San José, Costa Rica – The Mesoamerican Workshop on Solidarity and Global Health, held on 26–27 February at San José’s Museo Calderón Guardia, brought together activists, scholars, and policymakers from across Latin America to challenge conventional notions of solidarity in global health. The event, organised as part of the Global Health Solidarity Project, facilitated groundbreaking discussions on how solidarity must be reimagined in the face of colonial legacies, capitalist structures, and systemic inequities shaping health outcomes.
More than thirty participants from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, and Costa Rica shared lived experiences, theoretical critiques, and grassroots strategies to redefine solidarity beyond Western-centric frameworks. The workshop pushed boundaries by examining how sociohistorical forces—including colonialism and capitalism—shape health injustices at local and global levels.
“It’s amazing what can happen when you have a room full of brave, brilliant, and experienced people, generously thinking about difficult questions. This wasn’t just about academic debate—it was about learning from Mesoamerican resistance, knowledge, and activism,” said Prof. Gabriela Arguedas, the workshop’s organiser and Co-Principal Investigator of the project.
A key theme was the exclusion of Central American perspectives from mainstream global health discourse. Arguedas emphasised that the region’s thinkers and activists are often erased from conversations despite their critical insights. “Most scholars and practitioners in the Global North, and even parts of the Global South, forget that we exist, think, create, and resist,” she noted.
The workshop’s location at the Museo Calderón Guardia—a site commemorating Costa Rica’s Social Pact and public health history—symbolised this reclamation of narrative agency. Discussions spanned decolonising global health education, the untold histories of HIV activism, abortion access networks in criminalised contexts, and legislative strategies for advancing public health policies.
The event highlighted solidarity not as charity or top-down aid, but as a collective struggle rooted in political humility and mutual learning. Arguedas framed the project as an opportunity to “learn from Mesoamerican thought and history” rather than impose external solutions. This approach aligns with the workshop’s focus on pluriversality—embracing multiple worldviews to redefine health justice.
Next Steps: From Theory to Action
The workshop’s outcomes will inform the Global Health Solidarity Project’s broader mission, including policy tools and advocacy strategies. “We’re not just critiquing—we’re building alternatives and Central America’s wisdom is essential to that fight,” said Arguedas.
The work being done by the Global Health Solidarity Project marks a pivotal shift in global health discourse—one in which solidarity is defined by those historically excluded from decision-making. Its success lies in proving that transformative change begins by listening to the voices that are too often silenced.
Click to read a blog on this event.
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