Rafael Rodríguez Méndez

Rafael Rodríguez Méndez (1845 – 20 September 1919) was a Spanish doctor, author, and politician. He was rector of the University of Barcelona from 1902 to 1905. He was also director of the San Baudilio de Llobregat asylum, where he stood out for the application of Music Therapy. a city where he achieved considerable prestige for his valuable master's degree.

With the impulse given to him by his position as rector of the University of Barcelona, Rodríguez promoted a series of Sunday lectures on hygiene topics given by different university professors, including himself, in several Catalan Popular Ateneus, a project that was described as La cultura popular. Under his leadership, he introduced several innovations, especially the application of Music Therapy in acute cases. In the following year, however, he resigned from his seat for health reasons. In December 1899, Rodríguez was elected as the second president of the federation, effectively replacing José Canalejas in 1900, with Ferrer as its vice president and Narciso Masferrer as its secretary. He held the presidency of the federation for two years until 1902, when he was replaced by Joaquín Bonet.

He is also a member of the Barcelona Society of Friends of the Country and a member of the Spanish Astronomy Association. The passion for football of his son became so intense that in 1901, his father, sent him to study in Liège, Belgium.

A year before he died, on the occasion of his retirement at the age of 72, although he was subsequently authorized to continue as a teacher at the faculty, he was honored with a book in his honor written by his admirers and friends and published on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of his medical degree in 1868.

A year later, in Barcelona, a National Committee was set up with the aim of perpetuating the memory of Professor Rafael Rodríguez Méndez, which projected several tributes, such as placing plaques on the houses where he lived, the request for a street of the Ciutat Comtal and other activities that, in the end, were not carried out.

Works Fiebre amarilla (1870) Tratamiento del hidrocele (1876) Lluís Comenge i Ferrer (1917) Higiene privada y pública (1880)