Entre Enfermedad y Pecado: Idolatry and Disease in Colonial Yucatán

In 1586, the encomendero Don Juan de Loria stood accused of falling into the “malas costumbres” of the Maya.  According to Fray Martín Ruiz de Arce, within the domain of his encomienda, Loria not only encouraged indigenous idolatry, he actively participated in the most egregious acts of paganism.  Side-by-side with Maya priests, Loria tattooed his body. He bled his genitals and he offered his blood to indigenous deities. Loria, however, was far from the lone Spaniard to be accused of engaging in indigenous rites and ceremonies. Other Spaniards ranged from high-ranking government officials that manipulated magic to influence political rivals to working-class creoles who sought power in recalcitrance. This paper examines denunciations before the Inquisition of Yucatán against Spaniards accused of idolatry and magic as lenses on the spiritual and physical health of the colony.    Although engaging in indigenous rituals represented shocking violations of the faith, religious officials attributed Spanish acts of idolatry to the sickness and sin of indigenous society.  Furthermore, clerics and colonial officials characterized the spiritual ailments of colonial societies as direct links to the physical infirmity of the colony as a whole.