[The legacy of Cajal in Mexico]

Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1854-1934) had achieved a sound school of neurobiology displaying an integrative and anatomo-functional paradigm of study of the Nervous System by integrating diverse morphological, physiological, and clinical sciences during the Second Spanish Republic. Such school flourished in the three locations of the Cajal Institute in Madrid, but was nearly lost during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) with the repression of the majority of the collaborators of the recently-extinct master. One part of these mature and capable researchers was able to reach sanctuary in the Americas to continue their research and teaching enterprises. Thanks to the welcoming policy of Mexican president Lázaro Cárdenas several of them developed an extensive work at the National University of Mexico (UNAM) becoming pioneers, founders of research institutions, and venerable teachers of several medical and neurological sciences. Among them are neuropsychiatrist Dionisio Nieto, pathologist Isaac Costero, both pupils of Pío del Río Hortega; physiologist José Puche and pharmacologist Rafael Méndez, both collaborators of Juan Negrín. The work of Dionisio Nieto is especially worthy to remark as beneficiary of the Cajal School since, among many other achievements, he applied the techniques of Del Río Hortega to study the neuropathology of epilepsy and schizophrenia since the 1950's. Besides from his legacy to Mexican psychiatry, Nieto's pupils have extended his neuroanatomical and histological work, such as Alfonso Escobar, or his psycho physiological leads, such as Augusto Fernández-Guardiola. The latter was another Spanish War refugee who before is death in 2004 published a profound testimonial pertaining to the neurosciences of the Spanish exile in Mexico.