Virtual Exhibits

This interview with Dr. Reynaldo Deveaux, a family practitioner who practiced in Taos, New Mexico from 1942 to 1983, contains information on small town/rural medicine in a heavily Hispanic-American county. Dr. Deveaux came to Taos directly from medical school in Mexico City during World War II and practiced for six years as a federal government contract physician, then stayed as a private practitioner for another 35 years. The interview includes information about traditional medicine within the Hispanic culture of Taos and its vicinity; the special circumstances and stresses of health care delivery in rural New Mexico during World War II; Taos area physicians, particularly Drs. Warner Onstine and Al Rosen; the licensure difficulties associated with a foreign medical degree; Holy Cross Hospital in Taos; and other subjects.

This interview with Elizabeth Budlong, RN (1911-1989) focuses on her quarter-century career as a public health nurse/school nurse in Taos County, New Mexico. From 1950 until her retirement in 1973, Ms. Budlong played a major role as an independent health care practioner in her county, devising and executing her own public health and school programs--dental clinics, well-baby immunization campaigns, venereal disease detection programs, and others--which dominated her work as public health nurse for Taos County. Other subjects discussed include her own personal background; the political realities of public health nursing (securing funding within tight county budgets); the relationship between the central administration in Santa Fe and public health workers in the field; popular reaction to public health work; midwifery in Taos County; the attitude of traditional Hispanic-Americans toward the "Anglo" public health establishment; and others.