If indisputably historiography refers to the past, the manner in which it does is subject to debate. Historical events are directly inexpressible and tend to become a narrative of occurrences: by doing so they jeopardize the proper sequentiality of accounts. The objective of this paper is to question sequentiality under the light of the phenomenological theories of intentionality, in particular that of the double orientation of time, retentive and protentive. From this perspective, historiographical representation is conceived as the process of recreating an event, a recreation on the part of the reader of the history of another’s experience, and not as a reference to historical events. An analysis of a fragment from fray Bernardino de Sahagun’s Florentine Codex (xvi century) will illustrate this argument and expose the way in which the narrative itself appeals to the interpretative collaboration of the history’s receiver.
In recent decades, studies that problematize the professionalization process of the historical discipline in Mexico have emerged. Guillermo Zermeño's extensive research has undoubtedly been key to this discussion. In this sense, his new book, Historiografía, temporalidad y saber histórico (2025), continues the historian's long line of work and positions itself as a vanguard for reflecting on the historiographical profession in the future. This review aims to situate the book within this context of discussion and open a reading perspective that emphasizes the problem of professionalization and its link to temporality, so that possible interested readers can embark on their own reading experience of the author's latest publication.
El presente artículo analiza la manera en que la medicina legal mexicana examinó el cuerpo de niñas y niños en casos de violación, estupro y atentado al pudor entre 1852 y 1928. A partir de estos delitos se indaga cómo el cuerpo infantil fue construido como objeto de observación, y como soporte de la prueba judicial. El análisis parte de diferentes textos producidos por médicos legistas (disertaciones, introducciones, compendios, tesis y artículos publicados en revistas especializadas como La Gaceta Médica de México, El Porvenir y La Escuela de Medicina), con el fin de identificar las prácticas y marcos teóricos que regularon la búsqueda e interpretación de las pruebas corporales. Si bien la historiografía de la medicina y de las infancias ha abordado distintos vínculos entre saber médico y niñez, se ha prestado escasa atención a las formas en que la medicina legal construyó al cuerpo infantil como objeto de estudio. El análisis muestra que las reiteradas alusiones de los médicos a las dificultades del examen no respondían a limitaciones individuales, sino a un conjunto de (im)posibilidades técnicas, morales y teóricas que condicionaban la producción de certezas. En este sentido, el artículo propone comprender el examen médico-legal del cuerpo infantil como una práctica situada, atravesada por tensiones entre observación, interpretación y debates.
From the beginning of the 19th century to the mid-20th century, two models defined the therapeutic efficacy of psychiatric institutions: the asylum, implemented through moral treatment, which dominated until the 1880s, and the Open-Door model, based on agricultural labor as its therapeutic basis. We conduct a historiographical review of how these models were received and implemented in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Mexico, Peru, Cuba, and Colombia. While asylums had a similar history, the reception and adaptation of the Open-Door model differed and was reflected in four institutional types. This review shows that the acceptance of the most important therapeutic models over nearly a century did not depend on the scientific or medical expertise of specialists, but rather on the structure of the state and its public health policies within the framework of modernization projects.
