Abstract

HERRERA RANGEL, Daniel. The servant's spots typhus and fear of the poor in Mexico City, 1874-1877. Estud. hist. mod. contemp. Mex [online]. 2011, n.41, pp.53-77. ISSN 0185-2620.

Taking the epidemic outbreak of exanthematic typhus that caused an upheaval in Mexico City life between 1874 and 1877 as its object of study, the article begins by exploring the socio-cultural history of the disease before focusing on the way the lower classes were perceived by the elite towards the end of the nineteenth century. Doctors and public opinion, in their fight to combat typhus, a disease culturally associated with poverty and dirt, focused their fear and attention on the poor, making them responsible for the epidemic and stigmatizing them for their supposed ignorance, lack of hygiene and immorality, which led to severe measures against them.

Keywords : typhus; epidemic; stigma; poverty; slum; low class person; hygiene.

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