Angel M. Giménez (1878-1941)
Thesis: Consideraciones de higiene sobre el obrero en Buenos Aires. Thesis (doctoral)–Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires, 1901. PDF
Angel M. Gimenez was a doctor and prominent Socialist in Argentina at the beginning of the 20th century. He received his medical degree from the Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires in 1902, writing his thesis on Consdieraciones de Higiene Sobre el Obrero en Buenos Aires.
Gimenez was a higienista, a group of doctors committed to public health care as opposed to private. He taught sexual hygiene to young people and treated venereal disease in the city’s clinics. As a Socialist, he was committed to “expand women’s political, social, and legal rights.” One of his major aims was to eliminate licensed prostitution (the requirement that prostitutes in Buenos Aires register with the government and submit to biweekly medical examinations), finding it “inefficient, useless, and dangerous,” and believing that regulation did nothing to prevent the spread of venereal disease. In 1917, he began fighting to end licensed prostitution in congress, and introduced a bill to punish anyone responsible for the exploitation of women. Elected a representative to the Buenos Aires Municipal Council in 1919, he drafted laws to abolish licensed prostitution and provide national health care for venereal disease and sex education. While these laws did not pass, he continued to fight for women’s rights and public health care and was successful in creating ten municipal clinics for treating venereal disease and offering sex education classes.
In 1930, with Gimenez’s assistance, regulated prostitution was finally overthrown in Buenos Aires. In 1933, Gimenez led the Socialists in proposing programs to congress for national venereal disease treatment, mandatory sex education in schools and in the military, prenuptial medical exams, repeal of licensed prostitution, and making the contraction of a venereal disease grounds for divorce. Many of these proposals were successful.
Angel Gimenez wrote works on many topics including prostitution in Buenos Aires, sexual health, workplace hygiene, libraries for the working class, the relationship between church and state in Argentina, alcoholism, and other social topics of interest to the Socialists in his time.
Sources:
Guy, D.J. “White Slavery, Public Health, and the Socialist Position on Legalized Prostitution in Argentina, 1913-1936.” Latin American Research Review 23, no. 3 (1988): 60-80.
Other works by Angel M. Giménez:
La Iglesia y el Estado Argentino (páginas de historia). Buenos Aires: Federación Gráfica Bonarense, 1934. (Call number: 261.7 G487i)
Represión de la Trata de Blancas. Buenos Aires: Talleres Gráficos L. J. Rosso, 1917. (Call number: HQ168.G552 1917)
Biographies of selected authors from the New York Academy of Medicine Collection of International Medical Theses written by Amanda Allgood, B.A., M.L.S.
