Dr. Belisario Domínguez House Museum
Sometimes, among the simple things in life, when we cross the threshold of a house we step immediately into a frozen fragment of history, a faithful snapshot of days gone by, a lost moment from other eras that today we remember only through books or the stories of grandparents and teachers.
That feeling washes over us as we enter the residence marked with number 29 on Avenida Central Sur in the city of Comitán de Domínguez. The visitor is immersed in the Chiapas of the 19th century and there, among the shadows of the hallways, seems to still hear the beating of a brave heart that fought tirelessly for justice and for free speech. The memories, the epic of a patriotic life and the ancient beauty of the place slip in like light through the foliage. Don Belisario Domínguez was a senator from Chiapas who, in the summer of 1913, wrote two speeches raising the voice of national dignity against the dictator Victoriano Huerta, usurper of the country's presidency and intellectual author of the murders of Francisco I. Madero and many other Mexican patriots. In his History of Chiapas, Eliseo Mellanes recounts the boldness of the man from Comitán: “The dictatorship's reprisal was not long in coming, and on October 7, 1913, federal police arrested Don Belisario at the Hotel Jardín in Mexico City, from where he was taken to the Coyoacán cemetery; it is said that before being cowardly murdered, they tore out his tongue to carry it off as a trophy...”.
Because of that act of civic courage and his sacrifice, the figure of this illustrious son of Chiapas is remembered in Mexican history. Otherwise, little is known about this man who was also an altruistic physician, a graduate of the Sorbonne in Paris, a benefactor of the poor, an enemy of the local political bosses, and an investigative journalist. Belisario Domínguez Palencia was born in the residence that is now his House Museum on April 25, 1863. He was the son of Cleofás Domínguez, a brave merchant who lost a leg fighting the enemies of Don Benito Juárez. Young Belisario completed his secondary studies and earned his high-school diploma in San Cristóbal de las Casas. Such was his dedication to study that his father sent him to Paris to study medicine in 1880. Belisario Domínguez spent 10 years in Europe and graduated with the title of ophthalmologist, surgeon and obstetrician. On his return to Comitán, he was welcomed as a local hero. During the welcome gathering he was reunited with his cousin Delina Zebadúa, whom he later married. He set up his practice beside the main gate of the house and there he received the sick. He devoted three days a week to caring for the poor, whom he not only did not charge but also gave medicine free of charge. He often rode out to the Tojolabal ravines to tend to the most destitute.
Later the doctor's life would change radically, for in a short time he lost his parents, his sister and his wife. It was then that, in addition to medicine, he began to practice politics—honest, liberal and revolutionary—which would lead him to his death. From his practice in Tacubaya, in Mexico City, Belisario Domínguez sponsored the publication of El Vate, which sought to raise awareness of the imminent fall of the dictatorship and the times ahead. On his return to Comitán, already during the government of Francisco I. Madero, Don Belisario was elected municipal president of his town and later became a senator, always distinguishing himself by his struggle against the local bosses. Even after his death, the house where he was born and lived the best years of his life was divided among his children, and one part—the section that is now the museum—was sold to an American family. In 1976, the state government reclaimed the old mansion to turn it into a place where new generations could learn about the life of this Mexican of universal stature, but it was not until 1985 that the Belisario Domínguez House Museum opened its doors to the public. The museum design was carried out by Mrs. Hilda Castañón Morell, and it was Doña Hermila, Don Belisario's own daughter, who donated most of the furniture, household goods, photographs, surgical instruments and pharmacy objects that had belonged to her father.
The first room of the museum corresponds to the La Fraternidad pharmacy, and it shows us a page in the history of pharmacy, not only of Chiapas but of all Mexico and the Americas. Noteworthy is the wooden cabinet crammed with jars of glass, porcelain and aluminum, where the medicinal ingredients that were prepared right there in mortars and flasks were stored. Also on display are test tubes, scales and weights of different sizes, a copper still and other implements. There are likewise display cases with the correspondence the pharmacy maintained with its national and foreign suppliers, advertising leaflets for prepared medicines such as Dr. Richards' tablets, which were advertised as a cure-all for consumption, constipation, indigestion and night sweats, the Electric Oil for rheumatic pain, Dr. Ross' pure-drug pills, Horlick's malted milk as food for children, and much more advertising for other products that were sold there alongside the medicinal herbs of the ancient Maya, on which Dr. Domínguez relied to cure certain illnesses.
