JF Ptak Science Books LLC  Post 827  Blog Bookstore

Images of
sacred interventions stopping the spread of disease is puzzling, as in this
powerful and disturbing vision of Our Lady of Guadalupe appearing above the
city of Mexico
in 1737¹.  Mexico City was in the second year of a
devastating cholera epidemic where 40,000 had perished in that city alone.

I wonder why Heavenly intercession didn’t
come earlier?  Of course the people of
the Valley of Central Mexico could’ve used some
heaven-sent strong-armed virtuosity many times over the centuries.  In Mexico
City during the Cockuliztli epidemic of 1576 the
population of the non-Spanish (Native) population fell 50% in just a few
years.  Over the period of 1545-1548 70%
of the population of the city nearly died of hemorrhagic fever.  This epidemic was followed by many other
(major) epidemics (1576-78, 1629-1631, 1736-1741, 1761, and so on) involving
whooping cough, measles, typhus, smallpox , influenza, cholera, and of course
famine. Cholera—like this epidemic in Mexico City—according
to Rodolfo Acuna-Soto’s study² seems to have been the least of the epidemic
worries in the Valley
of Mexico over the last
500 years.  According to Robert McCaa’s
study of population studies³, 11 authoritative studies on the decline in
population in Mexico from 1519-1598 show an average and disasterous decrease of
about 50%⁴.

So with the
dozens of epidemics, the invasion of Europeans, and natural and unnatural
famines, I would have expected to see more demonstrations of charity from above
rather than this one skimpy display in the second year of a lower-echelon
epidemic. 

1. From Caberra y Quintero Escudo de Armas de Mexico…, printed in Mexico in 1746.  There is much else of interest in this book–which is probably the best and most famous of the local histories of the city–besides the image that I fixated on. 

2.
[Rodolfo
Âcuna-Soto.]  Forum on Microbial Threats//Global Climate Change and Extreme Weather
Events December 5, 2007
“The use of Historical data sets in
Understanding Ecosystems Responses
to Climate Change and the Importance
of Long-term Monitoring
Programs…” 

3. McCaa’s study HERE

4. Table of colonial disaster