Patience A. Schell

Nationalizing Children through Schools and Hygiene: Porfirian and Revolutionary Mexico City

On a spring morning in 1919, worshipers leaving Mexico City’s cathedral were horrified to discover the body of a little girl who had fallen to her death from the Hotel del Seminario. Yet as far as the Excélsior newspaper was concerned, the tragedy that had ended that morning had actually begun with her conception. Her mother was a prostitute who lived in the hotel and busybody guests reported that the mother neglected her child. On the day of Domitila’s death, her mother was not at the hotel, as she had been admitted to the Morelos Hospital, which specialized in syphilitic prostitutes. The hotel’s guests did their best to care for Domitila, giving her food, affection, and chiding when she played on balconies: one moment of inattention allowed the tragedy. The article concluded that perhaps it was for Domitila’s own good that she had died falling off a balcony. Readers did not need to be told why Domitila was better off dead, because the case encapsulated common anxieties about childhood and parenting in Porfirian and revolutionary Mexico.

Natural History Values and Meanings in Nineteenth-Century Chile

In nineteenth-century Chile, naturalists and their supporters argued that scientific work and study, including natural history, were good for individuals and society because they developed and tempered the character of their practitioners. These practitioners and boosters, Chileans, European visitors and European immigrants, made this argument in a context in which Chilean state support for natural history institutions, publications and education helped disseminate scientific training, perspectives and practices. Examining this nineteenth-century discourse of beneficial science is important for three reasons: first, the discourse of value-laden sciences offered this field a powerful justification for its development, especially in the face of criticism; second, because naturalists believed in this discourse, it helps explain what their work meant to them, and, finally, these values highlight the disjuncture between discourses about natural history and its links to military conquests, as well as the ways in which natural history was an exclusionary practice.

Eugenics in the Americas

This article discusses eugenics in the Americas – a scientific ideology that profoundly has affected the history of this region – and identifies common themes and varied examples for comparison. These examples demonstrate the influence of the ‘well-born science’ on medicine, psychiatry, education, and public policy. This article includes a broad overview of eugenics in South and North America, pointing out areas of differences and commonalities. The chapter also discusses examples of formal eugenics organizations, in their national and pan-American context and the utility of eugenics for its practitioners. The article finishes discussing examples of eugenic practice through immigration policy, puericulture programs, and sterilization.