Sensational Cures: Medicine, Politics, and Popular Culture in the Spanish-Speaking World

FAIN: FT-285608-22

Mariola Espinosa
University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA 52242-1320)

Archival research leading to a book on the global history of Spanish medicine, medical professionalization, and medical cures in the early 20th century.

The summer stipend will fund two months of archival research and writing. This project explores the relationships between medical professionals, populist leaders, and popular culture by relating the story of Dr. Fernando Asuero. In 1929, Asuero captivated Spain and Latin America with the claim that he could relieve pain, even cure paralysis, just by touching the trigeminal nerve. As thousands flocked to Asuero for relief, he and his cure became a transnational cultural phenomenon. The populist rulers of Spain, Italy, and Argentina were among Asuero’s admirers, but the medical establishments of those countries reacted harshly, arguing that he was a quack who should be arrested. The resulting book will make important contributions to the medical humanities by documenting how doctors, patients, and politicians were portrayed in transnational popular culture, to the history of the politicization of medicine, and to the history of medical professionalization in Spain and Latin America.