The researcher Edgar Robledo Santiago tells us that the pharmacy's main assistant "...was a little man named Asiselo Alfonso Nájera, an exceedingly helpful man to whom many adventures are attributed; many people believed he had arrived with a circus; others that he was a native of the city”. The next room is the Family Room. The furniture is of Austrian make, the curtains of French lace and the mirrors from France, while the rug is Afghan. There stands the piano on which little Hermila Domínguez would delight her father with the melody “Los Reservistas”, when the physician took a few minutes' rest between one appointment and the next.
In this same room there are several display cases full of photographs and objects, all of them family keepsakes, very dear to the doctor. Further on is the bedroom of Dr. Domínguez. The bed he used as a bachelor and as a widower, the blanket with his initials, a travel trunk, the display case with an immaculate formal suit and some personal objects such as the tie pin, the top hat, the cane and the two cufflinks. The consulting room is one of the most interesting rooms in the museum. Most of the medical-surgical instruments came from the P.C. Lorenz company of New York and were the most advanced of the time. Let us remember that the doctors of those days would just as readily pull a tooth as amputate a gangrenous leg, deliver a baby or stitch up a machete wound. Also on display here is a still that Dr. Domínguez designed to obtain, by distillation, orange-blossom water and the water he used to prepare medicines. In this room are the work desk, the medical reference books, the medical bag and the special cases used to carry jars of medicinal chemicals or surgical instruments on his frequent house calls.
Next we enter the Historical Context room. In it are displayed the documents that mark the beginning of our subject's political life. There are copies of the leaflets "Chiapas" and "Señores Periodistas" and some issues of "El Vate", along with numerous photographs and documents. One standout is the reply he sent to a political boss from San Cristóbal who was seeking his support to advocate for moving the capital of Chiapas from the city of Tuxtla to San Cristóbal. The man from Comitán responded with a challenge to a duel to the death which, obviously, the would-be opponent did not accept. The Senate Room treasures the testimonies of the swift, brilliant and fatal passage of Belisario Domínguez through the Senate of the Republic; there are photos of the Ten Tragic Days, a summary of what was happening in the country in those years, and a photo of María Hernández Zarco, the woman who, risking her job and her life, printed the historic speeches. We can see a copy of a newspaper reporting the assassination of Senator Domínguez and images of the imprisonment of the legislators after the dissolution of the Chambers.
The small Speech Room is the repository of the manuscript of denunciation that marked a turning point in the history of the Mexican Revolution. On one of the walls is reproduced the complete speech of Belisario Domínguez for those who wish to know in detail the brave message of the senator from Comitán. The eagle from the national flag, carved in wood, presides over the room. In the Documents Room, we return once again to the family life of Dr. Domínguez. It presents 58 years, from 1855 to 1913, of our subject's social life with his loved ones. We can see notices of serenades in the Comitán square, tickets to the Progreso circus, wedding invitations, theater programs, and prospectuses for the German money lottery. There are also tax receipts, telegrams, calling cards and greeting cards, municipal regulations and public notices, among many other papers of interest.
The last room is the specialized Library. The books and encyclopedias of surgery, ophthalmology, obstetrics-gynecology and general medicine. Most are in French and share the space with Cervantes' Don Quixote, with the writings of Homer, Plato and Cicero, with the revolutionary philosophy of Voltaire and Immanuel Kant, with the prose of Zola, Calderón de la Barca and Shakespeare, among other authors whose list would be endless. The house itself is very beautiful; it was reconstructed in period style with its arcades and slender wooden pilasters surrounding the garden, where domestic and wild flowers grow, especially those the doctor preferred. The cool corridors invite rest and meditation; there are benches to sit on during the tour. Since its opening, the House Museum has received an average of 10,000 visitors a year. Inside, artistic and cultural events are held in a hall created for that purpose. The traveler passing through Comitán has a good reason to extend their stay in this city. The House Museum is an open book of the life of Chiapas and of Mexico, a snapshot of days gone by, a treasury of the history of pharmacy and the medical profession in our country.
