José López Sánchez

Professor and Academic of Merit and DrCs López Sánchez. Medical historian in general and in particular an erudite researcher of the history of Cuban medicine. Graduated in 1938 as a Doctor of Medicine from the University of La Habana, he worked as a specialist in dermatology and syphilis. He held the positions of Vice-Minister of Public Health and Vice-President of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba. He was the founder and first director of the Museum of History of Sciences "Carlos J. Finlay" and Ambassador of Cuba to several countries. He was an Honorary member of the Cuban Society of History of Medicine, the Cuban Society of History of Science and Technology, and the Latin American Society of History of Science and Technology.

He was born in La Habana, pursued his early education in his native city and in Santiago de Cuba. In the latter, he taught at the Juan Bautista Sagarra school with the notable teacher and patriot Luis Buch and at the Institute of Secondary Education.

In 1927 the family settled in Santa Clara, as his father was transferred there, who then held a prominent position at the Cuban Telephone Company. In 1928 he graduated as a Bachelor from the Institute of that city and that same year enrolled in medicine at the University of La Habana.

Since 1925 he dedicated himself to revolutionary activities uninterruptedly and among those developed during the student period, his active participation as a member of the Organizing Commission for the Freedom of Julio Antonio Mella stands out, as well as his intervention in the student march of 1930 where Pablo de la Torriente Brau was wounded and Rafael Trejo was murdered. In union with other students he founded the Student Directorate and took part in rallies against the dictatorship of Gerardo Machado in the cities of Sancti Spíritus, Cabaiguan, and Placetas.

In 1932 he joined the Communist Party of Cuba and the following year was General Secretary of the cell at the Emergency Hospital. In 1934 he was part of the Party commission along with doctors Luis Díaz Soto, Luis Alvarez Tabío and student Carlos Font Pupo, which participated in the doctors' strike.

In 1935 he was appointed General Secretary of the Sectional Committee of the Havana neighborhoods of Los Sitios and Cayo Hueso and a year later joined the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the Party, which in 1937 appointed him General Secretary of its Sectional Committee at the University of La Habana. That year he traveled to Spain as a representative of the Federation of University Students (FEU) and of the Communist Party of Cuba, where he served as a war correspondent.

Upon his return to Cuba, in 1938, López Sánchez continued his activism in the Communist Party, graduated as a doctor of medicine, with an Outstanding grade in his degree exercise. At the end of that year he was appointed as an internal physician and home visit physician at the Legal Welfare Center for Workers of Cuba, which was directed by his colleague and fellow member of the International Brigade in the Spanish War for the defense of the Republic, Doctor Luis Díaz Soto.

Since 1942 he stood out in the organization and struggles of the medical profession, belonging to the Executive Committee of the Medical Federation of Cuba first and then of the National Medical College. It was precisely in this year that his interest in the history of medicine began, his first work being the Spanish translation of the book by Henry E. Sigerist Socialized Medicine in the Soviet Union.

In 1943 he held the position of specialist in Dermatology at the Legal Welfare Center; at the Children's Hospital in 1946 and at the General Freyre de Andrade Hospital (Emergency) in 1948.

Since 1944 he performed countless activities related to the History of Medicine, among which his appointment as a corresponding member of the Brazilian Institute of History of Medicine and of the Society of History of Medicine of Venezuela stands out, to which is added his status as a founding member of the Cuban Society of History of Medicine and the International Society of History of Medicine. In 1945 he was a founding member of the Cuban-Soviet Society of Medical Sciences and editor of its journal.

With the triumph of the Cuban Revolution he immediately integrated into the renewal process, and was the personal physician of the then Minister of the Armed Forces, General of the Army Raúl Castro Ruz.

In 1960 he held the position of Advisor to the Minister of Public Health and in 1961, the position of Vice-Minister and Vice-President of the Scientific Council of said Ministry. In this latter year he managed to reopen the Chair of History of Medicine at the School of Medicine of the University of La Habana, and obtained through competition the position of Professor of the discipline. He was the founder of the Museum of History of Sciences "Carlos J. Finlay" and its Director from 1962 to 1974.

