The Puerto Rican Studies Hub inaugurated the Francisco A. Scarano Lecture Series with a public talk by Francisco A. Scarano, UW–Madison professor emeritus and a leading historian of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. Named in his honor, the annual series brings major voices in Puerto Rican Studies to campus and connects their work with students, faculty, staff, and broader publics.
In “Peasants, Doctors, and Empires: Puerto Rico at the Turn of the 20th Century,” Scarano examined the relationship among jíbaro peasants, physicians, and the Spanish and U.S. empires at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Drawing on his recent book La mascarada jíbara y otros ensayos and new archival research, he explored how medicine and empire shaped everyday life in Puerto Rico around 1900.
A light reception preceded the lecture. The event was free and open to the public.
