Monstrous Births and Creole Patriotism in Late Colonial Mexico

Abstract

On February 8, 1785, theGazeta de México, one of New Spain's first news periodicals, published an announcement from the city of Guanajuato celebrating the recent birth of a pair of conjoined twins:Doña Rafaela Cortés … has delivered two children from one birth, joined together at the back of their heads by the skull. They received the holy waters of baptism and were christened Joseph Nepomuceno Guadalupe and Joseph Ignacio Guadalupe… Many people, admiring these rare effects of nature, have visited them, and there has been no record in these twins of any deformity or defect in their separate and agile bodies… The few doctors and surgeons residing in the city have considered separating them, but have not found it advisable because of the manner in which they are united, and every day more news circulates about their existence and longevity, causing ever more admiration for them given that the first one was born foot-first, and in delivering him, the midwife discovered the knot that joined the two heads.

Aristotle, Buddhist scripture and embryology in ancient Mexico: building inclusion by re-thinking what counts as the history of developmental biology

“…This was not an isolated case, as over 50 cases of congenital anomalies were carefully described in the Gazeta de Mexico in the last quarter of the 18th century alone (Jaffary, 2011). In fact, we can find widespread discussions of embryological thought going back at least to the 17th century in both Mexico and Guatemala (Few, 2009;Jaffary, 2011). Such descriptions became increasingly sophisticated, appearing in the Periodico de Academia de Medicina de Mexico, which is the precursor of the present Gaceta Medica de Mexico, the oldest continuously published scientific journal in the Americas (Chico-Ponce de León and Castro-Sierra, 2007).…”

“…This was not an isolated case, as over 50 cases of congenital anomalies were carefully described in the Gazeta de Mexico in the last quarter of the 18th century alone (Jaffary, 2011). In fact, we can find widespread discussions of embryological thought going back at least to the 17th century in both Mexico and Guatemala (Few, 2009;Jaffary, 2011).…”

“…More interestingly, this single page was tucked into a copy of a 1651 treatise by the naturalist Francisco Hernandez precisely at the page where he describes the birth of a two-headed calf. The handwritten note, by an unknown author, acknowledges these similarities, then goes on to also describe a four-winged, four-legged chicken observed at the monastery housing the library (Jaffary, 2011).…”

“…In an outstanding study of reproductive issues in colonial Mexico, Nora Jaffary describes her discovery in the Biblioteca Francisco de Burgoa in Oaxaca of documents clearly indicating local contemplation of both human birth defects and 'animal models' (Jaffary, 2011). What she found was a single handwritten page describing the birth of conjoined twin girls in Oaxaca in 1741.…”