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History South America

The Black Doctors of Colonial Lima

Science, Race, and Writing in Colonial and Early Republican Peru

by (author) José R. Jouve Martín

Publisher
McGill-Queen's University Press
Initial publish date
May 2014
Category
South America
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780773590533
    Publish Date
    May 2014
    List Price
    $39.95
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780773543416
    Publish Date
    May 2014
    List Price
    $65.00

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Description

In this groundbreaking study on the intersection of race, science, and politics in colonial Latin American, José Jouve Martín explores the reasons why the city of Lima, in the decades that preceded the wars of independence in Peru, became dependent on a large number of bloodletters, surgeons, and doctors of African descent.

The Black Doctors of Colonial Lima focuses on the lives and fortunes of three of the most distinguished among this group of black physicians: José Pastor de Larrinaga, a surgeon of controversial medical ideas who passionately defended the right of scientific learning for Afro-Peruvians; José Manuel Dávalos, a doctor who studied medicine at the University of Montpellier and played a key role in the smallpox vaccination campaigns in Peru; and José Manuel Valdés, a multifaceted writer who became the first and only person of black ancestry to become a chief medical officer in Spanish America.

By carefully documenting their actions and writings, The Black Doctors of Colonial Lima illustrates how medicine and its related fields became areas in which the descendants of slaves found opportunities for social and political advancement, and a platform from which to engage in provocative dialogue with Enlightenment thought and social revolution.

About the author

José R. Jouve Martín is associate professor of Hispanic and Latin American studies in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at McGill University.

José R. Jouve Martín's profile page