Medical Advancement
The physician divulges his intent is “to improve the medical profession.” He confirms that he “Had faced resistance to change and especially to the new institute of medical research that I have established here at the university. This institute would implement the latest medical advancements of Europe and apply them here to the native population. The physicians in Mexico would begin to study these new discoveries and make them available to the mass population. In this way, the male and female Spanish-speaking practitioners of witchcraft, the popular curanderos, would be forced out of circulation.” Here, modern medications are considered to be a remedy to the ubiquitous witchcraft. Besides, the medical innovation is projected to advance the colonies’ healthiness.
Sexual Immorality
Immorality is omnipresent throughout the city: “Inside the chapel, the only sacred and respected place in the area, while Father Jude prayed for the sick, I made my way to the fountain where a young man sodomized a boy as others waited for their turns. All around the square, men and women, and children negotiated a price for their hedonistic carnal acts…Several women approached, exposed their breast and lifted their dresses to show me their genitalia. They walked away angry and cursing my restraint. Children demonstrated how they would masturbate me.” Palpably, sexual depravity is a typical behavior in the city. The residents’ patent immorality blatantly enables venereal ailments such as syphilis. Alejandro Morales surreptitiously alludes to the Biblical Sodom and Gomorrah through his portrayal of Mexico’s permeating decadence, which would confound the Medical community’s endeavors to restore health standards in the city.
