History of the syphilitic husband of a feminist

Abstract

History of the stages of subjectivization of Rafael Montes de Oca (1863-ca. 1930) who suffered from syphilis for over 30 years and despite the marginalization of being condemned as “degenerated syphilitic” by the hygienist policies of the time, managed to apply the technologies of the self, according to the approaches of Michel Foucault, and experienced various processes of procedural subjectivization by redefining his identity, taking care of himself, getting married and becoming an artist according to Felix Gauttari’s “New aesthetic paradigm”. In another process of transformation, after ten years of being the nurse-wife of a syphilitic, María Ríos Cárdenas became a famous feminist during her divorce. This history of subjectivization not only explains how an individual confronted the public health policies of the Porfiriato and the post revolution, but also establishes connections between changes in a personal life and the transformations of public life in Mexico.