Personal Name: Reynaldo Deveaux, M.D.
Personal Dates: 1918-
Interviewed by: Jake Spidle, Ph.D.
Recorded Date: 1983
Call Number: FL 1038
Oral History Title: Interview with Reynaldo Deveaux, M.D.
Physical Description: 1 sound cassette (65 min.) + 1 transcript (15 p.)
Biographical Note: Dr. Reynaldo Deveaux was born in Vera Cruz,
Mexico, in 1918. He received his M.D. from the National School of Medicine in
Mexico City, Mexico, in 1944. As president of the student council, he had
received a letter from the United States Farm Home Administration asking for two
doctors finishing medical school to participate in a health care program for
low-income patients. His medical school granted Dr. Deveaux permission to
substitute this experience for the six months of practice in a rural Mexican
community required as part of his degree. Speaking very little English, Dr.
Deveaux and a classmate, Dr. Arturo LaMonthe, arrived in Taos, New Mexico, in
1942 with a six-month contract to work in the hospital and travel to rural
clinics. He worked with this program until its end in 1948. Though Dr. LaMonthe
then returned to Mexico, Dr. Deveaux, who had married a local woman, decided to
take the medical examination and get licensed for practice in the United States.
However, he was met with opposition from another local doctor, who threatened a
lawsuit to stop Dr. Deveaux’s examination. With help from his father-in-law, a
New Mexico state senator from Taos, Dr. Deveaux’s medical degree was recognized,
he was allowed to sit for his examination, and he was licensed in 1948. Dr.
Deveaux set up a private practice in Taos, where he stayed until his retirement
in 1983.
Content: This interview with Dr. Reynaldo Deveaux, a family
practitioner who practiced in Taos, New Mexico from 1942 to 1983, contains much
interesting information on small town/rural medicine in a heavily
Hispanic-American county. Dr. Deveaux came to Taos directly from medical school
in Mexico City during World War II and practiced for six years as a federal
government contract physician, then stayed as a private practitioner for another
35 years. The interview includes information about traditional medicine within
the Hispanic culture of Taos and its vicinity; the special circumstances and
stresses of health care delivery in rural New Mexico during World War II; Taos
area physicians, particularly Drs. Warner Onstine and Al Rosen; the licensure
difficulties associated with a foreign medical degree; Holy Cross Hospital in
Taos; and much else.
Location: Taos County
Occupation: Physician, Medical-General Practice
Link to Library Catalog: http://hestia.unm.edu/search/a?SEARCH=deveaux+reynaldo
Full text transcript:
PDF
(3676k)