Cesar Luis Vasquez

César Luis Vásquez—known as Luis by those close to him—passed away at his home in Wadsworth, Illinois on May 2. He was 90 years old. Luis is survived by his life partner Mary, his sons Roberto, Mario, and Ian, his daughters-in-law Lisa, Yodit, and Lesley, and his grandchildren Alexander and Pia.

Luis was born in Lima, Peru on September 19, 1935 under humble circumstances and brought up by his single mother. She lacked formal education but prioritized it for her son, cleaning homes and serving as a caretaker to help pay for schooling and English classes which she insisted he take. An outstanding student, Luis earned his degree as a cardiologist from San Marcos University in Lima in the early 1960s and soon after received a scholarship that took him to Denver, Colorado to conduct medical research.

While in Denver, Luis fell in love with Mary MacAulay, a student at the University of Denver from LaCrosse, Wisconsin. They moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, married in 1964, and had their first son Roberto there. For the next couple of years, Luis worked for influential nutrition researcher Ancel Keys on the link between nutrition and cardiovascular disease. The landmark research program, which remains influential to this day, took the family to Greece. They lived there for several months before travelling around the world and moving to Peru in 1966.

In Lima, Luis opened a medical practice with two partners and served as a Latin American representative of the British firm, Imperial Chemicals Industries, for which he travelled to London on a regular basis. The following two years saw the birth of Mario and Ian and subsequently, the building of a home that Luis and Mary designed. Like his passion for international travel, Luis developed a lifelong fascination with architecture and construction.

The Peruvian military government’s mismanagement of the economy spurred the family to move to the United States in the second half of the 1970s, first to LaCrosse, Wisconsin, where they built a home, and then to Wadsworth, Illinois, where Luis worked for pharmaceutical company Arnar Stone and where they also built a home. Soon thereafter, he started a company that specialized in organizing, and arranging travel to, medical conferences in Latin America. He designed the office building in Gurnee, Illinois that would house both his company and Vasquez Management Consultants, the successful firm Mary founded. Later, he and Mary built a home in Wadsworth where they spent their retirement.

Yet it was after he retired that Luis embarked upon what he considered the most important work of his life. In 2005 he visited the jungle town of Yantalo, Peru, the birthplace of his mother, for the first time. There he found dozens of relatives and a community in need. He established the Yantalo Foundation and built the Adelina Soplín Clinic named in honor of his mother.

Friends and relatives who long knew Luis observed that he was even busier after retiring than before. The Foundation brought in medical missions from leading U.S. hospitals and universities on a regular basis and has conducted thousands of surgeries in addition to thousands of medical appointments to date. The Foundation carried out one of Luis’s dreams—it transformed the lives of countless Peruvians and created a network of American doctors and Peruvian volunteers and medics in training committed to helping Peru. For that work, Luis and Mary received the Humanitarian Award of the Peruvian American Medical Society in 2024.

Luis will be remembered as a humanitarian, a social entrepreneur, and an enthusiast of life and of his family. He instilled a sense of wonder in his children, whom he insisted receive the best education, and encouraged a degree of irreverence. Often, he would direct his sons to “be creative,” as when filling out bureaucratic forms or complying with requirements he considered annoying impositions. Perseverance, optimism, and a belief in betterment defined his life and a large part of his legacy.