Bernardo J. Gastélum

Bernardo José Gastélum Izabal (August 4, 1886 in Culiacán – December 21, 1981 in Mexico City) was a Mexican physician, politician,[1] and writer.

Biography

Gastélum got his secondary education and his baccalaureate at the Colegio Rosales,[2] and did his studies of medicine at the Universidad de Guadalajara, and his postgraduate studies at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

After 1909 he taught at the Colegio Rosales, where he was director from 1915 to 1916, and for a second time from 1918 to 1922. During his second period he turned it in the University of Occident, today Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa.[3] After the Mexican revolution, he served as ambassador in Uruguay, Paraguay, Italy and Hungary.[4]

When he returned to Mexico in 1923, he became Subsecretary of Education,[5] and was Secretary of Public Education from July 2 to November 30.[6] It was he, who asked Ezequiel A. Chávez, president of the Universidad Nacional de México, to come up with a project that would ensure the university's autonomy, but without success.[7]

From 1925 to 1928, President Plutarco Elias Calles named him as Chief of the Health Department in Mexico, transforming it into what we know now as "Secretaría de Salubridad".[8][9]

Gastélum was co-founder of the Contemporáneos magazine. In 1932 he was chief of the department of health of Sinaloa, and from 1938 to 1947 director of the Escuela Preparatoria (preparatory school). In 1949 he moved back to Mexico City, where he worked for several journals and magazines. In 1965 he became honorary doctor of the Universidad de Sinaloa.[10]

The General Hospital of his hometown is named in honor of him.

References

1. Cartas a Genaro Estrada, 1921-1931 (Spanish), UNAM, 2001 p. 62.
2. La Universidad de Occidente Archived July 19, 2009, at the Wayback Machine (Spanish)
3. La UAS en el tiempo (Spanish), Historia News.
4. Gastelum, Bernardo J. (Spanish), in Diccionario de escritores mexicanos, Siglo XX: G, 1988, p. 150. (includes list of works)
5. Bradley A. Levinson, Doyle Stevick: Reimagining civic education, Rowman & Littlefield, 2007, p. 247.
6. Secretarios de Educación Pública Archived 2011-07-25 at the Wayback Machine, p. 26.
7. UNAM Through Time - 1924 Archived June 4, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
8. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-04-26. Retrieved 2014-04-25.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
9. Galván Lafarga, Mtra. Luz Elena. Diccionario de Historia de la Educación en México. Publicación Digital disponible en el vínculo: http://www.bibliotic.unam.mx/
10. Dina Beltrán López: Bernardo J. Gastélum Izábal 1889-1981 Archived July 27, 2011, at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish), p. 3.

External links

• Bernardo J. Gastélum in the Ibero-American Institute's catalogue