A school without railings: rural backgrounds, social medicine, and the circulation of public health material in Colombia, 1930-1946.

Natalia Botero-Tovar

doi:10.1590/s0104-59702021000300010

Natalia Botero-Tovar

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https://doi.org/10.1590/s0104-59702021000300010

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Abstract

Ambitious state hygiene education projects designed during liberal governments in Colombia (1930-1946) faced not just the poverty of rural populations, but also the reluctance of local political forces. I analyze hygiene education programs during the first two liberal governments of the Liberal Republic. I argue that public health programs did not reach their audience due to local clientelism and political corruption. The sources of this article come mainly from Colombia's Ministry of Education reports and cultural magazines. The education sector also had health-related responsibilities and developed assessments of local needs, which contributed to public health programs. Latin America's public health historiography could be enriched by exploring failures in the implementation of projects in the history of social medicine.

Highlights

Ambitious state hygiene education projects designed during liberal governments in Colombia (1930-1946) faced not just the poverty of rural populations, and the reluctance of local political forces
The ambitious Colombian Ministry of Education projects designed by liberal governments between 1930-1946, in which Daniel Samper Ortega was involved, faced more than the extreme poverty endemic in most of the country’s rural societies, and resistance to change in municipalities where the dynamics of local power contributed enormously to the perpetuation of inequality and poverty
Daniel Samper Ortega’s accusation summarizes the main argument of this article: that the causes of diseases, poverty, and illiteracy were directly linked to the dynamics of municipal corruption and a bureaucratic framework that inhibited the implementation of state-driven rural hygiene education campaigns

Summary

Introduction

Ambitious state hygiene education projects designed during liberal governments in Colombia (1930-1946) faced not just the poverty of rural populations, and the reluctance of local political forces. The ambitious Colombian Ministry of Education projects designed by liberal governments between 1930-1946, in which Daniel Samper Ortega was involved, faced more than the extreme poverty endemic in most of the country’s rural societies, and resistance to change in municipalities where the dynamics of local power contributed enormously to the perpetuation of inequality and poverty.

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