Peasants, Doctors, and Empires: Puerto Rico at the Turn of the 20th Century

media release: Francisco Scarano Lecture Series – Inaugural Talk

Tuesday, October 28 • 5:30 p.m. • Chazen Museum Auditorium

Join us for the inaugural lecture of the Puerto Rican Studies Hub’s Francisco Scarano Lecture Series, honoring UW–Madison Professor Emeritus Francisco A. Scarano, a leading historian of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. In his talk, “Peasants, Doctors, and Empires: Puerto Rico at the Turn of the 20th Century,” Professor Scarano will examine the relationship between jíbaro peasants, physicians, and the Spanish and U.S. empires at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Building on themes from his recent book La mascarada jíbara y otros ensayos and new archival research at the Historical Archives of the Conrado Asenjo Library (UPR Medical Sciences Campus), Scarano will explore how medicine and empire intersected in shaping everyday lives in Puerto Rico.

Attendees are encouraged to arrive as early as 4:30 p.m. to visit the exhibition Caribbean Matters: Cuestiones Caribeñas by Puerto Rican artist Pablo Delano, co-curated by Jorell Meléndez-Badillo and Aurora Santiago-Ortiz. The exhibition explores Caribbean identity, migration, and colonial histories through assemblage, archival materials, and found objects.

A light reception will precede the lecture.