Arturo Umberto Illia

Arturo Umberto Illia Francesconi (Spanish pronunciation: [arˈtuɾo umˈberto ˈilja]; August 4, 1900 – January 18, 1983) was President of Argentina from October 12, 1963, to June 28, 1966, and a member of the centrist UCR.

Biography

Arturo Umberto Illia was born August 4, 1900 in Pergamino, Buenos Aires Province, to Emma Francesconi and Martín Illia, Italian Argentine immigrants from the Lombardy Region.

He enrolled in the School of Medicine at the University of Buenos Aires in 1918. That year, he joined the movement for University reform in Argentina (Reforma Universitaria), which first emerged in the city of Córdoba, and set the basis for a free, open and public university system less influenced by the Catholic Church. This development changing the concept and administration of higher education in Argentina, and in a good portion of Latin America.

As a part of his medical studies, Illia begun working in the San Juan de Dios Hospital in the city of La Plata, obtaining his degree in 1927.