Del puerto a la ciudad

Overview & Synopsis

In "From the Port to the City…" Ruiz Díaz weaves together mass immigration, urban growth, international trade, and infectious diseases with a close study of the lazaretto, the isolation house, and the sanitary station as key institutions in the effort to sanitize the city. Several scales of analysis run through the text: that of the city, the Río de la Plata area, the regional scale—including Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay—and the transatlantic dimension. This perspective allows Ruiz Díaz to elaborate on what the title of the book suggests: the port as a space where sanitary initiatives are deployed, which are later transferred to the urban fabric, to the city itself, and, to a lesser extent, to the country as a whole. From the Port to the City… enriches the abundant narratives about urban history, architectural history, and the history of health and disease in late 19th- and early 20th-century Buenos Aires. It also offers a localized history of technology and science in Buenos Aires. It is within this subfield of study—with only a handful of existing works—that Ruiz Díaz’s contribution proves to be both innovative and pioneering. Excerpt from the prologue by Diego Armus.