December 3, Doctor’s Day: our honor to these intrepid pioneers who settled in these lands. Let us remember that the date was instituted for the day of birth of the Cuban doctor Carlos Juan Finlay Barrés, who discovered how yellow fever is transmitted.
Don Rafael Félix Vitale was born in Neuquén on February 21, 1915. He was the son of Félix Vitale and Dolores González, who had married in this city on September 6, 1913. Rafael had a brother, Roberto, also a doctor. The Deliberative Council of the city honored Félix by baptizing a street perpendicular to Inspector Gatica with his name.
His paternal grandparents were Rafael Vitale and Antonia Médici, Italians, who arrived in Neuquén in 1902. Rafael was a builder by trade, as quoted by a renowned historian, Mario Raone, in his work The Neuquen Foundation.
His maternal grandparents were María Santana and José González Fleitas, Spanish. José worked as a herdsman in this city, probably from 1904, data also cited by the aforementioned historian.
Rafael attended primary school at school No. 2, from which he graduated in 1927. He studied secondary school at the Colegio Pío IX in the Federal Capital because there were no secondary schools in Neuquén. He received his medical degree on April 26, 1945.
an anecdotal fact
When he was studying medicine in Buenos Aires, Dr. Rafael was a classmate of the well-known tango singer Alberto Castillo, “El cantor de los cien barrios porteños”, who had also graduated as a doctor, but devoted himself to singing. When he was in Neuquén for a walk, he visited them and we can remember them through the photos, that unbeatable resource for telling the story.
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The medical career: intense professional activity
In 1945 he began to practice his profession in the Neuquén capital both in the private and public spheres in the local hospital.
In 1948 he founded a sanatorium that operated at 200 Brown Street, formerly Catamarca Street. Then he began construction of the new Neuquén Sanatorium and Maternity at calle Rivadavia 250, in partnership with doctors Luis Ramón and Emilio Zingoni.
In addition, in 1956 construction began on the Cinco Saltos sanatorium in partnership with doctors Benito, Ricota and Rigoni. In this intense professional activity, he worked as a surgeon and performed surgical interventions on the patients of Dr. Natalio Burd from Centenario.
He was a prison doctor and the General Roca National Railroad.
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businessman doctor
In 1952, and in partnership with Dr. Andrés Linares, he built a neighborhood of twenty houses, located on Brentana, Chrestía, Carlos H. Rodríguez and Juan B. Justo streets.
In 1956 he installed the sweets and preserves factory Valleywhich used fruits from the area: they were exported under the brand Banner and they were of excellent quality. More than a hundred people were given work in the venture.
In the 1960s, he opened a transport company with six trucks for medium and long distances.
In 1967, he installed a packing shed in the old factory building, for which he built four modern sheds and warehouses in which he gave work to more than one hundred and fifty people. This activity was complemented by the agricultural production of five farms located in the Centenario and Cinco Saltos area.
In 1957 he participated in the founding of the Neuquén Medical College.
“Act of constitution of the Medical College of Neuquén”
Minutes No. 1: Constitution of the Neuquén Medical Association. In the city of Neuquén, capital of the Province of the same name, on the twenty-third day of the month of January of one thousand nine hundred and fifty-seven, they met in the school cooperative of this Neuquén City, San Juan street, number one hundred and eighty, being twenty hours, the doctors David Abraham, Juan Manuel Castro, Roberto Chevalier, A. Gervasoni, Juan Antonio Jorge, Andrés Linares, Raúl Eduardo Parodi, Víctor Peláez, Aldo Luis Robiglio, Roberto Luis Vitale and Emilio Zingoni, each acting, by their own right, those who have resolved the present meeting, in order to change opinions, for the purpose of constituting in this city, a Medical College that will have the purpose of defending professional interests at the local and national level, fostering the spirit of solidarity among its affiliates, to collaborate with the public powers in those problems that interest society and professionals, as well as to tend to the greater scientific training of its components.
All attendees having expressed their full agreement with the initiative and counting on the support of doctors Enrique Benedetti, Héctor Bensimón, Eduardo Castro Rendón, Gustavo Adolfo Luque, Beatriz Batisti de Peláez, Luis Vicente Ramón, Ángel Nicanor Romero, Rafael Félix Vitale , those appointed in assembly state resolve:
First: to establish the Neuquén Medical College with address in the city of Neuquén.
More articles follow in which a provisional commission of three members was appointed: the appointment fell to doctors Juan Manuel Castro, Roberto Armando Chevalier and Claudio Juan Robiglio.
Don Vitale was also elected president of the Independent Club, in whose management the construction of the local headquarters began.
His family
On August 18, 1945, he married Elisa Portanko, daughter of Juan Portanko and Slava Fix. Juan had arrived from his native Russia in 1913: his job was a railroad engineer. Slava was born in Switzerland and lived in Zainuco, near Zapala, when they met. They were married in 1920. According to the stories of his granddaughter María Elisa, Tatythe house of his grandmother Slava had witnessed the events that occurred in the town of Zainuco, when in 1916 there was an escape of prisoners from the U9 that would culminate in the massacre of the escapees.
Rafael and Elisa had eight children, several grandchildren and great-grandchildren, who continue to live and work in this city.
Dr. Rafael Félix Vitale, together with the professionals named and many more, made up that brotherhood of doctors who, arriving early in the territory, would lay the foundations for the future and successful Health Plan consolidated in the 1970s and would be a model for the rest. of the Argentine national state.
The history of health in our province is full of stories of doctors who did not hesitate to leave their places of origin to start over here, in this land full of dreams and projects.