Medicine and Politics in Colonial Peru: Population Growth and the Bourbon Reforms

4 Conquering the Biblical Curse,1804–1815

118 conquering the Biblical curse, 1804–1815 4 On February 7, 1807, chaos erupted in Lima’s centuries-old refuge for lepers, the Hospital of San Lázaro on the north side of the Rímac River. Although archival information on the event is scarce, medical documents and testimony from workers and patients suggest that several lepers undergoing treatment in the hospital rioted and abandoned the facility, “directing themselves to the palace of His Excellency in the form of a commotion.” Living amid endless conflict between secular, creole physicians and a lay religious brotherhood of veinticuatros who administered the hospital, patients found themselves pushed to rebel by the overseer (veedor), Esteban Ruíz. Led out of the hospital by Manuela Santisteban, a samba (woman of African and indigenous descent) more commonly known as la negra jeringuera (the black syringe woman), who applied ointment and administered injections in the women’s wing, the lepers marched across the bridge from San Lázaro into the center of the city accompanied by a group of slaves. They then created a raucous spectacle in plain view of the viceroy, “demanding and shouting that they did not want to be cured by Dr. Villalobos but rather by the surgeon Ignacio Ratera.”1 From there, the lepers eventually returned to the hospital later in the day, where they diswarren text i-290.4.indd 118 7/23/10 10:42 AM conquering the Biblical curse 119 tanced themselves from their acts. They informed the doorman (portero), Ignacio Dávalos, in a truly understated fashion that they had merely gone “to visit the viceroy.”2 The understatement notwithstanding, the reasons behind the lepers’ uprising were complex, and they shed light on the controversial nature of creole physicians’ reforms. In the years before the uprising, the leper hospital had in fact become a microcosm of broader conflicts among modernizing creole physicians, lower-ranking surgeons, government authorities, and entrenched lay and religious constituencies. Many of the conflicts centered on what appeared to be remarkably successful attempts to cure those diagnosed as lepers (who often suffered from other skin diseases) beginning in 1804. However, conflicts also stemmed from the related efforts of secular, reform-minded creole doctors to transform the hospital from a place of eternal reclusion into a colonial laboratory for experimentation and dispensing cures. Responding to pressure from Lima’s doctors and perhaps inspired by news of the smallpox vaccine’s discovery and journey to the Americas, on July 12, 1804, Viceroy Avilés granted a creole physician , Baltasar Villalobos, permission to perform experiments on the hospital ’s lepers. Villalobos wished to attempt new treatments “with the pious aim of redeeming humanity of an atrocious ailment, which makes those it afflicts civilly dead in society.” He drew heavily on common notions of piety and charity in seeking to cure medically a disease that carried tremendous stigma in Lima and that was largely understood through biblical teachings.3 Doctors and other healers had previously succeeded only in providing palliative treatments, which in their own right constituted traditional acts of piety. Villalobos, however, proposed that secular doctors could conquer the biblical curse of leprosy. Prior to the uprising of lepers, news of a cure had spread widely throughout the Spanish Empire.4 Among other things, in Spain it led Charles IV to issue a decree in April 1806 in which he offered his enthusiastic support for the new treatment being heralded as a cure. Ruling at a time when Spain sought to undo its Black Legend associations through new scientific contributions and knowledge production about the New World, the king saw the new treatment or cure as a means by which to transform Spain’s reputation abroad and reform the empire for the better.5 Answering correspondence from Viceroy Avilés, who wished to distribute instructions for the treatment and its use as a disease prevention measure in other colonies, the king expressed his hope of eradicating leprosy altogether warren text i-290.4.indd 119 7/23/10 10:42 AM 120 conquering the Biblical curse from cities like Havana, Cartagena de Indias, and Manila, where lepers abounded. He thus joined the viceroy in encouraging Villalobos “to perfect an enterprise of so much importance for humanity,” and he demanded that the viceroy inform him of any further progress made.6 The king, however, did more than simply express interest in Villalobos ’s efforts. In his official capacity...