Day 8 in Argentina! Today we got to sleep in and didn’t have to be in the lobby for the bus until 10:30am. We drove to the Museo Evita which is a really cool museum dedicated to Evita Peron and her life. In the building they research her life and the impacts that she left on Argentina. We learned all about her life as a women’s suffrage advocate, First Lady to Peron, and her impact on healthcare in Argentina. She was loved by thousands all over the world and it was clear that the country went into a state of mourning when she died of cervical cancer at the young age of 33. We then had a delicious lunch at the museum restaurant that consisted of bread and smear (as always), fettuccine bolognese, and a type of creme brûlée with berries on top. After lunch we bused to the Parque de la Memoria, an outdoor park dedicated to “the disappeared people” of Argentina. This occurred in the late 60s through the early 80s and was one of the worst events to ever occur in the history of Argentina. It is a lot of explain but the government of Argentina took around 30,000 citizens and put them in concentration camps, tortured them, took newborn babies, and dumped bodies into the ocean off of Buenos Aires because of their political affiliation that didn’t line up with the government’s. This park has thousands of names of the disappeared people on cement walls in order to commemorate them. I’m writing this while waiting for our delayed bus in order to go back to the hotel and work on our group presentation. Tonight looks like it will be a fun homework night.

This is a complicated topic because it is all very integrated and not very surface level, but Peronism had an influence on the structure of the Argentine healthcare system. For starters, Evita was big on social direct aid and had very obvious impacts on Argentina’s healthcare system. In 1947, the “María Eva Duarte de Perón” Nursing School was created. The syllabus included a 2-year course plan, and postgraduate courses of study with a residence-training program. The goal of this nursing school was to address priority health issues set by Dr. Ramón Carrillo and it helped tremendously.

Peronism also had an effect on medical assistance in Argentina. Multiple polyclinics were set up throughout Argentina, pioneering in terms of innovative hospital building structure. They also helped with the deficit of hospital supplies and equipment. Over the course of Peron’s rule, Argentina healthcare did improve with the addition of a nursing school and new polyclinics in the country and it’s affect is still seen today.