An overview of histories of health and healing in Latin America from independence to the present. For centuries, local healers have practiced popular and traditional medicine alongside the professionally trained. These diverse and varied medical authorities informed each other’s practices and at times came into conflict. Main questions to consider include: How have approaches to healing and disease shifted across time and space? In what ways did Indigenous, African, and Asian healers figure into everyday life and national programs? How have gender and race shaped public health policies and structures? Finally, how have local peoples responded to these various institutions, practitioners, and programs?