Abstract

ARECHIGA CORDOBA, Ernesto. Education, Propaganda or "Health Dictatorship.". Discursive Strategies on Hygiene and Public Health in Post-Revolutionary Mexico, 1917-1945. Estud. hist. mod. contemp. Mex [online]. 2007, n.33, pp.57-88. ISSN 0185-2620.

The article offers an analysis of the various strategies adopted by the Mexican post-revolutionary State to implement public health strategies between 1920 and 1940. The 1917 Constitution established a legal framework capable of justifying authoritarian measures. In practice, this regime, described as a "health dictatorship," was limited by budgetary short-ages and the need to establish negotiations between federal and local powers. In these conditions, education and health propaganda became crucial in the strategies adopted by the new Mexican State for dragging the majorities out of their backwardness and turning Mexico into a modern, civilized, hygienic nation.

Keywords : "health dictatorship"; education; propa ganda; hygiene; public health; popular classes.