Abstract

LUX MARTELO, Martha. The Licenciate Juan Méndez Nieto, a cultural mediator: appropiation and spread of knowledge in the New World. hist.crit. [online]. 2006, n.31, pp.53-76. ISSN 0121-1617.

This article analyzes the role played by the Licenciate Juan Méndez Nieto as a cutural mediator. Méndez Nieto arrived in the city of Cartagena de Indias in 1569, where he wrote his Discursos Medicinales between 1607 and 1611. This document offers direct evidence of how he practiced medicine in the city, and demonstrates his role as a cultural mediator. Méndez Nieto’s work allow us to see how he straddled the physical and intellectual borders of two continents: Europe and America. He brought with him and put into practice knowledge learned in Spain, as well what he learned in the New World. As a cultural mediator, he gave what he brought and received what other cultures could offer him. But he did not only use the new things he learned. He also valued, compared and taught them, wanting to make sure that this acquired knowledge would be made known and used both in America and Spain.

Keywords : Juan Méndez Nieto; cultural mediators; passeurs culturels; Cartagena; 17th century; medicine; knowledge; practices; discourse.

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