Fructuoso Irigoyen

Fructuoso Irigoyen Rascon was born in Chihuahua, Mexico in 1949. He completed elementary, high-school and college at Instituto Regional de Chihuahua under the jesuits. He graduated from the Medical School at the Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua in 1974. He received a Honorable Mention on the Thesis. Then Dr. Irigoyen practiced medicine among the Tarahumara Indians for ten years and has published articles and books about the Tarahumaras and their beliefs. Best known among them are "Cerocahui, una comunidad en la Tarahumara"; with Erasmo Palma "Cha Oko" a handbook of clinical medicine in Raramuri; and with Jesus Manuel Palma "Rarajípari, the Tarahumara Indian kickball race." For a couple of years doctor Irigoyen directed the Center for Regional Studies of the Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua. Then he was accepted in the Psychiatry Residency Training Program of the School of Medicine at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. He completed his residency becoming Clinical Chief Resident and obtaining the Senescu Memorial Scholarship Award in 1987. Upon completion of his Residency in Psychiatry Dr. Irigoyen moved to the Rio Grande Valley and started his private practice specializing in Adult Psychiatry in McAllen. He published reports about the Alton, Texas school bus accident (Spanish and English) In 2004 he moved his practice known as "The Center, Comprehensive Mental Health to Mission, in 2012 he returned to McAllen (711 N. McColl Road) where he leads a team that includes Dr. Jo Ann Mitchell, Mr. Theodore Cation and Dr. Josefina Irigoyen who are clinical psychologists.

Since October 2012, Dr. Irigoyen is the Physician Advocate/Administrator of the Doctors Hospital at Renaissance Behavioral Center in Edinburg, Texas. In 2019 his job title changed to be Physician Advisor of the Behavioral Hospital at Renaissance.

Dr. Irigoyen is Board Certified in Psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. His Life Fellowship was conferred at the 2015 Fellow Convocation at the APA Annual Meeting of 2015. He was until May of 2016 the President of the International Medical Graduate Caucus of the APA Assembly. he was until 2019 a member of APA's Elections Committee.

Dr. Irigoyen is a Board Member of the American Society or Hispanic Psychiatrists.

Dr. Irigoyen is the author of Alzheimer's Disease: a Primer for Caretakers (with a recent second edition: paperback and Kindle formats) and "La Enfermedad de Alzheimer" (Third edition in Kindle version and also as a paperback [from Amazon]). Doctor Irigoyen has published Kindle versions of "Cerocahui" ; and "Rarajipari, the Kick-ball Race of the Tarahumara Indians" in English and Spanish, also available from Amazon in paperback.

Dr. Irigoyen published in Kindle also "Santiago, el Hermano del Señor," a novella built around this important character and his brothers and times. As of July 17, 2017 also available as a paperback from Amazon.

Dr. Irigoyen's "Tarahumara Medicine, Ethnobotany and Healing among the Raramuri of Mexico"(with Alfonso Paredes), reveals not only the mysteries of Tarahumara healing practices but the essence of an extraordinary human group. The book was published through the Recovering Languages and Literacies of the Americas initiative, supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation by the University of Oklahoma Press on October 13, 2015 and is being sold through catalog in the UOP Fall collections of 2015 and also as a hardcover, paperback and e-book by Amazon.

Dr. Irigoyen latest book is HISTORIA DE LA TARAHUMARA (Kindle electronic and paperback) which reviews the history of the Tarahumaras and their land.

Dr. Irigoyen has been awarded the 2018 "Reconocimiento a su Trayectoria Profesional" by the School of Medicine of the Universidad Autonoma de Chihuahua for his overall professional trajectory and the 2018 George Tarjan MD Memorial Award by the American Psychiatric Association for his work in behalf of International Medical Graduates. On November 9, 2019 he received in Galveston, Texas the Distinguished Service Award from the Texas Society of Psychiatric Physicians (State branch of the American Psychiatric Association)