Salud Colectiva/Collective Health: The Role of Mexico's Health Promotion Campaigns in Building a Modern Nation, 1940s–60s

In 1947, Mexico’s President Miguel Alemán Valdés established the Comisión de Tepalcatepec to provide irrigation, health care,
transportation, and industrialization to the basin of the Río Tepalcatepec. Comprised of both Tarascan indigenous peoples and
non-indigenous European descendents and mestizos, the Comisión hoped to integrate both populations into the state building and
economic development goals of the national administration. Under the leadership of Lázaro Cárdenas, who remained in public
service after his presidency, the Comisión spent fourteen years developing programs to improve the environmental living
conditions and economic potential of the region. Proyecto MEX-MED 4 (PMM4), the health subset of the Comisión that lasted from
1948 until 1951, became the first multi-tiered approach to development in Mexico that emphasized the public health needs of rural
communities. My paper argues that the PMM4 became a laboratory for addressing the immediate health needs of rural indigenous
communities while determining longer-term solutions in sanitation, environment, and preventive medicine. My research shows that
project leaders carefully negotiated a balance between raising the standard of living for individuals in the area while also raising
economic possibilities for the nation through ecological development. Furthermore, they established a national presence that
helped to connect these communities with their urban counterparts. Rather than developing national health policy programs in the
capital, the on-the-ground experiences of the medical brigades, clinics, data collectors, sanitary engineers, and active citizenry
shaped the progress of public health. The result was a significant reduction in health risks for the area and a legacy of integrating
economic development and state building with extended public works programs in Mexico.