Deveaux, Reynaldo M., 1918-

Reynaldo Deveaux, M.D.,1983 Reynaldo M. Deveaux was born in Vera Cruz, Mexico, in 1918. He received his medical degree from the National School of Medicine in Mexico City, Mexico, in 1944. While president of the university's student council, Dr. Deveaux received a letter from the United States Farm Home Administration asking for two doctors finishing medical school to participate in a health care program for low-income patients. His medical school granted Dr. Deveaux permission to substitute this experience for the six months of practice in a rural Mexican community required as part of his degree program.

Speaking very little English, Dr. Deveaux and a classmate, Dr. Arturo LaMonthe, arrived in Taos, New Mexico, in 1942 with a six-month contract to work in the local hospital and travel to rural clinics in the county. He continued to work with this program until its end in 1948. Though Dr. LaMonthe then returned to Mexico, Dr. Deveaux, who now had a family, decided to take the medical examination and get licensed to practice in the United States. However, he was met with opposition from a local doctor, who threatened a lawsuit to stop Dr. Deveaux's examination. With help from his father-in-law, a New Mexico state senator from Taos, Dr. Deveaux's medical degree was recognized and he was allowed to sit for his examination. He was licensed in 1948.

Dr. Deveaux opened a private practice in Taos, where he worked until his retirement in 1983. While his medical practice was general, he liked obstetrics and delivered thousands of babies in the Taos area over his more than forty years of providing health care.

From the guide to the Reynaldo M. Deveaux Oral History Collection, 1983-1984, (New Mexico Health Historical Collection, UNM Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center.)