Gabriela Soto Laveaga

Médicos, hospitales y servicios de inteligencia: el movimiento médico mexicano de 1964-1965 a través de reportes de inteligencia

In the autumn of 1964, residents and interns of Mexicos hospitals began a strike to demand salary increases, better working conditions, and more educational opportunities. As time passed, however, these workplace demands shifted to encompass more global issues of social justice, the right of all Mexicans to healthcare, and even peasant rights and agrarian reform. The Mexican government, concerned by the growing influence of these young doctors, made it a top priority of the intelligence service to monitor on a daily basis all Mexico City hospitals and to clandestinely follow certain physicians. Using only a sampling of these intelligence reports, the article reveals how the government of Gustavo Diaz Ordaz used the medical movement to better understand the student protests of 1968.

Building the nation of the future, one waiting room at a time: hospital murals in the making of modern Mexico

Abstract Mid-twentieth century Mexican hospitals – the buildings themselves and their interior and exterior walls – became stages that depicted national hopes and aspirations. Hospitals and clinics became ideal spaces that married science and medicine with the state’s version of a triumphant social revolution. Visitors and patients to hospital waiting rooms, lobbies and auditoriums would see, indeed be surrounded by, depictions of the complicated hopes placed on science and medicine as interpreted by politicians, architects, and artists. Hospital walls became contested spaces where art depicted Mexico’s embrace of modern technology and medical practices while also showcasing, in vivid color, citizens challenging the government’s broken revolutionary promises, especially the right of all to health and social security.AbstractMid-twentieth century Mexican hospitals – the buildings themselves and their interior and exterior walls – became stages that depicted national hopes and aspirations. Hospitals and clinics became ideal spaces that married science and medicine with the state’s version of a triumphant social revolution. Visitors and patients to hospital waiting rooms, lobbies and auditoriums would see, indeed be surrounded by, depictions of the complicated hopes placed on science and medicine as interpreted by politicians, architects, and artists. Hospital walls became contested spaces where art depicted Mexico’s embrace of modern technology and medical practices while also showcasing, in vivid color, citizens challenging the government’s broken revolutionary promises, especially the right of all to health and social security.