Abstract

FIERROS, Arturo. Prostitution and Venereal Diseases in Baja California (Mexico), 1888-1951. Historelo.rev.hist.reg.local [online]. 2023, vol.15, n.32, pp.94-131.  Epub Dec 16, 2022. ISSN 2145-132X.  https://doi.org/10.15446/historelo.v15n32.100466.

This article explores the relationship between prostitution, sexually transmitted diseases, and public health in Baja California (Mexico) from 1888 to 1951. The author shows that the legislation was not applied as a public health action, but rather under nineteenth-century ideas that blamed prostitutes from the spread of diseases and prioritizing the obtaining of economic resources at the regional level. In the interpretation, documentary sources from historical archives and newspapers of the studied temporality are used. It is concluded that the insertion of regulations in the area, rather than obeying a public health concern on the part of local authorities -municipal and state-, was due to exogenous factors, derived from international relations that had as their axis of focus the attack to prostitution to stop the diseases at that time called venereal diseases in the assets of the US Army.

Keywords : prostitution; syphilis; sexually transmitted infections; corruption; Baja California.

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