Browsing by Author "Palma Maturana, Patricia Nataly"

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    2 Golden rats and sick empires: portraying medicine, poverty, and the bubonic plague in La Peste
    (Manchester University Press, 2022) Ragas Rojas, José Frank; Palma Maturana, Patricia Nataly; González Donoso, Guillermo Adrián
    With a ten-million-euro budget and 400 extras on set, La Peste (The Plague) – a ten-episode TV show produced by Spanish communication conglomerate Movistar and aired in January 2018 – became not only the most ambitious production in Spanish television history but also an overnight sensation among viewers and critics. This chapter examines how La Peste combines historical accuracy and fiction to portray the role of medicine, health agents, and population around a late sixteenth-century epidemic outbreak. Its release coincided with the centennial of the Spanish flu that killed twenty to fifty million people around the globe. In placing the epidemic at the core of the narrative, the show unveils the multiple yet contradictory ways people from various social groups and backgrounds reacted to the pandemic: either to save their own lives, procure a cure for others, or to take advantage of the crisis. The chapter highlights what makes La Peste a relevant case to study. As part of its marketing campaign, the production team deliberately sought to trespass the screen and insert the narrative into people’s daily lives. This team designed in advance of the TV series an interactive website with digital resources on the history of medicine and historical sites. Furthermore, in the days prior to the launch, several golden rats appeared in the streets of Seville to announce the show. While some viewers expressed their discomfort with the crude scenes depicting poor living conditions, others engaged with the campaign. As a result of this, La Peste constitutes a fascinating example of the possibilities offered by TV shows as vehicles for disseminating historical medical knowledge to a vast audience.
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    Desenmascarando a los impostores: Los médicos profesionales y su lucha contra los falsos médicos en Perú
    (2019) Palma Maturana, Patricia Nataly; Ragas Rojas, José Frank
    La caracterización de sanadores no-titulados como “charlatanes” o “impostores” ha influido notablemente en cómo han sido percibidos por la opinión pública y en las investigaciones académicas. Se creó, entonces, una división entre los médicos profesionales y aquellos que adquirieron su conocimiento de modo tradicional y no-académico. Este artículo cuestiona la supuesta división entre dichos especialistas en el campo de la salud para ofrecer un cuadro más complejo y rico de prácticas locales a partir del caso peruano. A partir, sobre todo, de correspondencia de la Facultad de Medicina de Lima y de avisos en periódicos, reconstruimos la dinámica de las autoridades médicas en sus intentos, muchas veces infructuosos, de contener y excluir a sanadores de origen asiático, europeo o local. Para ello, estudiamos dos artefactos diseñados para legitimar y monitorear a los médicos formados profesionalmente: los títulos o diplomas y las listas de graduados, predecesores de nuestros modernos documentos de identidad y bases de datos.
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    Feeding prejudices. Chinese Fondas and the Culinary Making of National Identity in Peru
    (Routledge, 2019) Palma Maturana, Patricia Nataly; Ragas Rojas, José Frank
    The recent boom of Peruvian gastronomy has not only catapulted chefs and national dishes to the world stage, prompting the emergence of a national sentiment of pride and unity around local cuisine, it has also exposed the selective way Peruvian cuisine has been constructed, favoring dishes associated with coastal areas and reifying an estranged yet contentious approach toward ethnic dishes with large presence in the country, especially Chinese food. This chapter examines the ubiquitous—and also neglected—Chinese contribution to Peruvian cuisine, analyzing its spread nationwide during the Age of Migration (1860s–1930s). We show how both fondas chinas (Chinese restaurants) and chifa became crucial arenas where national identities and the role of immigration were contested and disputed by policy makers, the Chinese community, and ordinary citizens. Although fondas provided an affordable alimentary alternative for thousands of lower class limeños, they were constantly under attack by elites and the press. Located mainly in Lima’s Chinatown, Chinese fondas were under permanent scrutiny by police officers and health inspectors. Authorities portrayed Chinese immigrants as carriers of diseases responsible for epidemics, a discourse conveniently exacerbated during the bubonic plague outbreaks. Other cities with a large presence of Chinese immigrants, such as San Francisco in California, experienced similar conflicts. Drawing from a wide array of sources, e.g. travelers’ logs, newspapers, cartoons, and official health reports, we aim to illuminate the role played by Chinese gastronomy in the establishment of a trans-Pacific community.