The sexual question : a history of prostitution in Peru, 1850s-1950s / Paulo Drinot, University College London.

Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2020.

©2020

1 online resource (xv, 313 pages) : illustrations, maps.

Cambridge Latin American studies ; 119.

"For just under thirty years, between its creation in 1928 and its closure in 1956, the barrio rojo, or red-light district around Huatica Street, originally known as 20 September Street, in La Victoria district, was the centre of brothel prostitution in the Peruvian capital, a place where many thousands of men, like Mario Vargas Llosa's character Alberto, and indeed, Vargas Llosa himself, went in search of Golden Toes and others like her.1 The creation of Lima's barrio rojo in 1928 was the culminating achievement of the promoters of regulation, the attempt to control the spread of venereal disease through the medical policing of female prostitutes. As they did in most of Latin America (and parts of Europe, Africa and Asia) at this time, elites in Peru too argued that the regulation of prostitution was not only imperative from a moral and public health perspective; it was also the "modern" way to deal with prostitution and venereal disease, and particularly with syphilis, a disease that affected the health of the individual and, because of its presumed hereditary effects, the vitality of the nation as a whole. By the 1950s, however, few held such views. Lima's red-light district was now seen as a source of moral and epidemiological danger. This book examines what the both the creation and closure of Lima's barrio rojo tells us about Peruvian society in the first half of the twentieth century"--Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on May 08, 2020).

Print version: Drinot, Paulo. The sexual question New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2020.

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9781108675659 electronic book
1108675654 electronic book
9781108493123 hardcover
9781108717281 paperback

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