Death in the time of cholera: pandemics, public health, and burial in 19th-century Havana

ABSTRACT

Cholera first struck Havana in February 1833. This was the second cholera pandemic in history and the first to spread beyond Asia. The disease ravaged Europe and crossed the Atlantic and arrived in the city with a merchant returning from the United States. Two months later, 8,000 inhabitants of the city were dead. This article considers how the devastating number of cholera dead transformed mourning and burial in Havana. Management of the dead was a matter of urgent public concern in Havana. This was not simply about where the dead should be buried, but how they should be handled, laid out, transported, and even prayed over. By considering how bodies were talked about, interacted with, and regulated before, during, and after the cholera outbreak of 1833, this article illustrates how pandemic cholera was a catalyst that accelerated and normalised the primacy of health measures over spiritual precepts in determining how to handle the dead.

KEYWORDS:

• Pandemic
• burial
• public health
• cholera
• Havana

Abbreviations

AGIArchivo General de IndiasAHNArchivo Histórico NacionalANCArchivo Nacional de la República de Cuba, HavanaCHC-UMCuban Heritage Collection, University of Miami

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Carlos IV (13 April 1804). Real Cedula. AGI, Indiferente 666ª, Real Cedulas, Orden, y Circular 1800–1805.

2. The sample for this analysis comes from the extant parish burial records of all four intramuros (Cristo de Buen Viaje, Espíritu Santo, Sagrario de la Catedral, and Santo Ángel) and one of the extramuros parishes (Guadalupe) that served Havana during the early nineteenth centuries. Each individual parish kept two sets of books: ones for españoles and pardos y morenos. The sample of 480 entries captures the recorded interments from final six months of churchyard burials, August 1805 until January 1806.

3. Espada y Landa (20 December 1803). Letter to Governor Someruelos. AGI, Cuba, 1717, Expedientes varios, Cuentas de fábrica de la Iglesia Catedral, cementerios, cofradías y hospitales (heareafter F).

4. Espada y Landa (20 January 1806). Announcement of Benediction. AGI, Santo Domingo (hereafter SD), 2258.

5. Espada y Landa and Someruelos (21–23 October 1805). Correspondence. AGI, Cuba, 1717, F.

6. Anon (5 September 1811). ‘Ampliación del discurso publicado en el aditamento número 14’. Aditamento a la tertulia de La Habana. AGI, SD, 2258.

7. Frías, J. (23 September 1858). Letter to Governor José Gutiérrez de la Concha. ANC, Gobierno General (hereafter GG), leg. 316, exp. 15329.

8. Ayuntamiento, Junta de Fomento, & Gobierno Superior Civil (August 1837-July 1838). Correspondence in file sobre trasladar el cementerio situado al fondo del depósito de cimarrones en la calzada del Horcón a los terrenos de la cienega. ANC, Gobierno Superior Civil (hereafter GSC), leg. 744, exp. 25544.

9. Junta de Fomento (11 November 1841). Letter to Governor and Ayuntamiento. ANC, GSC, leg. 61, exp. 3677.

10. Ayuntamiento (20 May 1841). Letter to Governor and Junta de Fomento. ANC, GSC, leg. 61, exp. 3677.

11. Junta Superior de Sanidad (nd). Instrucción sobre los salones de profundis establecidos en los cementerios deberes del médico inspector de los mismos in Expediente sobre policía terrestre, 1834–1858. ANC, Junta Superior de Sanidad (heareafter S), leg. 6, exp. 1.

12. Gaceta de La Habana (6 December 1866). CHC-UM.

13. Espada y Landa (1806). Reglas que se han de observar en las parroquias y auxiliares intra y extramuros de La Habana, en orden al modo de remisión de los cadáveres al cementerio, y demás a ello concerniente. AGI, SD, leg. 2258.

14. This analysis used a sample of 2,001 burials recorded between 1868 and 1873. The sample was collected from the parishes of Cristo del Buen Viaje, Espíritu Santo, and Santo Ángel Custodio. These three parishes recorded the details of the funerals during this period. The sample includes burials recorded in both the books for españoles and pardos y morenos in each parish in each year.

15. Based on a sample of 104 funeral notices printed in the Gaceta de La Habana between 1866 and 1871. Gaceta de La Habana, 1866–1871, CHC-UM.

16. Ministro de Gobierno (28 March 1872). Letter to Governors General of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. AHN, Ultramar, leg. 4796, exp. 26; Office of the Governor General of Cuba (19 May 1872). Response to Ministro de Ultramar regarding prohibition. ANC, GG, leg. 117, exp. 5252.

17. Someruelos. (10 September 1805). Reglamento de policía, que deberá observarse quando se hayan de conducir los cadáveres a cementerio extramuros. AGI, SD, 2258.

18. Espada y Landa (1806). Reglas que se han de observar en las parroquia y auxiliares, AGI, SD, 2258.

19. Espada y Landa (26 April 1806). Arreglos de derechos, AGI, SD, 2258; Fiscal, Madrid (28 November 1806). AGI, SD, 2258; Someruelos. (10 September 1805). Reglamento de policía, que deberá observarse quando se hayan de conducir los cadáveres a cementerio extramuros. AGI, SD, 2258.

20. Gobierno del Obispado, colector de cementerio, Dirección de composición de calles, Gobierno General (1–10 March 1846). Correspondence about transport of prisoner’s bodies. ANC, GSC, leg. 745, exp. 25588.

21. (30 April-1 September 1853). File discussing establishing a dedicated transport for the deceased of the Casa de Beneficencia y Maternidad. ANC, GG, leg. 399, exp. 15395.

22. Villacura, B. (November 1851). Letter to Governor. ANC, GSC, leg. 746, exp. 25637.

23. Fleix y Soláns, F. (1853). Bishop’s proposal to Ayuntamiento, Junta de Sanidad, Gobierno General regarding parish councils to control funeral industry. ANC, GG, leg. 315, exp. 15302.

24. Alcalde mayor Lorenzo de Busto and ayuntamiento (March-April 1853). Letter to Juntas de Policía and Sanidad. ANC, GSC, leg. 746, exp. 25637.

25. García de Arboleya (April 1853). Letter to Governor and Bishop. ANC, GG, leg. 315, exp. 15302.

26. García de Arboleya. (1853). Report on abuses of trenes funerarios and review of municipal and ecclesiastical proposals. ANC, GSC, leg. 746, exp. 25637.

27. García de Arboleya. (1853). Report on abuses of trenes funerarios and review of municipal and ecclesiastical proposals. ANC, GSC, leg. 746, exp. 25637.

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Bethany M Wade

Bethany M Wade is a historian of Latin America and the Caribbean with interests in the history of pandemics, public health, and burial. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh and taught in Pittsburgh and Atlanta before joining the faculty at Sacred Heart University. She is currently working on a book manuscript on the history of burial in 19th-century Cuba and Puerto Rico that explores how the pandemic dead were instrumental in shaping modern regimes of public health. Publications related to her research have been published in the Journal of Latino-Latin American Studies (JOLLAS) and the edited volume Pandemics and Epidemics in Cultural Representation.