José Cancela Freijo

Birth Date: 10th May 1908 (†1st May 1973)
Birth Place: Campañó (Pontedeume)
 Curriculum

After studying Secondary Education in Santiago de Compostela, he emigrated to Montevideo (Uruguay) in 1927, where he studied Medicine and took his doctor’s degree in 1946. He specialised in Bacteriology, carrying out an intense scientific activity for thirty-five years of investigation. José Cancela filled the following offices: head of the Laboratory of the Otorhinolaryngologic Clinic of the Faculty of Medicine, head of the Laboratory of Bacteriology, head of the Laboratory of the Calmette Clinic of the Ministry of Public Health, advisor of the Honorary Commission for fighting against tuberculosis and Professor of Pathology and the Institute of Paediatric Clinic and Puericulture of the Faculty of Medicine.

 Work & Activities

He was awarded ‘Soca’ Prize of the Faculty of Medicine in Montevideo (1950-51) and the first prize at the International Contest of Scientific Works of the Academy of Medicine and Surgery of Seville (1950) for his work Histoplasmose: Enfermidade de Darling. Besides, he usually collaborated with the most important scientific publications in Uruguay (‘Archivos Uruguayos de Medicina, Cirugía y Especialidades’, ‘Hoja Tisiológica’, ‘Anales de Otorrinolaringología del Uruguay, etc).

 Other Interesting Aspects

He carried out an important activity of cultural promotion in the emigration. He was the first president and founded the ‘Padroado da Cultura Galega’ in Montevideo. From 1965 to 1968, he edited ‘Guieiro’, the publication of this institution. He was a member of several scientific institutions such as The American Trudeau Society, The American College of Chest Physicians, the Academy of Medicine of Seville, among others.