Colegio Familia de Tijuana A.

C
High School

Student:
Michelle Rendon
Subject:
English II
Room:
203
Topic:
Cocoliztli
Profesor:
Sarah Aguilar

2020, Tijuana Baja California.

  
Cocoliztli 
 
Before the conquest of the Europeans, indigenous populations had not 
been exposed to this bacterium, which was present in Europe during the 
Middle Ages. Therefore, the inhabitants of Mexico, whose immune 
systems were not prepared to receive these new pathogens, were 
tremendously vulnerable to infection after the European arrival, which 
could explain the high mortality rates of cocoliztli. 
 
From 1545 to 1550, the bacterium caused the death of approximately 15 
million people, mainly indigenous. This is considered the second worst 
epidemic in history, after the black plague that caused the death of 25 
million people in Europe. 
 
The outbreaks of this ailment were called cocoliztli, a word from the 
ancient Nahuatl indigenous language that can be translated as disease or 
evil. An international team of scientists estimates that the mysterious evil 
was actually salmonella. 
 

 
 
Theoretical Framework: 
 
Cocoliztli was a disease that attacked the country's indigenous population 
twice, in 1545 and 1576, decimating the number of this population in the 
region. In 1519 when Hernán Cortés arrived on Mexican soil there were 
approximately between 15 and 30 million Indians but by 1578 there were 
only approximately 2 million left. 
 
The cocoliztli was described as a disease that caused a brutal death, 
according to Sahagún, only in Tlatelolco did "10, 20, 30, 40 and even 80 
people die daily and from now on I don't know what will become of this 
pestilence." 
 
According to the text by Elsa Malvido published by the INAH, the Spanish 
described the disease as something terrible and by 1576 it was described as 
follows, as published in the text by Francisco Hernández: 
“Fevers were contagious, searing, and continuous, all more pestilential 
and largely fatal. Dry, black tongue. Intense thirst, urine of navy green, 
green (vegetal) and black, more from time to time going from green to 
pale coloration. Frequent and rapid pulses, smaller and weaker; 
occasionally to nil. Yellow eyes and whole body. Delirium and seizure 
followed, posts behind one or both ears, and a hard and painful tumor, 
heart, chest and belly pain, trembling and great anguish and dysentery. ” 
 
 
From DNA recovered from samples obtained from the dental pulp of 
individuals buried in a cemetery associated with the cocoliztli that began 
in 1545, located at the Teposcolula-Yucundaa site in the Mixteca Alta of 
Oaxaca, a group of researchers from different countries, reconstructed 
two bacterial genomes that they identified, using bioinformatic tools and a 
reference database of 2,783 bacterial genomes, such as Salmonella enterica 
subsp. Enterica serovar Paratyphi C, a causative agent of enteric fever or 
typhoid. Thus, this study provided relevant information that points to the 
fact that the cocoliztli of 1545-1548 could have been caused by said bacteria. 
 
A metagenomic study carried out with ancestral DNA obtained from 
skeletons that were buried in Trondheim, Norway between the years 
1100-1670, led to the characterization of a bacterial genome from a tooth 
of the skeleton of a young woman in Norway and which was also identified 
as Paratyphi C. These studies have allowed to speculate that Paratyphi C 
circulated in Europe 300 years before it appeared in Mexico, which 
reinforces the hypothesis that it was the Europeans, probably healthy 
carriers, who introduced this type of diseases in the indigenous 
population of the American continent and that this bacterium has been a 
human pathogen for at least a thousand years. 
 
Although these findings are not conclusive proof that cocoliztli has been 
caused by Salmonella, or that there have been no other diseases involved, 
and therefore the death of millions of indigenous people, it does 
demonstrate that potentially infectious strains are related to ancestral 
strains found in even older human remains in Europe. In fact, it is striking 
that the symptoms of cocoliztli include bleeding pictures when Paratyphi 
C does not typically cause them. This opens up another possibility: that 
these epidemic outbreaks were the result of mixed infections, that is, that 
Paratyphi C had coincided with one or more pathogens to cause such 
mortality. 
 
 
 
 
Conclusion: 
 
Cocoliztli was a disease that affected the natives of Mexico, after the 
arrival of the Spanish conquerors. Between 1519 and 1600, the indigenous 
population of Mexico went from between 15 and 30 million to two million. 
 
To really confirm that salmonella contributed to the historical outbreak in 
Mexico, scientists would need to test more DNA from different sites. 
 
I would suspect there were multiple agents involved in that epidemic. 
There a number of other factors could have been at work, many stemming 
from consequences of colonialism, including "disruptions in food supplies, 
famine, changes in the concentrations of populations, and relocation." 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Bibliography: 
 
❖ https://historia.nationalgeographic.com.es/ 
❖ https://www.bbc.com/ 
❖ https://www.mexicodesconocido.com.mx/ 
❖ https://invdes.com.mx/ 
❖ https://www.eluniversal.com.mx/ 
❖ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/