Carlos E. Chardón Palacios

Carlos Eugenio Chardón Palacios (28 September 1897 – 7 March 1965) was the first Puerto Rican mycologist, a high-ranking official in government on agriculture during the 1920s, the first Puerto Rican appointed as Chancellor of the University of Puerto Rico (1931–1935), and the head of the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration in the mid-to late 1930s during the Great Depression. He was also known as "the Father of Mycology in Puerto Rico". He discovered that the aphid "Aphis maidis" was the vector of the sugar cane Mosaic virus.

In the 1920s, he was appointed as Commissioner of Agriculture and Labor. In that position, he traveled in Central and South America, aiding agricultural programs in Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia and the Dominican Republic. After serving as a university administrator and head of a major agency, he returned to his academic work in the fields of land use and agriculture in 1940 and later. He published several books on his studies in Puerto Rico and Latin America.

Early life and education Carlos Eugenio Chardón Palacios was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, to Carlos Felix Chardón and Isabel Palacios Pelletier. His great-grandfather, Juan Bautista Chardón, a Catholic native of Champagne, France, immigrated to Puerto Rico from Louisiana in 1816, encouraged by the Royal Decree of Graces issued by the Spanish Crown, which was trying to attract new settlers to the island.

Chardón received his primary and secondary education in his hometown. In 1915, he began his studies in agriculture at the College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts in Mayagüez. Chardón went to the United States to continue his college education at Cornell University in New York State after Mayagüez was struck by an earthquake in 1918. It did considerable damage to the university and the city, damaging hundreds of masonry and wooden buildings, both commercial and residential.

Chardón earned his B.A. degree in 1919 and continued towards his Master's. He specialized in phytopathology and mycology, and studied diseases of sugar cane under the supervision of Herbert H. Whetzel. Chardón earned his master's degree in 1921 and became the first Puerto Rican mycologist. He returned to Puerto Rico and began a career in the fields of taxonomy of fungi, phytopathology, and agricultural development.

First Puerto Rican mycologist Chardón worked as a phytopathologist at the Agricultural Experimental Station in Río Piedras. In 1922 he discovered the vector of the Mosaic virus of sugar cane, which was the aphid Aphis maidis. His findings were published in the Journal of Phytopathology.

In reaction, on 23 October 1935, students at the university in Rio Piedras who supported Chardón began a signature drive to declare Albizu Campos as "Student Enemy Number One". A pro-Nationalist faction of students protested, denouncing Chardón and the Liberal Party in turn.

Río Piedras massacre The following day, 24 October, a student assembly at the university declared Albizu Campos Persona non grata (person not welcomed). Concerned about the potential for violence, Chardón requested the governor to provide armed police officers at the university because of the tensions. That day, two police officers saw what they thought was a suspicious-looking automobile and asked the driver, Ramón S. Pagán, for his license. His friend Pedro Quiñones was with him, and a confrontation developed that resulted in the deaths of Pagán and Quiñones. The local newspaper El Mundo reported the next day that an explosion and gunfire had been heard; the students Eduardo Rodríguez Vega and José Santiago Barea also died that day. The incident became known as the "Río Piedras massacre" and caused national outrage. It encouraged the training and development of Agriculture Technicians.

Chardón resigned from his positions in PRRA and the University of Puerto Rico because of his disagreements with the Government of Puerto Rico. He left Puerto Rico and helped in the agricultural and economic development of the Dominican Republic, Colombia, and Iran.

After returning to Puerto Rico in 1940, he held positions as director of the Land Authority (1940), and the Tropical Agricultural Institute in Mayagüez (1942).

His younger brother, Carlos Fernando Chardón (5 September 1907 – 9 December 1981), served as the Puerto Rico Adjutant General and Secretary of State of Puerto Rico from 1969 to 1973.

Honors In 1932 the Venezuelan government gave Chardón the Liberator Cross and the Medal of Honor in Public Instruction. In 1935 he received an Honorary Doctorate from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. In 1953 he received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Puerto Rico in Río Piedras.

Written works Mycological Explorations of Colombia (1930) Mycological Explorations of Venezuela (1934) Viajes y Naturaleza (1941), in which he described his trips in the United States and the Americas, and contributions of Latin American scientists. The first, second and third volumes of Los Naturalistas en América Latina (1949).

Legacy

Chardón was in the process of publishing the fourth and fifth volumes of Los Naturalistas en América Latina when he died on 7 March 1965, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He was buried at the Puerto Rico Memorial Cemetery in Carolina, Puerto Rico.

The Puerto Rican Mycological Society sponsors the annual "Carlos E. Chardón Lecture" in his honor, held during the Annual Symposium of Mycology.