Hispanic health disparities in the US trace back to the Spanish Inquisition
Many of the significant health disparities and inequities Hispanic communities in the United States face are tied to a long history of health injustice in the Hispanic world. The Health landscape of early modern Hispanic societies, particularly from the late 15th to 18th centuries, was a complex interplay between professional and nonprofessional providers shaping Health care. The convergence of Indigenous, African and European practices, both in Spain and the Americas, affected how clinicians treated their patients. This all played out against the backdrop of the Inquisition and colonization, when the Catholic Church prosecuted heresy. Consolidating religious norms promoted health care through charitable activity, such as the creation of hospitals, but also created challenges between the authority of the Catholic Church and competing health care initiatives. My research focuses on how health and medical practices in early modern Latin America and Spain are represented thro...