That feeling washes over us as we enter the residence marked with number 29 on Avenida Central Sur in the city of Comitán de Domínguez. The visitor is immersed in the Chiapas of the 19th century and there, among the shadows of the hallways, seems to still hear the beating of a brave heart that fought tirelessly for justice and for free speech. The memories, the epic of a patriotic life and the ancient beauty of the place slip in like light through the foliage. Don Belisario Domínguez was a senator from Chiapas who, in the summer of 1913, wrote two speeches raising the voice of national dignity against the dictator Victoriano Huerta, usurper of the country's presidency and intellectual author of the murders of Francisco I. Madero and many other Mexican patriots. In his History of Chiapas, Eliseo Mellanes recounts the boldness of the man from Comitán: “The dictatorship's reprisal was not long in coming, and on October 7, 1913, federal police arrested Don Belisario at the Hotel Jardín in Mexico City, from where he was taken to the Coyoacán cemetery; it is said that before being cowardly murdered, they tore out his tongue to carry it off as a trophy...”.
Because of that act of civic courage and his sacrifice, the figure of this illustrious son of Chiapas is remembered in Mexican history. Otherwise, little is known about this man who was also an altruistic physician, a graduate of the Sorbonne in Paris, a benefactor of the poor, an enemy of the local political bosses, and an investigative journalist. Belisario Domínguez Palencia was born in the residence that is now his House Museum on April 25, 1863. He was the son of Cleofás Domínguez, a brave merchant who lost a leg fighting the enemies of Don Benito Juárez. Young Belisario completed his secondary studies and earned his high-school diploma in San Cristóbal de las Casas. Such was his dedication to study that his father sent him to Paris to study medicine in 1880. Belisario Domínguez spent 10 years in Europe and graduated with the title of ophthalmologist, surgeon and obstetrician. On his return to Comitán, he was welcomed as a local hero. During the welcome gathering he was reunited with his cousin Delina Zebadúa, whom he later married. He set up his practice beside the main gate of the house and there he received the sick. He devoted three days a week to caring for the poor, whom he not only did not charge but also gave medicine free of charge. He often rode out to the Tojolabal ravines to tend to the most destitute.
Later the doctor's life would change radically, for in a short time he lost his parents, his sister and his wife. It was then that, in addition to medicine, he began to practice politics—honest, liberal and revolutionary—which would lead him to his death. From his practice in Tacubaya, in Mexico City, Belisario Domínguez sponsored the publication of El Vate, which sought to raise awareness of the imminent fall of the dictatorship and the times ahead. On his return to Comitán, already during the government of Francisco I. Madero, Don Belisario was elected municipal president of his town and later became a senator, always distinguishing himself by his struggle against the local bosses. Even after his death, the house where he was born and lived the best years of his life was divided among his children, and one part—the section that is now the museum—was sold to an American family. In 1976, the state government reclaimed the old mansion to turn it into a place where new generations could learn about the life of this Mexican of universal stature, but it was not until 1985 that the Belisario Domínguez House Museum opened its doors to the public. The museum design was carried out by Mrs. Hilda Castañón Morell, and it was Doña Hermila, Don Belisario's own daughter, who donated most of the furniture, household goods, photographs, surgical instruments and pharmacy objects that had belonged to her father.
The first room of the museum corresponds to the La Fraternidad pharmacy, and it shows us a page in the history of pharmacy, not only of Chiapas but of all Mexico and the Americas. Noteworthy is the wooden cabinet crammed with jars of glass, porcelain and aluminum, where the medicinal ingredients that were prepared right there in mortars and flasks were stored. Also on display are test tubes, scales and weights of different sizes, a copper still and other implements. There are likewise display cases with the correspondence the pharmacy maintained with its national and foreign suppliers, advertising leaflets for prepared medicines such as Dr. Richards' tablets, which were advertised as a cure-all for consumption, constipation, indigestion and night sweats, the Electric Oil for rheumatic pain, Dr. Ross' pure-drug pills, Horlick's malted milk as food for children, and much more advertising for other products that were sold there alongside the medicinal herbs of the ancient Maya, on which Dr. Domínguez relied to cure certain illnesses.
