Luis Fernández Álvarez (1 April 1853 – 24 May 1937) was a Spanish American physician and researcher who practiced in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

and

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

. Fernández was actually his principal surname (his father's surname), per

Spanish naming customs Spanish names are the traditional way of identifying, and the official way of registering, a person in Spain. They comprise a given name (simple or composite) and two surnames (the first surname of each parent). Traditionally, the first surname ...

. However, he is best known by his mother's surname, as in the English-speaking world the last name is the principal surname, although, again, this is contrary to

. His American-born children and descendants took his last surname for that reason, as well, albeit without the diacritic.

Early life

Álvarez was born in a small village called Mallecina, Salas, Asturias. His father was Eugenio Fernández, who was in charge of the business and palace affairs in Madrid of

Infante Francisco de Paula of Spain , house = Bourbon-Anjou , father = Charles IV of Spain , mother = Maria Luisa of Parma , birth_date = , birth_place = Aranjuez, Spain , death_date = , death_place = Madrid, Spain , burial_place = El Escorial Infante F ...

, a Spanish royal prince and the youngest son of the former king

Carlos IV , house = Bourbon-Anjou , father = Charles III of Spain , mother =Maria Amalia of Saxony , birth_date =11 November 1748 , birth_place =Palace of Portici, Portici, Naples , death_date = , death_place ...

. He was orphaned at an early age: his mother died when he was three, and he lost his father at the age of seven. When he was 13, one of his brothers took him to

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

where he secured a good education. He learned to speak English fluently. In 1878, he married Clementina Schutze and in 1887 graduated from

Cooper Medical College Stanford University School of Medicine is the medical school of Stanford University and is located in Stanford, California. It traces its roots to the Medical Department of the University of the Pacific, founded in San Francisco in 1858. This ...

(now

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

) with a medical degree. After practicing in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, he traveled to

as physician on the . In

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

, he was asked by the government to stay and become a government physician. Álvarez quickly learned to speak the

Hawaiian language Hawaiian (', ) is a Polynesian language of the Austronesian language family that takes its name from Hawaii, the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official language o ...

Career

In 1895, Álvarez resigned his position in

Waialua Waialua () is a census-designated place and North Shore community in the Waialua District on the island of Oahu, City & County of Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. As of the 2020 census, the CDP had a population of 4,062. Waialua was one of the ...

to prepare himself for work as Superintendent of a new experimental hospital for the treatment of

leprosy Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a long-term infection by the bacteria ''Mycobacterium leprae'' or ''Mycobacterium lepromatosis''. Infection can lead to damage of the nerves, respiratory tract, skin, and eyes. This nerve damag ...

which was to be established in Kalihi, a suburb of Honolulu. In order to learn research bacteriology, Álvarez went — at his own expense — for six months of intensive study at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

. On his return, he developed a method for the better diagnosis of

macular A skin condition, also known as cutaneous condition, is any medical condition that affects the integumentary system—the organ system that encloses the body and includes skin, nails, and related muscle and glands. The major function of this ...

leprosy. With a small mouse-tooth forceps he would lift up a little piece of skin, snip it off with scissors, grind it into a fluid in a small glass mortar, and then stain the fluid for Hansen's bacilli. This method or a modification of it has been used ever since. Álvarez developed a serum by injecting Hansen's bacilli into horses. He used this on a number of Hansen's disease patients with encouraging results. {{DEFAULTSORT:Alvarez, Luis F. 1853 births 1937 deaths People from Oviedo (Asturian comarca) American people of Asturian descent Spanish emigrants to the United States American hospital administrators Stanford University alumni American leprologists 20th-century American physicians Deaths from pneumonia Place of death missing 19th-century Spanish physicians 20th-century Spanish physicians Physicians from Hawaii Leper hospital administrators Spanish people in Spanish Cuba