Carving a Niche ― The Medical Profession in Mexico 1800-1870

The beginning of the Mexican War of Independence in 1810 triggered radical political, social, and economic changes, including the reorganization of the medical profession. During this tumultuous period of transition, physicians and surgeons merged in an effort to monopolize the field and ensure their professional survival in a postcolonial, liberal republic. Carving a Niche traces the evolution of various medical occupations in Mexico from the end of the colonial period to the beginning of the regime of Porfirio Díaz, demonstrating how competition and collaboration, identity, ever-changing legislation, political instability, and foreign intervention resulted in a complex, gradual, and unique process of medical professionalization – one that neither conformed to theoretical models nor resembled hierarchies found in other parts of the world. Through extensive research, Luz María Hernández Sáenz analyzes the uphill struggle of practitioners to claim their place as public health experts and to provide and control medical education in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. Highlighting the significance of race, class, gender, and nationality, Carving a Niche demonstrates that in the case of Mexico, liberal reforms praised by traditional works often hindered, rather than promoted, the creation of a modern medical profession and the delivery of quality health care services.

Luz María Hernández Sáenz is associate professor of history at the University of Western Ontario.