New World Diseases - Bubas

Alicia -

Yes, my husband had two direct ancestors who had syphillis. They came from Jalisco. The father was born in 1865, but moved to El Paso, Tx in 1895. His death certificate from 1930 states his cause of death as syphillitic aortitis. One of his sons was known in the family to have gone blind due to syphillis, but he lived into his late 90s. Since the son was only about five when he was brought to the US, he may have acquired the disease in the brothels of Juarez. Soldiers stationed near New Orleans and Juarez in the early part of the 20th century were forbidden to go into those cities because of STDs.

Emilie
Port Orchard, WA

> Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2011 22:44:33 -0700
> From: alice_wissing@yahoo.com
> To: research@nuestrosranchos.org
> Subject: Re: [Nuestros Ranchos] New World Diseases - Bubas
>
> Bubas, which meant boils, was also used to describe syphilis. According to the
> book "Born to Die - Disease and New World Conquest" by Noble David Cook,
> syphilis was widespread in the Americas, several who returned to the Iberian
> Peninsula in 1493 were infected with it, and eventually the disease spread all
> over Europe. There is a lot of speculation as to the origins of syphilis - I've
> read fairly recent articles that it came from Italy.
>
> The book says the unintended revenge of the Spanish was to give the Indians
> smallpox. The sixteenth century historian, Lopez de Gomara, said Mexico City was
> hit so bad by smallpox that they had to pull the houses down to cover the
> corpses. The following quote by him summarizing the attitude of his compatriots
> is pretty cruel: "It seems to me that is the way they were repaid for the bubas
> which they gave our men." Bubas must have been pretty horrible for Lopez de
> Gomara to make such a callous statement.
>
>
> Have any researchers out there encountered syphilis as a cause of death while
> reviewing records? Is it a fatal disease? It must have been widespread in
> Mexico.