Dra. Edelmira Will See You Now: Cancer Care and Informal Healing in Early Twentieth-Century Colombia

Abstract Healer Edelmira Salazar de Guzmán went to considerable lengths to demonstrate her skill as a cancer specialist in 1920s Bogotá. Her satisfied patients’ testimonials certified by Colombian authorities and her astute interpretations of Colombia's health regulations portray her as someone who could effectively compete with medical experts in the complex and rapidly changing field of cancer care. Salazar's story sheds light on a popular attitude toward complex illnesses emergent a century ago in Latin America, one that prized diagnostic speed and prognostic accuracy and that chafed against surgical interventions, rejecting the presumption that cancer care should be the exclusive province of physicians. Salazar's approach to cancer care also illustrates popular positions regarding the extent to which illness would affect Colombia's future. In fact, years before the government launched its official anticancer campaign in 1928, Salazar already promoted a national “anticancer struggle” as part of a hygienic strategy to arrest racial degeneration.