Introduction: setting the scene -- Origins and evolution: from "beggar's helper" to a "white-jacketed army" -- Elam, a school for all nations -- Dealing with the "handicapped" of ALBA: setting the balance right -- Operación milagro: bringing vision to millions -- Cuba's international disaster responses: from 1960s Chile to the 2005 Henry Reeve Brigade -- South-South cooperation in biotechnology: medicine for the masses -- The Cuba-Venezuela medical partnership: the Castro-Chávez dream lives on -- Cuba's role in Haiti: hurricanes, an earthquake, and cholera -- Cuba's medical internationalism in the South Pacific -- The children of Chernobyl: 25,000 treated -- Cuba's medical internationalism in El Salvador since Hurricane Ida -- Conclusion: no longer the world's best-kept secret.