Belisário Penna, a champion in the history of Brazilian public health

Authors

  • Luiz Antonio de Castro Santos Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro; Departamento de Planejamento, Politicas e Administração de Saúde
  • Regina Érika Domingos de Figueiredo Espírito Santo; Secretaria de Estado da Cultura

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-12902012000400005

Keywords:

Belisário Penna, Public Health, Racial Question, Eugenics

Abstract

The contribution of the sanitarian Belisário Penna (1868-1939) to the history of public health in Brazil constitutes the central topic of this text. The intellectual, professional, and political profile of Belisário Penna is here reconsidered, in the light of his entrenched defense of rural sanitation, his militancy in favor of the improvement of living conditions in the backlands of Brazil, and his criticism of oligarchical power. The intention is also to point out how he opposed, through a series of speeches of great eloquence, the climate of opinion in Brazil's early Republic. He took in the preoccupations of Brazilian elite with "eugenics," discussing them in a very different, optimistic vein. Belisário Penna opposed the dominant racist thought among the aristocracy of the country, arguing that the real obstacles to the national progress resided in the precariousness of health conditions as much as in the lack of public education. In this sense, Belisário was at the forefront of the intellectual and political circles that supported a determined action of the State, by means of hygiene and civic education programs. Better health, these progressive circles insisted, would bring a solution to the alleged racial "inferiority" of Brazilians. This kind of "sanitary optimism" was not shared by only a few progressive minds, but was the core of social movements such as the Pro-Sanitation League of Brazil, which gathered doctors and intellectuals. These movements propagated the need for social change and received considerable support of the public opinion in the 1920's.

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Published

2012-12-01

Issue

Section

Part I - Articles

How to Cite

Belisário Penna, a champion in the history of Brazilian public health. (2012). Saúde E Sociedade, 21(4), 848-857. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-12902012000400005