Diagnosis “Suspicious of Yellow Fever”: Yaquis among Medical Doctors and Health Authorities in Yucatan, 1900–11
Friday, January 8, 2016: 2:30 PM
Room M301 (Atlanta Marriott Marquis)
In the early twentieth century, Mexican dictator Porfirio Díaz deported approximately 8,000 Yaqui Indians from Sonora to the post caste-war Yucatan Peninsula. Yellow fever, endemic in the region, reemerged in 1906 and killed hundreds of people while sparking a public health crisis. Coming from a non-tropical climate, the Yaquis were particularly vulnerable to the bite of the disease carrier, the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, and suffered numerous loses. Moreover, their presence in the region favored the development of scientific research. Seeking to contribute to Mexico’s national campaign against yellow fever, the Yucatecan medical elite treated the indigenous disease victims as experimental human subjects in order to examine virus transmission and disease progression.
Interestingly enough, the historiography on yellow fever eradication in Mexico has overlooked the experience of the Yaquis; likewise, most histories of the indigenous group have ignored their role as scientific subjects in the Yucatan. This paper illustrates how physicians and the Mexican state exploited the social marginalization and medical vulnerability of Yaquis in exile, violating their bodies in life and death. The paper also examines how Yaquis have constructed a collective social memory about their experience with yellow fever and how this narrative fuels their resistance to the Mexican state.
The analysis relies not only on archival sources such as medical periodicals, professional correspondence, and Yaquis’ autopsy reports, but also on oral histories and ethnographic data collected during decades of researching and living with Yaqui communities throughout Sonora. Juxtaposing anthropological and historical methodologies, this paper sheds light on the tensions between what the Government of Yucatán alleged and what Yaqui people remembered about life and death experiences in the Peninsula.
Interestingly enough, the historiography on yellow fever eradication in Mexico has overlooked the experience of the Yaquis; likewise, most histories of the indigenous group have ignored their role as scientific subjects in the Yucatan. This paper illustrates how physicians and the Mexican state exploited the social marginalization and medical vulnerability of Yaquis in exile, violating their bodies in life and death. The paper also examines how Yaquis have constructed a collective social memory about their experience with yellow fever and how this narrative fuels their resistance to the Mexican state.
The analysis relies not only on archival sources such as medical periodicals, professional correspondence, and Yaquis’ autopsy reports, but also on oral histories and ethnographic data collected during decades of researching and living with Yaqui communities throughout Sonora. Juxtaposing anthropological and historical methodologies, this paper sheds light on the tensions between what the Government of Yucatán alleged and what Yaqui people remembered about life and death experiences in the Peninsula.
See more of: Medical Ethics in 20th-Century Latin America: Human Subject Experimentation, Forced Sterilization, and Cold War Torture
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