Through
this unique eclectic approach, contributors explore the development and
representation of public health in countries including Argentina, Bolivia,
Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico,
Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, and the United States. They examine how national
governments, whether reactionary or revolutionary, have approached healthcare
as a means to political legitimacy and popular support. Several essays contrast
modern biomedicine-based treatment with Indigenous healing practices. Other
topics include universal health coverage, childbirth, maternal care, forced
sterilization, trans and disabled individuals' access to care, intersexuality,
and healthcare disparities, many of which are discussed through depictions in
films and literature.

As economic and political conditions have
shifted amid modernization efforts, independence movements, migrations, and
continued inequities, so have the policies and practices of healthcare also
developed and changed. This book offers a rich overview of how the stories of
healthcare in Latin America are intertwined with the region's political,
historical, and cultural identities.

Publication of this work made possible by a Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.