Events

The Warwick Centre for Global Health and MPH invite you to

Raising Healthy Children:

Nutrition and Welfare in Mexico (1930-1960)

A lunchtime talk by Sandra Aguilar Rodriguez, PhD

Moravian University, USA

Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study

19 May 2026 12h30 - 14h00

Warwick Medical School Room A0.41 and online

Light refreshments will be served

After the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), there was an increased interest in improving the diet of the poor. The assumption was that workers missed workdays due to illness and that their physical weakness affected their performance. Nutrition was influenced by eugenics as well as ideas of mestizaje. Food was seen as a central aspect in the transformation of peasants into workers and those of indigenous backgrounds into mestizos. The process of mestizaje entailed adopting cooking and eating habits dominant in the Global North. The government promoted the consumption of animal protein in the form of milk and eggs, while the industry and mass media also encouraged the consumption of sugar and wheat bread. In this process, women played a key role, as they were responsible for provisioning and cooking. Moreover, women oversaw feeding their families and were thus the target of nutrition policies, cookbooks, and publicity. Motherhood was a central aspect of nutrition rhetoric, as the healthy development of children was seen as depending solely on their mothers. By studying archival material, medical journals, cookbooks, and oral history interviews, it is possible to identify which practices were considered ideal and the challenges to implementing them in daily life.