Lucio Córdova
Lucio Córdova Labarca (23 March 1871 – 11 January 1954) was a Chilean politician who served as a minister.
In 1940, Córdova was appointed director-general of the Schools of Social Service, and in 1942 he became vice-president of Laboratorio Chile. He retired on 18 August 1947.
He died in Santiago on 11 January 1954, aged 82. The Dr. Lucio Córdova Hospital for Infectious Diseases in the Santiago commune of San Miguel was subsequently named in his honour.
Early life
Córdova was born in Chillán, Chile, on 21 March 1871, the son of Antonio Córdova and Julieta Labarca. He received his primary and secondary education at the Liceo de Chillán before studying at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Chile. He graduated as a physician and surgeon on 22 October 1894.
Córdova married twice. His first wife was Laura Vergara, and he later married Luisa Fierro Carrera, daughter of Alejandro Fierro Pérez and Luisa Carrera Pinto.
Through her mother, Luisa was a granddaughter of José Miguel Carrera Fontecilla and Amelia Pinto Benavente. Neither marriage produced children.
Public career
Córdova began his professional career during the 1891 Chilean Civil War, serving as a physician with the Congressional Army. In 1895, he was appointed a substitute professor of forensic medicine.
In January 1898, the Superior Council of Public Hygiene commissioned Córdova to establish the Public Disinfection Service in Talca, of which he became the first director. Later that year, the Chilean government sent him to Europe to pursue further studies in hygiene and public health. He represented Chile at a hygiene congress in Madrid and, in 1899, attended a congress on the prevention of venereal diseases in Brussels.
By 1904, Córdova was serving as secretary of the Superior Council of Public Hygiene and as a physician at Hospital del Salvador in Santiago. In 1906, he travelled to Europe and the United States to study public-health administration. He became an academic member of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Chile in 1912. In 1919, he represented Chile at a meeting of the Academy of Medicine in Paris.
In 1925, Córdova was appointed director-general of Social Assistance. He left the position on 23 December of that year when President Emiliano Figueroa appointed him Minister of Hygiene, Social Assistance and Welfare. He served as minister until 20 November 1926, after which he returned to the Directorate-General of Social Assistance, remaining there until 1927.
Following the political changes associated with Carlos Ibáñez del Campo's rise to power in 1927, Córdova was removed from his public positions. He returned to public service after the end of the Ibáñez administration in 1931. The following year, he served as a professor of hygiene and as a councillor of the Central Board of Public Welfare.