Doc Chat Episode Twenty-Six: Pandemic Visions in Newspapers and Literature from Mexico

By Julie Golia, Associate Director, Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books and Charles J. Liebman Curator of Manuscripts
June 1, 2021
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building

[Lea este post en español]

On April 29, 2021, Doc Chatters examined an array of documents related to historical pandemics in Mexico. 

Influenza

“La influenza española se ha desarrollado en forma muy alarmante,” Excélsior Oct. 9, 1918.

weekly series from NYPL's Center for Research in the Humanities, Doc Chat pairs an NYPL curator or specialist and a scholar to discuss evocative digitized items from the Library's collections and brainstorm innovative ways of teaching with them. In Episode Twenty-Six, NYPL's Paloma Celis Carbajal and Óscar A. Pérez, Assistant Professor of Spanish at Skidmore College, explored cultural expressions in Mexico during the influenza pandemics of 1918 and 2009 through newspapers and other digitized materials.

Doc Chat Episode 26: Pandemic Visions in Newspapers and Literature from Mexico from The New York Public Library on Vimeo.

A transcript of this event is available here.

Below are some handy links to materials and sources suggested in the episode.

Episode Twenty-Six: Primary Sources 

Paloma and Óscar examined images and articles from the following newspaper issues: 

La influenza española se ha desarrollado en forma muy alarmante," Excélsior Oct. 9, 1918, page 1. Access Excélsior via the National Library of Mexico Digital Collections (open access) or via Readex: World Newspaper Archive. Latin American Newspapers (1805-1922) (with a valid NYPL library card).

"Pasan ya de mil los casos de 'influenza española' que se registran en la capital," El Demócrata Oct. 12, 1918, page 1. Access El Demócrata  via the National Library of Mexico Digital Collections (oepn access)

"La influenza causa estragos en Tlaxcala," Excélsior, Nov. 3, 1918, page 1. Acess via In the National Library of Mexico Digital Collections (open access) or via Readex: World Newspaper Archive. Latin American Newspapers (1805-1922) (with a valid NYPL library card).

"Señales alentadoras: SSA, nueva ola de cifras sobre virus porcino," La Jornada, May 2, 2009, page 3. Access via La Jornada online archive (open access) or via PressReader database (with a valid NYPL library card).

"Paran clases en DF y Edomex por la epidemia de influenza," La Jornada, April 24, 2009, page 45. Access via La Jornada online archive (open access) or via PressReader database (with a valid NYPL library card).

They also discussed this novel:

Yuri Herrera, La transmigración de los cuerpos (Periférica, 2013).

Yuri Herrera, The Transmigration of Bodies (And Other Stories, 2016). Also available as e-book.

Episode Twenty-Six: Readings and Resources 

Ryan M. Alexander, "The Spanish Flu and the Sanitary Dictatorship: Mexico’s Response to the 1918 Influenza Pandemic" The Americas, 76:3 (2019), 443-465. 

América Molina del Villa, "Remedios curativos y propaganda médica contra la influenza de 1918 en México: ideas y conocimientos" História, Ciências, Saúde-Manguinhos, 27:2 (abril-junio 2020), 391-409.

Gabriela del Carmen González González, Ramiro Caballero Hoyos, Ma. Guadalupe Chávez Méndez, "Las metáforas de la influenza humana A (H1N1) en México: el escenario nacional al descubierto. Una aproximación a través de la prensa mexicana" Comunicación y sociedad, 16 (julio-diciembre 2011), 105-132.

Mario Ramírez Rancaño, "Entre dos pandemias: la influenza española y el Covid-19" Revista Mexicana de Sociología, 83:1 (enero-marzo, 2021), 215-237.

More Doc Chats in Fall 2021!

Doc Chat has wrapped its Spring 2021 season.  Over the summer, you can catch up on past episodes and explore helpful Doc Chat resources on the Research Channel of the NYPL blog. We'll kick off another lively and thought-provoking season in September 2021 -- make sure you don't miss an episode by signing up for NYPL's Research newsletter.