Rafael Santamarina: A precursor of mental health in the elementary school of the 20th century

Abstract

This research is situated in the post-revolutionary period of Mexico, within the framework of the promulgation of the Constitution of 1917 and the foundation of the Ministry of Public Education. At that time, the need to find out the mental and physical health conditions of Mexican children based on anthropometric charts was reconsidered. One of the professionals who participated in a relevant way in this process not only from its application but especially from the theoretical and methodological foundation was the physician Rafael Santamarina. Who was this man? What was his participation? What were his main contributions? This research will be oriented based on the aforementioned problematization. For this purpose, the recovery, review and analysis of primary hemerographic sources will be essential. It is mainly about the articles that the physician and university professor Santamarina wrote specially to collaborate in a periodical publication that had an important distribution at the national level: Educación. Revista Mensual, an academic project promoted and headed by teacher Lauro Aguirre and a team of professionals interested in educational issues whose main purposes were, on the one hand, to address all kinds of topics related to all levels of the national educational system at that time and, on the other, its diffusion among the members of the Mexican teaching profession. That is, to provide specialized information to in-service teachers to support their professional practice. This is particularly relevant if one takes into account that due to the armed process that had recently concluded in the country, there were many teachers in front of a group who did not have the opportunity to train as teachers in a teacher training school.