Dra. Edelmira Will See You Now

Cancer Care and Informal Healing in Early Twentieth-Century Colombia

Dados Bibliográficos

ID8949583
AutoresRaúl Necochea López (0000-0002-6242-5130, autor correspondente)
Ano2025
Volume105
Fascículo4
Páginas693-721
Data de publicação2025-06-30
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoHispanic American Historical Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0018-2168 • E-ISSN: 1527-1900
EditoraDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00182168-11980977
OpenAlexW4411836273
IdiomaEN
Referências citadas22

Healer Edelmira Salazar de Guzmán went to considerable lengths to demonstrate her skill as a cancer specialist in 1920s Bogotá. Her satisfied patients’ testimonials certified by Colombian authorities and her astute interpretations of Colombia's health regulations portray her as someone who could effectively compete with medical experts in the complex and rapidly changing field of cancer care. Salazar's story sheds light on a popular attitude toward complex illnesses emergent a century ago in Latin America, one that prized diagnostic speed and prognostic accuracy and that chafed against surgical interventions, rejecting the presumption that cancer care should be the exclusive province of physicians. Salazar's approach to cancer care also illustrates popular positions regarding the extent to which illness would affect Colombia's future. In fact, years before the government launched its official anticancer campaign in 1928, Salazar already promoted a national “anticancer struggle” as part of a hygienic strategy to arrest racial degeneration

Cancer · Empathy and Medical Education · History · Internal Medicine · Medicine · Race, Genetics, and Society