La promesa de la historia: Astana, São Paulo y los desafíos de Brasil

Abstract

The promise of history: Astana, São Paulo, and the challenges in Brazil For a very long time, historians have been working under an assumption not too often disclosed: to understand the past is a means for people, institutions and countries to acquire a long-term overview on their achievements, challenges and possibilities. It is also true that there are official historians who have used history to legitimate present-day institutions, and embellish heroes and commemorative dates. Others honestly believe that their duty consists of nothing more than to gather information, "uncover" past facts, and fail to put too much emphasis on interpretation. Notwithstanding, the discipline has prevailed because it involves a promise that goes beyond its frame as a professional activity or its manipulation by the status quo: History is necessary to understand the present, to speak truth to power, and to fuel hope-no matter how controversial and many times put under scrutiny-that, despite the historical turnarounds, some form of progress exists, or will in the future, and that it is possible to be in a better position than how we were and how we currently stand. According to many historians, this development is not straightforward, but rather complex and poses discouraging setbacks. At the same time, these historians suggest that several contemporary stakeholders, who are currently active, have the capacity to go forward, resist, survive and reinvent themselves. At this point in time, when persistency is a priority for many in Brazil, given its critical moment in its political history, is when we need historians the most to help reaffirm the legitimacy of indispensable values such as: the relevance of science and public health, the solidarity to be expressed thru robust social programs, the much-needed struggle for gender equality, the necessity for a strong and secular state, and the unquestionable eradication of homophobia and any form of discrimination, as well as the importance to adhere to multilateral progressive goals, like the ones promoted by the United Nations Organization (UNO). The UNO-more precisely, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF)-promoted at the end of October of the current year a world event framed in the struggle for some of the values mentioned above: the Conference of Astana, held in the Russian region of Kazakhstan. During this important gathering, the "Declaration on Primary Health Care: from Alma-Ata towards universal health coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals" was approved (the English version of the declaration is available in: <https://www.who. int/docs/default-source/primary-health/declaration/gcphc-declaration.pdf>). One of the more laudable motivations of this Declaration was to reinforce the historical 1978 Declaration of Alma-Ata, which outlines that public health is a right for all people in the world, that technocratic solutions on their own are useless to improve poor life conditions EDITORS' NOTE