gabriel Casuso Roque (1851-1923) as president; Tomás Vicente Coronado e Interian (1855-1928), secretary; and Julio San Martín Carriere (1854-1905), member. His diploma was issued on July 2, 1903.

After graduating with his degree in Medicine, he continued his work at the Aldecoa Hospital, now as an internal physician (August 1897), a position he maintained throughout 1898, which he combined with that of physician at the "Nuestra Señora del Pilar" Dispensary.

At the beginning of the first occupation of the United States of North America in Cuba, he entered public administration on January 27, 1899 as a Sanitary Inspector, and in February 1901 he was appointed, additionally, Chief of the Disinfection Brigade of Havana.

Once the Republic was established, he was confirmed in his positions, and in February 1904 he was appointed Chief of Disinfection and Inspector General of the Department of Health of Havana, becoming from that moment one of the most steadfast collaborators of doctor Carlos J. Finlay in his sanitary work, alongside great figures of the Cuban School of Hygienists at the beginning of the twentieth century, such as doctors Juan Guiteras Gener (1852-1925), Enrique B. Barnet y Roque de Escobar (1855-1916), Claudio Delgado y Amestoy (1843-1916), Arístides Agramonte Simoni (1868-1931), Diego Tamayo Figueredo (1852-1926), Jorge Le Roy y Cassá (1867-1934), Hugo Roberts Fernández (1868-1948), Emilio Martínez Martínez (1864-1948), Antonio Díaz Albertini Mojarrieta (1865-1945), Mario García-Lebredo Arango (1866-1931), Joaquín L. Dueñas Pinto (1859-1910), Joaquín L. Jacobsen Cantos (1862-1934), Honoré Lainé Garesche (1865-19?), and others, and being one of the principal collaborators of the Manual de Practica Sanitaria (1905), the maximum theoretical expression of the aforementioned School.

The civil war of August 1906 resulted in the second occupation of the United States of North America in Cuba, and the interventionist governor appointed him in August 1907 Local Chief of Health of Havana, a position he held almost uninterruptedly until 1927 and in which he would achieve international prestige.

With the Republic reestablished in January 1909, the following month he resigned his position as Local Chief of Health of Havana, and a few days later he was appointed director of the Antituberculous Dispensary of Havana, where he was to carry out meritorious work.

With doctor Charles J. Furbuch, he selected the appropriate location for the National Antituberculous Sanatorium "La Esperanza," in the heights of the Arroyo Apolo neighborhood, and he published his book Popular Lessons on Tuberculosis (1910), which was awarded a Gold Medal and Diploma of Honor at the I Spanish Congress on Tuberculosis, held in Barcelona in 1910.

When doctor Manuel Varona Suárez (1868-1928) took over the Secretariat of Health and Charity in November 1909, doctor López del Valle was restored to his position as Local Chief of Health of Havana.

From this important post, he created the National Prize for Maternity and Charity, was one of the drafters of Sanitary Ordinances for the governance of the Municipalities of the Republic (1914), Cuba's first sanitary code, a work on which he collaborated from its first edition in 1906; he was one of the principal drafters of the Panamerican Sanitary Code, drawn up and approved in Havana in 1924, during the VII Panamerican Sanitary Conference, and he represented Cuba at important International Sanitary Conferences and Congresses.

On January 29, 1927, he resigned from his position as Local Chief of Health of Havana and was appointed Chief of the Office of the National Department of Health, until January 14, 1933, when by Presidential Decree of that date he was appointed National Director of Health, a position he had held in an interim capacity on seventeen other occasions, with his customary efficiency.

With the fall of the government of General Gerardo Machado Morales (1871-1939) on August 12, 1933, a month later and faced with the impossibility of carrying out his health work, which was respected by all governments, he submitted his resignation from his position as National Director of Health on September 16 of that same year, which was accepted.

On December 31, 1936, he was again appointed to the position of Local Chief of Health of Havana, which he held until July 2, 1937, when he began serving as Auxiliary Director in the Department of Health, until his death in Havana on December 7, 1937, after four decades of intense practice of medicine and public health.

By Law of October 15, 1923, a new study plan was put into effect at the School of Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy of the University of Havana. Under this plan, the former chair number 11 of said School, which included the subjects of Hygiene, one course, and Medical Law and Toxicology, one course, was divided into two new chairs: chair number 25 of Hygiene and Sanitary Legislation, one course, and chair number 34 of Medical Law and Toxicology, one course.

The University Council in session on April 25, 1923, had approved his appointment as interim auxiliary professor of the chair of Hygiene and Medical Law and Toxicology. Once this chair was divided, the full professor doctor Raimundo de Castro Bachiller (1878-1954) became the titular professor of Medical Law and Toxicology, and with the position of titular professor of Hygiene and Sanitary Legislation put out to competitive examination, after conducting very brilliant competitive examination exercises, doctor López del Valle obtained it, and he took possession of the same, after taking the oath, on October 7, 1924.

He reached the university chair in the fullness of his vital and intellectual maturity. His early vocation for teaching, manifested from age twelve beside his grandfather at the latter's private primary education school, could now be expressed in full measure in higher education. He possessed, abundantly, the three qualities that doctor José A. Martínez-Fortún y Foyo (1882-1960) stated a university professor should have: great memory, great facility of speech, and erudite knowledge of the subject he teaches.

In developing the course curriculum, he devoted all his interest to creating in the future physician a well-founded way of thinking about the importance of disease prevention, although he also left room for knowledge of the sanitary legislation in force in the country.

