An IASH Work-in-Progress seminar, delivered by Dr Farren Yero (CHCI-ACLS Fellow 2022, Duke University)
Chismosas Coloniales: Reading Rumours as Feminist Health History
In 1797, via a scribbled set of satirical verses, rumours spread in Mexico City: of dead children, botched inoculations and incompetent doctors. Investigations into the authorship of the song led officials to Doña Teresa Bastida, a woman who had launched her own inquiry into the rumours, turning not to authorities but to friends. Prominent physicians responded, labelling her as a gossip that dared offer an opinion without consulting “someone of knowledge.” Authorities documenting these rumours did so through claims about women’s incompetence, framed through their own biases about race, class, gender and knowledge.
Drawing on this case study and two others, my talk will demonstrate how mothers navigated this matrix of power in the face of disease. Moreover, it will discuss how documented rumours—including those of kidnapping, debt and enslavement—can help us read beyond colonial authorities’ pejorative reporting and understand the specific concerns that women held in making healthcare decisions for themselves and their families in a period characterised by imperial unrest and the growing use of medical science to bring order back to society.
Please click the link below to join the webinar:
https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/81322391722
Passcode: Vr8f3ew2