Reflections on Medical Internationalism
by John Kirk
John Kirk is Professor of Latin American Studies at Dalhousie University, where he specializes
in Cuban political history. He has written/coedited several books on Cuba, including Redefining
Cuban Foreign Policy: The Impact of the “Special Period” (2006), and Culture and the Cuban
Revolution: Conversations in Havana (2001). Together with Michael Erisman he is writing a monograph
on Cuban medical internationalism.
Patria es humanidad.
—José Martí
José Martí’s assertion that the Cuban homeland is all of humanity sums up
elegantly the extraordinary generosity of spirit visible in Cuba’s medical internationalism
program.