Hispanic Pioneers in Medicine
In this virtual book display, we look to highlight the contributions of Hispanic American pioneers in Medicine as well as provide helpful resources to support the health of the Hispanic and Latinx populations.
This display is part of the Leatherby Libraries’ Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts in alignment with the Chapman University Strategic Plan for Diversity & Inclusion, fostering a diverse and inclusive campus climate.
Hispanic American Pioneers in Medicine
Antonia Novello, M.D. (1944- ) – Antonia Novello, M.D., was the first Hispanic and first woman to serve as United States surgeon general. Her policies aimed to decrease the incidence of pediatric acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and eliminate health-care disparities, particularly in the Latino community. Antonia Coello Novello was born on August 23, 1944, in Fajardo, Puerto Rico. Novello was born with megacolon, a birth defect affecting the large intestine. Medical treatments at her local hospital instilled in Novello an empathy for patients and inspired her medical career. Novello was appointed fourteenth surgeon general of the United States by President George H. W. Bush in 1990. She was both the first Hispanic person and first woman to hold this position. As surgeon general, Novello focused on health care for women, children, and minorities. She raised awareness regarding the maternal transmission of AIDS to newborns, created a workshop that led to the formation of the National Hispanic/Latino Health Initiative, spearheaded the removal of cartoon images from cigarette advertisements, mandated identification checks for the purchase of tobacco products, and discouraged alcohol distribution to minors.
Berman JO. Antonia Novello. Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia. February 2020.
Bernardo Alberto Houssay, (1887-1971) - Bernardo Alberto Houssay was the first South American to receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He was awarded the prize in 1947 for his discovery of the relation between the pancreas and the pituitary gland. This critical work paved the way for further studies of diabetes. Born in Buenos Aires, Bernardo was a prodigy, completing his secondary school studies by the age of thirteen. In 1904, at the age of seventeen, he received his degree in pharmacy. He was awarded a doctorate in medicine in 1910 and became certified as a physician in 1911. Although Houssay did make important discoveries in his experiments on snake and spider venoms, his best-known work was with the pituitary gland. He discovered that insulin, rather than effecting the oxidation of sugar, merely acted against chemicals from the pituitary or adrenal glands that block the effective burning of oxygen. More than fifty papers on medical studies of snake, spider, and scorpion venoms have appeared in his name, and more than five hundred scientific papers and several books containing his discoveries, including those regarding diabetes, have been published.
Connolly M. Bernardo Alberto Houssay. Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia. February 2021.
Carlos Juan Finlay, M.D. (1833-1915) – Carlos Juan Finlay, physician, clinical investigator, and discoverer of the role of the Aedes egypti mosquito in the transmission of yellow fever, was born in Camaguey, Cuba. After receiving his secondary education in France and Germany, he attended medical school in Philadelphia. Returning home in 1863, he established a practice in the community of El Cerro. Yellow fever was endemic in the Caribbean islands, and there was a lack of knowledge about the cause, means of transmission, and preventive measures. Finlay had long held an anticontagionist point of view, but following his work with the U.S. Yellow Fever Commission, he developed the hypothesis that a mosquito served as the vector of yellow fever. He obtained permission from the military authorities to test twenty volunteers, soldiers who had recently arrived from Spain. On June 10, 1881, Finlay inoculated his first volunteer by the bites of infected mosquitos, who nine days later developed symptoms. After over 104 recorded trials, Finlay concluded that a single bite from an infected mosquito resulted in an abortive form of the disease, which usually conferred immunity. In the following two decades, additional tests by other doctors, including Jesse Lazear and Water Reed, confirmed Finlay’s findings. The governor of Cuba ordered a banquet in honor of Finlay and authorities implemented his recommended measures of isolation, fumigation, and elimination of stagnant water. Within six months, the last case of yellow fever was registered in Havana, where the disease had been endemic for over two hundred years.
Juan A. Del Regato, Juan A. Del Regato. Carlos Juan Finlay (1833-1915). Journal of Public Health Policy. 2001;22(1):98-104.
Helen Rodriguez-Trias, M.D. (1929-2002) - Helen Rodriguez-Trias was the first Latina president of the American Public Health Association and was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal in 2001 for her work on behalf of children, women, people with AIDS, and the poor. Rodriguez-Trias's strong grounding in her Puerto Rican identity shaped all her work. In the United States, African American, Puerto Rican, Chicano, indigenous, and poor women have been more likely to be sterilized than White women from the same or higher socioeconomic classes. Rodriguez-Trias helped create both the Committee to End Sterilization Abuse and the Committee for Abortion Rights and Against Sterilization Abuse, which were among the groups instrumental in bringing about federal sterilization guidelines in 1979.
Wilcox J. The face of women’s health: Helen Rodriguez-Trias. American journal of public health. 2002;92(4):566-569.
José Celso Barbosa, M.D. (1857-1921) - José Celso Barbosa was a Peurto Rican-born physician and politician who worked in the area of public medicine. Barbosa earned the reputation of being an excellent physician and distinguished himself through his use of innovative techniques in treating the smallpox. He was named a staff physician at the Society for Mutual Aid, which put him in contact with poor and often desperately ill patients, whom he treated with respect, kindness, and competence. In 1890, Barbosa was appointed professor of natural history at the Institute of Higher Learning, which was organized under the auspices of the Puerto Rican Athenaeum, where he offered courses in zoology, botany, and mineralogy. Two years later, he was named professor of anatomy and physiology and taught classes in various aspects of anatomy and obstetrics. In 1899, Barbosa founded the Republican Party of Puerto Rico, which was dedicated to strengthening the island’s ties to the United States and to obtaining acceptance of Puerto Rico as a state.
DeStephano MT. José Celso Barbosa. Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia. November 2020.
Severo Ochoa, M.D. (1905-1993) – Born in Spain, Severo Ochoa is best known for his discovery of polynucleotide phosphorylase, which led to the deciphering of the genetic code. Ochoa attended medical school at the University of Madrid, from which he received an M.D. degree in 1929. After medical school, Ochoa held several positions that gained him considerable expertise in experimental biochemistry. Ochoa worked in Germany, France, and England before moving to the United States in August, 1940. In 1942, Ochoa was appointed research associate in medicine at New York University (NYU) School of Medicine. Ochoa became a U.S. citizen in 1956 and he remained at NYU until he retired in 1974. In 1955, while studying the mechanism by which the energy of glucose is stored as ATP, he and Marianne Grunberg-Manago discovered an enzyme known as polynucleotide phosphorylase (PNP). The discovery of PNP was instrumental in the synthesis of synthetic messenger RNAs (mRNAs) used in the unraveling of the genetic code. Ochoa published more than two hundred scientific articles during his distinguished career and received numerous honorary degrees and awards. In 1959, Ochoa shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Arthur Kornberg.
Vigue CL. Severo Ochoa. Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia. January 2019.