The researcher Edgar Robledo Santiago tells us that the pharmacy's main assistant "...was a little man named Asiselo Alfonso Nájera, an exceedingly helpful man to whom many adventures are attributed; many people believed he had arrived with a circus; others that he was a native of the city”. The next room is the Family Room. The furniture is of Austrian make, the curtains of French lace and the mirrors from France, while the rug is Afghan. There stands the piano on which little Hermila Domínguez would delight her father with the melody “Los Reservistas”, when the physician took a few minutes' rest between one appointment and the next.
In this same room there are several display cases full of photographs and objects, all of them family keepsakes, very dear to the doctor. Further on is the bedroom of Dr. Domínguez. The bed he used as a bachelor and as a widower, the blanket with his initials, a travel trunk, the display case with an immaculate formal suit and some personal objects such as the tie pin, the top hat, the cane and the two cufflinks. The consulting room is one of the most interesting rooms in the museum. Most of the medical-surgical instruments came from the P.C. Lorenz company of New York and were the most advanced of the time. Let us remember that the doctors of those days would just as readily pull a tooth as amputate a gangrenous leg, deliver a baby or stitch up a machete wound. Also on display here is a still that Dr. Domínguez designed to obtain, by distillation, orange-blossom water and the water he used to prepare medicines. In this room are the work desk, the medical reference books, the medical bag and the special cases used to carry jars of medicinal chemicals or surgical instruments on his frequent house calls.
Next we enter the Historical Context room. In it are displayed the documents that mark the beginning of our subject's political life. There are copies of the leaflets "Chiapas" and "Señores Periodistas" and some issues of "El Vate", along with numerous photographs and documents. One standout is the reply he sent to a political boss from San Cristóbal who was seeking his support to advocate for moving the capital of Chiapas from the city of Tuxtla to San Cristóbal. The man from Comitán responded with a challenge to a duel to the death which, obviously, the would-be opponent did not accept. The Senate Room treasures the testimonies of the swift, brilliant and fatal passage of Belisario Domínguez through the Senate of the Republic; there are photos of the Ten Tragic Days, a summary of what was happening in the country in those years, and a photo of María Hernández Zarco, the woman who, risking her job and her life, printed the historic speeches. We can see a copy of a newspaper reporting the assassination of Senator Domínguez and images of the imprisonment of the legislators after the dissolution of the Chambers.
The small Speech Room is the repository of the manuscript of denunciation that marked a turning point in the history of the Mexican Revolution. On one of the walls is reproduced the complete speech of Belisario Domínguez for those who wish to know in detail the brave message of the senator from Comitán. The eagle from the national flag, carved in wood, presides over the room. In the Documents Room, we return once again to the family life of Dr. Domínguez. It presents 58 years, from 1855 to 1913, of our subject's social life with his loved ones. We can see notices of serenades in the Comitán square, tickets to the Progreso circus, wedding invitations, theater programs, and prospectuses for the German money lottery. There are also tax receipts, telegrams, calling cards and greeting cards, municipal regulations and public notices, among many other papers of interest.
The last room is the specialized Library. The books and encyclopedias of surgery, ophthalmology, obstetrics-gynecology and general medicine. Most are in French and share the space with Cervantes' Don Quixote, with the writings of Homer, Plato and Cicero, with the revolutionary philosophy of Voltaire and Immanuel Kant, with the prose of Zola, Calderón de la Barca and Shakespeare, among other authors whose list would be endless. The house itself is very beautiful; it was reconstructed in period style with its arcades and slender wooden pilasters surrounding the garden, where domestic and wild flowers grow, especially those the doctor preferred. The cool corridors invite rest and meditation; there are benches to sit on during the tour. Since its opening, the House Museum has received an average of 10,000 visitors a year. Inside, artistic and cultural events are held in a hall created for that purpose. The traveler passing through Comitán has a good reason to extend their stay in this city. The House Museum is an open book of the life of Chiapas and of Mexico, a snapshot of days gone by, a treasury of the history of pharmacy and the medical profession in our country.
