title: [Decriminalizing traditional Andean medicine: an interview with Walter Álvarez Quispe].
abstract: Walter Álvarez Quispe, a Kallawaya healer and biomedical practitioner specializing in general surgery and gynecology, presents the struggle of traditional and alternative healers to get their Andean medical systems depenalized between 1960 and 1990. Bolivia was the first country in Latin America and the Caribbean to decriminalize traditional medicine before the proposals of the International Conference on Primary Health Care (Alma-Ata, 1978). The data provided by the interviewee show that the successes achieved, mainly by the Kallawayas, stem from their own independent initiative. These victories are not the result of official policies of interculturality in healthcare, although the successes achieved tend to be ascribed to them.
authors.affiliation: Sociedad Boliviana de Medicina Tradicional, La Paz, Bolivia.
authors.forename: Walter Álvarez
authors.initials: WÁ
authors.lastname: Quispe
authors.affiliation: Sociedad Boliviana de Medicina Tradicional, La Paz, Bolivia.
authors.forename: Carmen Beatriz
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Loza
mesh_terms: D001838:Bolivia; D003415:Crime / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D008519:Medicine, Traditional