Today was a little different from our other days focused mostly on hospitals and clinics. We spend much of the day touring the city and learning more about the history and culture of Buenos Aires. One of the coolest things we saw was a building that was once the tallest concrete building in the world, which was considered extremely modern and advanced for its time. Through the city, I saw how much European influence exists in the architecture, specifically Italian, and especially in the older buildings and government areas. We also visited a cemetery in the center of the city that, at first glance, you would not think was a cemetery. It had these huge monuments hat symbolized religion and we learned how culturally important they are in Argentina. Some families spend enormous amounts of money to have relatives buries in these famous cemeteries, almost as a way of preserving family legacy and status for generations.

After lunch, we visited the Eva Perón Museum and learned more about both Eva “Evita” Perón and her husband, General Juan Perón. Before this trip, I mostly only knew Evita from hearing her name occasionally in history or music references, but I learned that both she and Juan Perón played a major role in shaping Argentina’s healthcare and social welfare systems. According to sources we talked about and reviewed during the trip, Juan expanded public healthcare during the late 1940s and made the labor unions stronger, which became deeply connected to healthcare access in Argentina. Although our tour guide mentioned that the overall idea of Perónism has become kind of faint, one of his biggest accomplishments that still stands mighty is helping create and expand union based healthcare organizations known as “Obras Sociales.” These systems were funded through worker and employer contributions and gave many working and middle class families access to medical care that they otherwise may not have been able to afford. Even today, unions still play a major role in Argentina’s healthcare system, which is something we have noticed throughout many of our hospital visits.

Evita herself also became a symbol of healthcare and social support for poorer Argentinians. Through the Eva Perón foundation, she helped fund hospitals, schools and social programs for people in need. What stood out to me most was how personal her involvement really was. She was not just viewed as a political figure, but almost as a symbol of support for the working class and lower income communities.

Overall, today helped me better understand why healthcare in Argentina is so connected to unions, public systems, and politics. The healthcare structure we have been learning about throughout this trip did not just appear randomly. Much of it was shaped by Perón’s policies and Evita’s social programs, and their influence is still abundant throughout Argentina today.