History of Latin American Dermatology

HISTORYOF DERMATOLOGYIN GUATEMALAEDUARDO SILVA-LIZAMA, PABLO HUMBERTO URQUIZU DÁVILA,PETER GREENBERG CORDERO, SUZZETTE DE LEÓN G.In the preface to the book The Medical Sciences in Guatemala, the brilliant physicianand historian Carlos Martínez Durán says:History isn’t the faded body of the past, nor the methodical storing of meticulous researchcarried out in the archives. It isn’t the dead text of the folios, nor the interpretationof what entertaining or dour chroniclers have transmitted down to us.History is life itself, always variable and capricious, unattached to the mold of coldsystem and to the calculation of exact science. Clio shall never remain the sameMuse. Each period imposes new eyes and new vestments on her, each era imbues herwith new vitality, and it is precisely because it is so tightly wedded to life that Historyis so deeply human and social a science.In his book History of Guatemala, Francis Polo Sifontes defines History as “a writtennarrative of the events of the life of man from the past to the present, plus the study ofthe meaning of those events for man himself.” Culture is likewise defined there as “theconduct or behavior learned and afterwards exhibited by the members of a society.”These two concepts are related in Dermatology as part of the medical culture of ourcountry. Therefore, it is our obligation as dermatologists not only to be experts in skindiseases but also to be researchers into the history of Dermatology, especially in ourcountry, since it will have features of its own that will allow us to contribute our knowledgeto world Dermatology.Pre-Columbian DermatologyThe Maya■ Pre-Columbian DermatologyPablo Humberto Urquizu DávilaThe Maya had the most advanced culture of the world discovered by Columbus. Theydeserve to be called “the Greeks of the Americas.” Admiration for the buildings that remainedas a testimony of these amazing people has, since the beginning of the nineteenthcentury, caused travelers and scholars from different parts of the world to come to these223