Rafael Zervigón Castellanos

Rafael Zervigón Castellanos (1901-1987)

José Rafael Jorge Zervigón Castellanos (Fillo) was born in Güines on April 19, 1901, on Máximo Gómez Street (formerly Real) in La Ceiba (The Kapok Tree) borough.

He studied his elementary education under Don Nicolás García, together with Nicolás García Callejas (Kolín), Mario Chardiet Sagarduy and other Güineros that stood out years later as prominent figures of the Villa. He graduated as Doctor of Medicine at the University of Havana, class of 1923.

He was born to public life in the Great Hall of said University when Doctors Antonio Sánchez de Bustamante and Alfredo Zayas Alfonso, this latter President of the Republic at that time, heard him deliver a speech and they stated: “He should study Law and not Medicine.”

When he graduated he returned to his native Güines with the purpose of doing honor and justice in his town, to the Hippocratic oath, as he effectively did, succeeding with thousands of acknowledgments during the first years dedicated to the practice of his profession.

His vocation as a public speaker and the gratefulness of those who had received professional services from him and generosities that created affection pushed him into the field of politics. In 1930 he was admitted into the Liberal Party leaving nevertheless his medical office open to treat the rich as well as the poor.

Dynamic in his activities, this enlightened Galen, with the passage of time, occupied important positions in public life in Güines and surrounding areas, being like a center of political attraction.

He was appointed as Commissioner of Foods and Drugs by the Health Secretariat and later on, Chief of Public Health in Güines.

He was a Professor of Industrial Hygiene at the Technical and Industrial School in Rancho Boyeros, Under-Secretary of Health and Public Assistance and was elected House Representative for Havana Province for two consecutive terms, being at the same time member of the Public Assistance, Culture and Education Committees and Paymaster of the Senate for 8 years.

Among his extensive work in favor of Güines, we highlight his lobbying effort together with Representatives Dr. Alfredo Jacomino López and Dr. Silvano Herrera Mora, before the Ministry of Education that made possible the granting of the necessary credit for the creation of Güines High School in 1937.

His speeches were characterized by their eloquence, passion and knowledge of the theme. One of the moments that tested his democratic conduct and attitude was when he, as Representative in the House of Representatives of the Cuban Congress together with another 12 legislators, were the only members of Congress that opposed the coup d’état that deposed Miguel Mariano Gómez Arias, elected President of Cuba by the then Sargent Fulgencio Batista Zaldívar.

There is an anecdote that Fillo liked to tell when Batista called him so he would go to Columbia Military Camp to talk to him, to which he replied: “Sargent, the only way I talk to you is under a flamboyant tree in the Central Highway.”

He arrived in Miami in 1973, passed the Medical Board of the State of Florida at the age of 75 years, and practiced medicine there for several years. He returned to Cuba in 1985 and died in his native Villa in the month of April 1988.

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