Py Sevo’i: Philanthropy, Power, and Intervened Bodies in Rural Paraguay (1923-1928)

Abstract

José Manuel Silvero Arévalos's book, Py Sevo’i: The Rockefeller Foundation's Health Campaign in Paraguay (1923-1928), offers a historical and ethical reading of a crucial—and long neglected—episode in Paraguayan public health. The author situates Py Sevo’i (hookworm in Guaraní) as a disease associated with poverty, silenced for decades, and argues that understanding it requires reconstructing an invisible health history. By situating the problem within the material conditions of rural Paraguay at the beginning of the 20th century, the work shifts the focus from pathology to the structures of inequality, representations of the body, and the civilizational frameworks that accompanied the hygiene programs.