Lasting Lessons From Social Ideas and Movements of the Sixties on Latin American Public Health

摘要

The political landmark thatformed a generation of LatinAmericans was the Cuban Revolutionof 1959. It sparked not onlyimportant changes in the field ofpolitics but also new social thinkingand reflections on the future ofthe subcontinent. Public healthwas no exception. The Cubanaccomplishment of turning theright to health into a reality for allcitizens inspired a critical reviewof mainstream public health thatassumed that economic growthwould automatically improvehealth conditions. First, it wasshown that this hypothesis did notresist concrete evidence. Later, theCuban Revolution motivateda new methodological perspectivefor the study of the health–diseaseprocess, medical practice, andhealth policy that rested heavily oncritical social science. The idea thatbecame dominant was that theywere all processes, which couldonly be fully comprehended ifanalyzed as part of a broader socioeconomicand political context.1 Thus, contemporary LatinAmerican social medicine—orcollective health—was born,which has had a profound impacton public health until today.