Bernardo José Gastélum Izabal (August 4, 1886, in Culiacán – December 21, 1981, in Mexico City) was a Mexican physician, politician,Cartas a Genaro Estrada, 1921–1931 (Spanish), UNAM, 2001 p. 62. and writer.
Biography Gastélum got his secondary education and his baccalaureate at the Colegio Rosales,La Universidad de Occidente (Spanish) 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.La UAS en el tiempo (Spanish), Historia News. After the Mexican Revolution, he served as ambassador in Uruguay, Paraguay, Italy and Hungary.Gastelum, Bernardo J. (Spanish), in Diccionario de escritores mexicanos, Siglo XX: G, 1988, p. 150. (includes list of works)
When he returned to Mexico in 1923, he became Subsecretary of Education,Bradley A. Levinson, Doyle Stevick: Reimagining civic education, Rowman & Littlefield, 2007, p. 247. and was Secretary of Public Education from July 2 to November 30.Secretarios de Educación Pública , p. 26. 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.UNAM Through Time – 1924
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".Galván Lafarga, Mtra. Luz Elena. Diccionario de Historia de la Educación en México. Publicación Digital disponible en el vínculo: http://www.bibliotic.unam.mx/
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.Dina Beltrán López: Bernardo J. Gastélum Izábal 1889–1981 , p. 3.
The General Hospital of his hometown is named in honor of him.
References
External links in the Ibero-American Institute's catalogue