His passion for health promotion led him to practice sports from his youth, and once in the university chair, he collaborated in its development at the high center of studies as vice president of the University Athletic Commission (1927-1930), presided over by his dear friend, doctor Clemente Inclán Costa (1879-1965), an eminent pediatrician, and years later Rector Magnificus of the more than two-hundred-year-old University of Havana. He also served for years as president of the Professional Baseball League.

But these were difficult times being lived in the country in general and in the high teaching institution in particular, with the student body facing the dictatorship of General Gerardo Machado (1925-1933), and when he closed the University by Presidential Decree on December 15, 1930, doctor López del Valle resigned from his chair, which he had so brilliantly obtained, on December 20 of that year, and took refuge in his work as a public health specialist for the welfare of his people.

When the "Finlay" Institute was created by Presidential Decree on January 17, 1927, doctor López del Valle was appointed President of its Technical Council. By Presidential Decree of April 2, 1931, he was appointed vice president of the Technical Council and professor of Hygiene and director of the National Sanitary School at the same Institute.

By Presidential Decree of April 30, 1934, he was confirmed as director of the National Sanitary School and held until his death the position of professor of Hygiene.

The extensive scientific work of doctor López del Valle comprises, in addition to the books cited, two others: Pleasant Memories of Professional Life (Medical Anecdotes), a volume of 228 pages, without imprint or date, and Sanitary Advances of the Republic of Cuba. Ed. Secret. Sanid. Benef. Havana. 1924. 137 pages.

His monographs are very numerous and among them stand out: Public Disinfection Services in Havana (1904), published in pamphlet form with the study Prophylaxis of Yellow Fever and the Bases of that Adopted in Havana by doctor Carlos J. Finlay; Medical Ethics. Critical Study of Professional Charlatanism (1904); The Department of Health of Havana, Its Organization, Procedures and Operations (1905), an extensive work published in pamphlet form and included in Manual de Practica Sanitaria (1905), directed by doctor Enrique B. Barnet; Atypical Forms of Yellow Fever. Their Importance from a Sanitary Point of View (1907), reproduced in the Journal of the American Medical Associations; Typhoid Fever in Havana (1911); "The Public Establishments of Havana" (1913); Development of Health and Charity in Cuba. During the Last 16 Years (1899-1914) (1914), an important study also published in English in the same year; Plan of Campaign Against Bubonic Plague (1915), in collaboration with doctor Enrique B. Barnet, a monograph that won a prize at the III National Medical Congress; For Finlay. For Guiteras (1927), and others.

His articles published in important Cuban scientific journals such as "Bulletin of the Secretariat of Health and Charity," Proceedings of the Academy of Medical, Physical and Natural Sciences of Havana, "Medical-Surgical Chronicle of Havana," "Journal of Medicine and Surgery of Havana," and numerous foreign ones, number almost one hundred.

The difficult period during which he served as professor at the University of Havana prevented him from writing the textbook "Hygiene and Sanitary Legislation" that everyone expected from his learning and practical experience.

Very early in his professional practice, he was declared a founding member of the Society of Tropical Medicine (1908), presided over by doctor Juan Guiteras Gener, a Cuban tropicalist of international prestige, and was elected its secretary.

Founding member of the Cuban Red Cross in 1909, that same year he was appointed Inspector General of the Medical Corps of said organization, and his work was so notable that the Superior Assembly awarded him the Gold Cross and the Order of Honor and Merit of the Cuban Red Cross, in the rank of Commander.

Member of the Board of Trustees of the "San Lázaro" Hospital (1905), member of merit of the Association of Commerce Employees of Havana (1908), and founding member of the Medical-Pharmaceutical Association of Cuba. He was appointed member of the Commission charged with collecting, selecting, and publishing the selected works of doctor Carlos J. Finlay, which successfully completed its work with the bilingual edition (Spanish-English) of Selected Works of Dr. Carlos J. Finlay. Selected papers of Dr. Carlos J. Finlay. Ed. Secret. Sanid. Benef. Havana. 1912. 657 pages, with an indispensable appendix containing "Bibliography of Dr. Carlos J. Finlay" (pp. 623-654) by doctor Jorge Le Roy y Cassá.

Titular member of the Society of Clinical Studies of Havana (1908), in 1911 he was elected member of number of the Economic Society of Friends of the Country, and that same year the Municipality of Havana awarded him a Gold Medal as a prize for his services.

Upon the death of doctor Enrique B. Barnet y Roque de Escobar, the Academy of Medical, Physical and Natural Sciences of Havana considered that no one was more suitable than doctor López del Valle to occupy chair number 15, so dignified occupied by the eminent Cuban public health specialist, and elected him as an academic member of number on January 11, 1918. His inaugural address, read at the ordinary session of June 14 of that same year, he dedicated to honoring the memory of his illustrious predecessor and friend, with the title "The Life of a Useful Man; Dr. Enrique B. Barnet."

His interest in studies of eugenics and homiculture led him to serve as a member of the Research Commission of the National League of Homiculture, hold the position of vice president of the Pan-American Office of Eugenics and Homiculture (1931), and serve as Official Delegate of the Government of Cuba to the Eugenics Conference held in the United States of North America.

He belonged to important foreign health institutions such as the American Association of Public Health (1912) and held high responsibilities in National and Latin American Medical Congresses.

When the National Order of Merit Carlos J. Finlay was instituted by Presidential Decree on November 30, 1928, he was among the first group to whom it was awarded, in the superior rank of Grand Cross "for extraordinary services rendered generously and altruistically to the cause of Public Health and Charity," and in 1936 he was appointed a member of the Council of the Order.

With his death in Havana on December 7, 1937, the American Continent lost one of the highest exponents of its public health.