A Latin American Context for Disability Studies

“Let’s achieve a miracle” (Logremos un milagro) was the slogan of the first Telethon in Chile, a charity fund-raiser for the rehabilitation of children with disabilities. “La Teletón,” founded by Mario Kreutzberger1 in 1978, was so successful that its name and structure have been replicated through an umbrella organization operating in twelve different Latin American countries.2 Images of children equipped with state-of-the-art rehabilitation devices for learning how to walk thus came to appear regularly on television screens throughout the region, accompanied by slogans of hope for the future, love, and solidarity, along with pleas for donations by media celebrities. As in the case of similar televised fund-raisers in the United States and elsewhere, Teletón’s use of children with disabilities to evoke the public’s compassion—and to open its wallets—exploits the children in question, legitimates the activity of staring at them, and equates disability with a tragedy to be erased or overcome.3 Latin American disability rights activists and scholars have similarly criticized the Teletón model, advocating for human rights and social justice rather than voyeurism and charity, particularly in the wake of the 2006 United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which has been signed by most Latin American countries. Yet the specificity of the Latin American Teletón’s beginnings and its slogan of miracle making also suggest something further about the role of disability representation in contemporary Latin American societies. The