“Niños imbéciles, escrofulosos y epilépticos, o de instintos depravados, son con frecuencia hijos de alcohólicos.” [Imbecilic, scurvied, and epileptic children or those of depraved instincts are frequently the offspring of alcoholics] (Boletín 1.17).
We see throughout the text that Antebi has given readers the original quotations in Spanish followed by a bracketed English translation. What is the effect of this particular writing choice?
The figure of the alcoholic suggests both the cyclical quality of the Prometheus myth, since he is permanently bound to the rock, and the linear narrative of gradual, painful death and destruction, since eventually he will lose his entrails and die.
The cyclical quality of the Prometheus myth also speaks to the cyclical, generational effects of alcoholism put forth by public health authorities. The hygiene campaigns posit that alcoholism impacts the next generation through contamination and disability, which then in turn affects the next generation, and so forth.
Alcohol itself is side-stepped, at least for a moment, to allow capitalist exploitation to play a central role. In its helper role, alcohol works on behalf of the capitalist, yet the connection is an indirect one, for as the image shows, the man with the money bags sits comfortably, his whip to the ground, while his victims drink or sleep off their drunkenness. Rather than representing alcohol abuse as the specific cause of suffering on its own, the image and text suggest instead that drinking alcohol is a supplementary element within a larger process of economic exploitation. The destructive nature of alcohol here is due not simply to specific debilitating physical effects, but more importantly to its role in the impoverishment of individuals, households, and communities, hence as a means through which labor and needed resources seem to evaporate, as if magically transformed into money and then into drink.
This is antithetical to the capitalist disdain for substance use as a means of seeking pleasure. Here, alcohol is described as a tool of capitalist exploitation. Yet, alcoholism can also be viewed as obstructing capitalistic exploitation through restricting an individual’s ability to effectively participate in productive activities.
The uncertain shifting between clear and less clearly defined “cases” suggests a combined approach in which the “undesirable” elements are by turns hidden beneath layers of hereditary possibility and exposed as irrevocable fact. Moreover, specific use of the term “seres indeseables” [undesirable beings] underscores the notion that Page 82 →eugenics can work to shape a purportedly better future society by literally preventing the existence of certain types of people.
This meditation on heredity makes me think about carrier screening and prenatal genetic testing as utilized in reproductive medicine today. These technologies are promoted as empowering reproductive freedom, but to what extent could eugenic forces underlie the push to make carrier screening and prenatal genetic screening/testing standard of care?
the appropriate response to be taken in each case, whether the children can be best taught through special methods, sent to farms or workshops, or in the case of the “uneducable,” treated by physicians. In cases in which educational setting has been the problem, the response is to “combat the causes” of the abnormality
In the previous section, poverty is described as a disabling force through structural violence. The 1927 Pan-American Child Congress acknowledged that "'The causes of poverty can in general be defeated through a concerted attack by society.'" Although this statement is rather vague, it essentially suggests that poverty should be addressed through a top-down approach. Yet Dr. Santamarina's "solutions" to "treat" developmentally delayed children all center on an individualistic approach rather than addressing systemic issues.
disability, appearing through a repeating set of pathologizing terms, or at times through data and physical description,
Institutions construct disabled children's identities out of assessment, diagnosis, documentation, and interventions--reducing disabled children to impersonal, generalized labels and functions. This objective and disembodied institutional documentation erases the humanity and personhood of these children.
“El alcohol es un buitre que arrancará lentamente las entrañas del bebedor. El bebedor está siempre atado en la roca del infortunio.” [Alcohol is a vulture that slowly rips out the entrails of the drinker. The drinker is always tied to the rock of misfortune]
This warning invokes the story of Prometheus--his punishment from Zeus for giving man the gift of fire was to be eternally chained to a rock and have his liver eaten every day by an eagle. It is interesting that this myth is referenced here wherein an authority figure (the public health department) seeks to punish "social deviants" (alcoholics). However, in this version, the authority figure does not take culpability for the punishment; instead, the alcohol users are framed as punishing themselves.