Giovanni Berlinguer is not any longer with us. He died at the age of 90.

Giovanni was one of the founders of IAHP and a great personality in the field of Italian and international public health and social medicine. Like his brother Enrico, Giovanni Berlinguer was a major figure in the Italian communist party (PCI) He was a member of the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health (2005-2008). In the last part of his life he was particularly interested on themes of medical ethics.

In memoria address by Mauricio Torres, IAHP President 

(following in english )

A la memoria de Giovanni Berlinguer

Supe de Giovanni en los años 90 cuando sus pensamientos y escritos fueron referenciados por la medicina social latinoamericana y de manera particular por la Asociación Latinoamericana de Medicina Social – ALAMES, red que él ayudo a construir y a tejer, como tantas otras, incluida la Asociación Internacional de Políticas de Salud.

Pero fue en el marco de la dinámica de la Comisión de Determinantes Sociales de la Salud donde tuve el privilegio de conocer y compartir directamente con Giovanni.

Lo que más impresionó de él fue su enorme sencillez y diría dulzura en el trato con uno, con la gente, a pesar de su enorme capacidad intelectual, a pesar del gran reconocimiento internacional que él tenía. Era claro que para Giovanni el pensamiento comunista se conjugaba con una enorme actitud humanista, una enorme actitud ética en la vida cotidiana.

Una sencillez igualmente en las maneras para tratar que sus ideas, sus planteamientos fueran entendidos. Y a pesar de su clara postura ideológica y política, el respeto y valoración de las ideas de quienes disentían de las de él.

Tuvimos el privilegio en Colombia de tenerlo en el Congreso Internacional de Salud Pública organizado por la Facultad Nacional de Salud Pública de la Universidad de Antioquia y allí además de la estupenda conferencia que realizo haciendo sus planteamientos en torno a la visión de los determinantes sociales de la salud, lo que más me impresionó fue que cuando hubo un receso para tomar café, las personas anfitrionas de Medellín quisieron ofrecerle uno y había una enorme fila para comprarlo y le dijeron que se podía adelantar y el no admitió eso, reflejando con ese gesto el respeto por las personas y sus profundas convicciones ética llevadas a la praxis.

Físicamente se va un ser muy valioso para muchos y muchas, un ser humano integro, que aportó con sus ideas, con sus posturas, con sus convicciones, con sus acciones, con sus ejemplos éticos.

Le doy gracias a la vida por haber tenido la fortuna de compartir con el maestro Giovanni Berlinguer. Conservaré en mi profundamente  los lindos recuerdos y las ideas que me transmitió, para seguir insistiendo en que es posible construir otro tipo de relaciones humanas, otro tipo de sociedades con justicia y valores éticos como lo promovió Giovanni.

Nos queda su legado intelectual, su historia de vida, su ejemplo de compromiso para seguir construyendo un mundo profundamente ético como el que Giovanni ayudaba a construir diariamente.

Mi enorme cariño para la familia de Giovanni y para la gran familia de la medicina social en el mundo que él ayudo a configurar.

Mauricio Torres-Tovar

Desde Colombia

Militante de la Medicina Social

Presidente de la Asociación Internacional de Políticas de Salud

In memory of Giovanni Berlinguer

I knew Giovanni in the 90s when his thoughts and writings were referenced by Latin American social medicine and particularly by the Latin American Association of Social Medicine – ALAMES, network he helped build and weave, like many others, including the International Association Health Policy.

But it was in the context of the dynamics of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health where I was privileged to meet and share directly with Giovanni.

What impressed him was his great simplicity and sweetness say in dealing with one, with people, despite its enormous intellectual capacity, despite the international acclaim he had. Giovanni was clear that the communist thought was combined with a huge humanist attitude, a huge ethical attitude in everyday life.

A simple also on ways to treat their ideas, their approaches were understood. And despite its clear ideological and political stance, respect and appreciation of the ideas of those who dissented from his.

We were privileged to have him in Colombia at the International Congress of Public Health organized by the National School of Public Health, University of Antioquia and there besides the wonderful conference conducted by its approaches around the vision of the social determinants of health, what impressed me most was that when there was a coffee break, people host of Medellín wanted to offer him and there was a huge line to buy it and said we could advance and did not admit it, reflecting with that gesture respect for people and their deep ethical convictions carried praxis.

Physically valuable for many and many will be an integral human being, who contributed with their ideas, their positions, their convictions, their actions, their ethical examples.

I thank life for having had the fortune to share with the master Giovanni Berlinguer. I deeply cherish my memories cute and ideas conveyed me to continue insisting that it is possible to build other relationships, other societies with justice and ethical values as promoted Giovanni.

It is his intellectual legacy, his life story, his example of commitment to continue building a deeply ethical world like the Giovanni helped build daily.

My great affection for the family of Giovanni and to the great family of social medicine in the world he helped set up. 

To the members of the International Association of Health Policy

from Vincent Navarro

Dear friends, colleagues, and comrades,

It is with an enormous sadness that I have to inform you that one of the greatest and best human beings we have had in this current and past century, Giovanni Berlinguer, has passed away. I just received a note from Giuseppe Costa communicating this news. Giuseppe had been keeping me posted for some time on the evolution on the prolonged disease and condition that determined his death.

Very few deaths have affected me as has Giovanni’s. He was like a brother to me, with whom we have shared so many joys and also so many pains, including so many projects, and so many struggles, for so many years. I first met Giovanni immediately after Amsterdam, when we started the International Association of Health Policy. It was so long ago that I don’t even remember when. He immediately helped us to have the first international meeting of the Association in one of the buildings of the Italian labor unions, and became a founder and major force in the Association. We also travelled together to several countries in Latin America, conducting many of the Association’s meetings on that continent, in conditions of almost clandestinely. It was when that continent was governed by many nasty, ultra-right wing dictatorships—where to be  a member of the International Association of Health Policy implied a personal risk.  

I also invited him to come to the United States, where he spent some time with us, and wrote a very entertaining and humorous book about that experience. He kindly invited me to attend political meetings of the PCI in Italy, asking me to speak at some of those inspiring meetings, with my lousy Italian, that he would always improve in the narrative and in its content. I was also very fortunate to get to know well his wife, Giuliana. Warm, kind and extremely acute and accurate in her perceptions. Giuliana and Giovanni were always so close, so loving, that it was an inspiration to all of us. They came to Barcelona frequently and he used to speak about the Catalan roots of his family.

Giovanni’s work has had enormous influence in all of the areas that he worked. He combined a very strong commitment to justice and democracy on the one side, with a great demand for rigor on the other, a combination that made him extremely effective. He also helped me to establish the International Journal of Health Services,that still keeps going and growing. I could have not done the international journal without his support and encouragement. He was also one of the founders of what is now called the “Social determinants of health.” It used to be called historical materialism. He was indeed very eloquent, showing that the current capitalist economic system was intrinsically pathological.

He will continue to influence through his work, which should be read by everyone who cares about the health and well-being of populations. Giovanni will always be with us, and will always be wherever and whenever there is a fight against exploitation, whatever that form of exploitation might take. We have been enriched by his life and will always have Giovanni with us. He is part of ourselves and we should honor his life.

Vincent Navarro

First President of the International Association of Health Policy

Barcelona, Spain

Baltimore, USA

April 7, 2015