Assisting the Disabled: Charity, Welfare, and Informality in Postrevolutionary Mexico

This paper examines the programs and policies directed at the disabled that were established in post-revolutionary Mexico. Historically, a mosaic of charity institutions had deemed the disabled—a category that included deaf, mute, and blind subjects as well as those lacking full mobility—as some of the few people who were truly deserving of assistance, due to their assumed inability to work and sustain themselves. This paper assesses how the relationship between welfare institutions and beneficiaries classified as “disabled” evolved between the 1940s and 1960s during the transition to state leadership under the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (SSA). In the mid-twentieth century, public health authorities attempted to establish a modern welfare state. In theory, programs directed towards the disabled were designed to break their dependency on state welfare by introducing them into the labor market and urban economy, usually by providing them with licenses that allowed them to sell goods in the street. However, through an examination of SSA records, I argue that welfare programs for the disabled ended up establishing an official connection between disability and informal work, one that reinforced the long-lasting notion that disabled people were particularly worthy of recipients of state and charitable assistance.