Rawson, Guillermo (1821–1890)
Rawson, Guillermo (1821–1890)
Guillermo Rawson (b. 25 June 1821; d. 2 February 1890), Argentine medical doctor and statesman. The son of a New England physician who settled in Argentina during the Independence era, Guillermo Rawson was born in San Juan. He practiced medicine in his native city and later Buenos Aires, ultimately becoming a professor of medicine at the University of Buenos Aires. He took a special interest in matters of public health and in 1880 was the principal founder of the Argentine Red Cross.
Rawson's political career began in the 1840s in San Juan, where as a member of the legislature he took a cautious yet public stand against the dictatorship of Juan Manuel de Rosas. Privately he worked for the overthrow of Rosas, in cooperation with his fellow sanjuanino Domingo Sarmiento (from whom he subsequently became estranged despite their shared liberal ideology). After the fall of Rosas, Rawson served in the Congress and held other positions, of which the most important was minister of the interior during the presidency of Bartolomé Mitre (1862–1868). As minister he coped with a rash of provincial uprisings, and worked vigorously to promote immigration and infrastructural development.
See alsoArgentina: The Nineteenth Century; Mitre, Bartolomé; Rosas, Juan Manuel de.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Vidas de grandes argentinos, 2d ed., vol. 3 (1963), pp. 51-54.
Antonio Aguilar, Hombres de San Juan: El Dr. Guillermo Rawson (1971).
Additional Bibliography
Maurín Navarro, Emilio. Tres maestros de la medicina argentina: Rawson, Quiroga y Navarro. San Juan: Academia Provincial de la Historia, 1972.
Villaverde, Juan. "Guillermo Rawson's Idealistic Vision of the United States." Américas 23:8 (August 1971): 25-35.