Rafael González Hernández

Rafael González Hernández was born in Arrecife in 1866. He died in 1941. A physician trained in France, he worked in Lanzarote and Gran Canaria and held leading responsibilities at the Colegio de Médicos de Las Palmas and El Museo Canario. His career links municipal care for patients, clinical practice in Gran Canaria’s capital and the participation of physicians in the islands’ scientific and cultural institutions.

He studied at the University of Montpellier and obtained his doctorate in 1892 with a thesis on bronze diabetes. Francisco Hernández Delgado and María Dolores Rodríguez Armas’s study of healthcare in Lanzarote also records a prize awarded by the city of Montpellier. His French education preceded his return to the Canary Islands and a career combining everyday patient care with an interest in new medical methods.

In 1894 he became Arrecife’s municipal physician, also holding the post of meat inspector. His contract, dated September, required him to provide free medical care to poor residents of the municipality and their families. It also obliged him to visit patients unable to attend his surgery. His public medical work therefore encompassed both clinical services and duties of social assistance defined by the town council. The municipal authorities expressed their appreciation for his work when he left the post.

In October 1896 he moved to Las Palmas, where he continued to practise. His medical work included surgery and the introduction of new methods, alongside contributions to writings on children’s diseases. Biographical accounts also remember him as the family doctor of many households. In 1919 he received recognition from the French government associated with the Legion of Honour. His connection with Montpellier thus became part of the memory of a professional whose career was conducted principally in the Canary Islands.

He chaired the Colegio de Médicos de Las Palmas from 1914 until 1936. The organisation had experienced an early period of intermittent activity and resumed continuous operations in 1924. This distinction helps explain why some older accounts describe him as its first president in that later year. The institution’s own history recognises earlier presidents and dates the beginning of his presidency to 1914. His contribution belongs within that reorganisation of professional representation; the recovery of sustained activity should not be confused with the original establishment of the college.

González Hernández also served as president of El Museo Canario from 1930 until 1933. This responsibility extended his public role from medicine to a society devoted to collections and knowledge of the islands. Arrecife had awarded him the distinction of hijo predilecto, honouring a distinguished native, on 13 November 1929. His birthplace thus maintained its recognition despite his move to Gran Canaria. In 1955 he appeared in the Cumbre tobacco factory’s series of one hundred distinguished Canarians, a later expression of his place in island memory.