In 1963 he was part of the Organizing Commission of the new Academy of Sciences, of which he was Vice-President and Secretary, in the period 1964-1967. From 1968 to 1974 he held the position of Director of the Institute of Scientific and Technical Documentation. In this latter year he was elected President of the Cuban Society of History of Medicine. In his first public intervention as such, he presented the thesis titled "New Significance of the History of Medicine". In this last responsibility he spent only a few months, as in the same year 1974 he was appointed as Ambassador of the Republic of Cuba to India, and also Concurrent Ambassador to Pakistan, Bangladesh, and the Kingdom of Nepal for a period of 7 years. During that time he met the Indian leader Indira Ghandi, with whom he shared a great friendship.

At the end of that diplomatic work, in 1981, he held the position of Director of Documentation of the Ministry of Foreign Relations until 1984, when he was appointed Ambassador to the Swiss Confederation (Switzerland), a position which he held until 1989.

Since his return to Cuba he dedicated himself to research in the History of Sciences and the publication of his results in books, articles, monographs and others.

José López Sánchez was a man of his time, responding in each period of his life to the demands of the development of the society to which he belonged.

Although his basic training was medicine, whose specialization in Dermatology he could barely practice, his more social than biologistic vision of medicine allowed him to share elements of his medical vocation and his social concerns, knowing that in not a few cases the social determinants of the health-disease process are more decisive than the biological components themselves.

His training in Marxist-Leninist philosophy led him to become interested early on in historical science, knowing that—as Marc Bloch said—"ignorance of the past is not limited to preventing knowledge of the present, but compromises, in the present, action itself."

In the field of historical research he devoted his greatest effort to two great personalities of Cuban medical sciences, Tomás Romay Chacón and Carlos J. Finlay, whose works impacted in an outstanding manner the development of medicine in Cuba, not only for their scientific value, but especially for their social value.

His work in the field of research in the History of Sciences was recognized when he was appointed Honorary Member of the Union of Historians of Cuba and of the Latin American Society of History of Science and Technology; Scholar of Merit of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba; National Prize for Social Sciences 1999 and the Order of Scientific Merit "Carlos J. Finlay". The Academy also recognized him by granting him the status of Professor of Merit of the then Superior Institute of Medical Sciences of La Habana, shortly before his death.

Publications

"Tomás Romay. Biographical Notes and Speeches" (1950), appeared in the Eighth Series of Cuadernos de Cultura.
"Tomás Romay in the Economic Society"
"Life and Work of the Wise Havanan Physician Dr. Tomás Romay Chacón", this work deserved the prizes "Francisco González del Valle", from the Society of Historical and International Studies and that of the Medical Federation of Cuba,
"Tomás Romay and the Origin of Science in Cuba". Which was translated into English, French and Russian.

Not satisfied with this contribution, he completed it definitively with the compilation of all the works and documents of the founder of the scientific movement in Cuba and published them in:

"Tomás Romay. Complete Works" in two volumes, and a third with the indexes of names, subjects and geographic.

On the occasion of the profound reform of university studies proclaimed in January 1962, he managed to obtain the reopening of the Chair of History of Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of La Habana, for which he quickly wrote the textbook that would serve for its teaching.

With the title of:

History of Medicine. Vol 1 (From Primitive Times to the Renaissance), he tried to fill a void as quickly as possible and succeeded widely.

He published the monographic collection Notebooks of History of Public Health:

Medicine in La Habana. 1550 - 1799 (Chronology of Medical Facts Recorded in the Minutes of the City Council of La Habana)

He compiled and transcribed five hundred thirty documents extracted from fifty books with original council minutes, from fifty-seven with transcribed minutes and from three with printed minutes.

The work is essential for documentary knowledge of the history of medicine in Cuba, prior to the appearance of the medical press.

Awards and Recognition

For his work Cuba. Medicine and Civilization. Centuries XVII and XVIII he deserved the Critics' Prize (1997).

His work in the field of historical research of the sciences was recognized with the granting of the status of Honorary Member of the Union of Historians of Cuba and of the Latin American Society of History of Science and Technology, Scholar of Merit of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba, National Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities (1999) and the Order of Scientific Merit "Carlos J. Finlay".

The University also recognized his teaching in the History of Medicine and granted him the status of Professor of Merit of the Superior Institute of Medical Sciences of La Habana.