Guillermo Rawson
Encyclopedia
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
. As Interior Minister in 1862 he met Captain Love Jones-Parry and Lewis Jones
Lewis Jones (Patagonia)
Lewis Jones was one of the founders of the Welsh settlement in Patagonia. The city of Trelew was named after him....
who were on their way to Patagonia to investigate whether it was suitable for the creation of a Welsh settlement
Welsh settlement in Argentina
Y Wladfa refers to the Welsh settlement in Argentina, which began in 1865 and occurred mainly along the coast of Chubut Province in the far southern region of Patagonia...
there. Rawson came to an agreement with them, and this resulted in the creation of a colony in the Chubut Valley in the following years. The city of Rawson
Rawson, Chubut
Rawson is the capital of the Argentine province of Chubut, in Patagonia. It has about 26,000 inhabitants, and it is the head town of the Rawson Department, which has 122,000 inhabitants...
, the capital of the province of Chubut
Chubut Province
Chubut a province in the southern part of Argentina situated between the 42nd parallel south and the 46th parallel south , the Andes range separating Argentina from Chile, and the Atlantic ocean...
was named after him.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to Argentina, and Justina Rojo, a daughter of a wealthy family in San Juan, where Guillermo was born. After a Jesuit education in San Juan, Rawson graduated from the Medical Faculty of University of Buenos Aires
University of Buenos Aires
The University of Buenos Aires is the largest university in Argentina and the largest university by enrollment in Latin America. Founded on August 12, 1821 in the city of Buenos Aires, it consists of 13 faculties, 6 hospitals, 10 museums and is linked to 4 high schools: Colegio Nacional de Buenos...
in 1844. Rawson became interested in politics and democracy. In 1853 he was jailed for opposing Nazario Benavidez, the caudillo
Caudillo
Caudillo is a Spanish word for "leader" and usually describes a political-military leader at the head of an authoritarian power. The term translates into English as leader or chief, or more pejoratively as warlord, dictator or strongman. Caudillo was the term used to refer to the charismatic...
or de facto governor of San Juan. The following year he was a member of the Paraná Congress, and from 1862 he was Interior Minister in the government of Bartolomé Mitre
Bartolomé Mitre
Bartolomé Mitre Martínez was an Argentine statesman, military figure, and author. He was the President of Argentina from 1862 to 1868.-Life and times:...
.
Apart from politics, Rawson was interested in medicine and hygiene. In 1876 he attended the Centennial Exposition
Centennial Exposition
The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. It was officially...
in Philadelphia to present his work on public health in Buenos Aires, the most developed body of work on the subject at the time.
Rawson spent a year in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1881 for medical treatment, before returning to Argentina. He returned to France for further treatment in 1885 and died in Paris in 1890.
The building of the first Medical School in Buenos Aires is named after him (Escuela Dr Guillermo Rawson).
Further reading
- Aguilar, A. (1971). El Dr. Guillermo Rawson. San Juan, Argentina: Editorial Sanjuanina.
- Larrain, Jacob (1893). Biografía del doctor Guillermo Rawson. La Plata: Imp., Lit. y Encuad. de Solá Hnos. Sesé y Ca.
- Rawson, Guillermo, and Alberto B. Martinez (Ed.) (1891). Escritos y discursos del doctor Guillermo Rawson (3rd Edition). Buenos Aires: Compañía Sud-Americana de Billetes de Banco.