PEDRO BERRUECOS
Audiological physician and phoniatrician, died 4 November 2014
It would be a capricious interference with the laws of behaviour if men were repetitions of the same model whose nature or essence was shared by all. Plurality would be the result of human action. Fortunately, nobody is equal to any other who has lived before or will do later. Pedro Berruecos Villalobos was a genuine and unique representative of the human condition. Although we all know that we do not create ourselves, I sometimes wonder whether Pedro might have had the privilege of choosing his birthplace.
He was born in Mexico City into a large family that was culturally diverse. Both his parents, Pedro Berruecos Téllez and Paz Villalobos Ibarra, influenced his training and perception of reality. From his father, an otolaryngologist and the founder of Mexican Audiology, he inherited the ability to combine the medical universe with literature and poetry; from his mother – singer, songwriter and pianist – he acquired his admiration, wit and sensitivity for music.
He graduated in Medicine and Surgery from the National University of Mexico in 1966. During the years 1968–1970 he travelled to Ferrara (Italy) and Bordeaux (France). His stay at the Otorhinolaryngology and Audiology Department of the University of Ferrara, headed by the great and charismatic Professor Bocca, had a profound impact on his training, both at academic and humanistic levels. Italy dazzled the young man, who became a defender of Italian culture, adopting the country's language which he came to master. During his stay in Ferrara he met Edoardo Arslan, with whom he established a fraternal friendship that would last a lifetime.
Back in Mexico, he joined the newly created Service of Audiology and Speech Therapy of the General Hospital of Mexico City where he was appointed Head of Service in 1974, a position that he combined with that of Head of the Mexican Institute of Audiology and Speech (1970–1983). In those years, Pedro Berruecos worked tirelessly in his effort to turn audiology and speech therapy into an independent medical speciality, a condition consolidated within the foundation, by him and other Mexican colleagues, of the Mexican Society of Audiology and Speech Therapy and, years later, that of the Council of the speciality. This facilitated the launching of a successful university programme (pioneered in America and one of a few in the world) of pre- and post-graduate studies of the speciality in the Faculty of Medicine, which would contribute to the training of medical graduates in audiology and speech therapy.
His professional concerns led him to work on executive committees and even in the founding of international societies of the speciality. In 1980, in Krakow (Poland), he took part in the meeting that established the foundation of International Association of Physician in Audiology ( IAPA) and attended its first congress a year later in Lisbon where he was appointed national representative of IAPA in Mexico. In 2006, he organized the Congress of IAPA in Mexico City. He was a member of the executive committee of the International Society of Audiology, and President for two consecutive periods (1984–1986 and 1986–1988). He was a founding member and President of the Pan American Society of Audiology.
Pedro Berruecos promoted early diagnosis and early intervention of hearing loss. With his efforts and vision he contributed to the set-up of programmes for neonatal screening for hearing loss in the Mexican Republic. He was also entrusted with the coordination of the programme for cochlear implantation in the General Hospital in Mexico City.
He worked in the public sector as director of postgraduate and continuing education programmes, forming part of the committee that established the criteria for access to medical specialities.
He published numerous essays and was a frequent speaker at congresses in the speciality worldwide. He taught in South America, principally with Edoardo Arslan. In most of these countries he was distinguished as a Member of Honour.
With reference to Pedro Berruecos's human trajectory, it is worth mentioning his entry into the National Academy of Medicine of Mexico where he gave free rein to his imagination. His contributions to the Academy clearly show his interest in culture and his literary vocation. In his writings it is always noticeable his audiological training and his deep conviction that word, voice and speech, make us who we are as people.
His proverbial admiration for women, a condition implicit in his character, invariably stimulated a positive tropism. Music was another of his major passions; he had a magnificent voice, and accompanied himself on the guitar. He was knowledgeable in all types of music but, beyond all doubt, his erudition was in Mexican music.
His fascination for Mexico led him to know his homeland in great depth. He spoke of pre-Hispanic civilizations with amazement and knew such details as that the Aztec king Nezahualpilli understood the stars and celestial mysteries to the point that even Aztec priests who were in charge of the astrological calendar respected his scientific knowledge. He could speak for hours on the Virreinato de Nueva España and of contemporary Mexico.
An entertaining speaker, he was well read in Mexican cuisine. It was moving to listen to him speak of how Chile en Nogada – one of the typical dishes of Mexican gastronomy – was covered with walnut cream, parsley and pomegranate, symbolizing the three colours of the Mexican flag, and then reaffirm his patriotism by adding that this exquisite dish had been created in Puebla by the Augustinian nuns of the Santa Monica convent as a tribute to Agustin de Iturbide when he returned from Córdoba (Veracruz State) after signing the Independence of Mexico.
Berruecos was, without doubt, a man who loved life passionately. He lived and enjoyed life to the full, aware that only the present is real, true and effective and it is exclusively there where our existence lies. Much can be said about Pedro, but what made him unique was his knowledge of the meaning of life, in other words his perception of being in the world and among people.