History of Latin American Dermatology

HISTORY OFDERMATOLOGYIN PUERTO RICOCÉSAR QUIÑONES, PABLO I. ALMODÓVARI. La Medicina precolombina■ Pre-Columbian medicineThe archipelago of the Antilles serves as a frame to the Caribbean Sea. It approaches theFlorida peninsula through the Lucaya Islands, the coasts of Venezuela through the LeewardIsles and Trinidad, and the Yucatán peninsula through the island of Cuba. Almost in the middleof this chain of islands is Puerto Rico, the smallest of the Greater Antilles.Scientists assert that what is today the Caribbean was formerly a large extension ofland: the Antillean Land. During the Jurassic and Cretaceous eras, there was a series ofseismic movements that affected the entire land. Volcanic eruptions made the Antilleanplatform sink and lower its level, allowing the sea to cover it. Puerto Rico, like the otherGreater Antilles, represents the summit of great mountains, while the Lesser Antilles areof volcanic origin.The original population of the Antilles settled initially in the western part of Cuba,where they arrived from Yucatán. Its cultural development was very primitive: they hadno houses, nor did they produce pottery; agriculture was unknown to them and they livedoff hunting and fishing. When Christopher Columbus arrived on his second trip, the islandof Puerto Rico was inhabited by the Taino, who had displaced the original inhabitantsand who, as is inferred from studies of their language and their pottery, came fromthe Orinoco Valley, in Venezuela. The sea currents coming from Africa through the southernAtlantic Ocean turn northward at the level of the Guianas, especially in summerwhen the Orinocco River grows, which could have facilitated their arrival in the WindwardIsles. The Caribbean side of the islands could protect them from the winds thatcame from the Atlantic. Many of these islands were virtually connected, a fact that wouldfacilitate navigation from one to the other. (It must be recalled that these groups had notinvented sails and that their voyages were made in canoes).The Taino arrived in Puerto Rico around 400 B.C. At the time of the arrival of Columbus,these inhabitants were threatened by the Carib Indians, who had already conqueredthe Lesser Antilles.In the two millennia that the Taino had inhabited the Island, they had already establishedtheir culture, not as advanced as those of Central and South America, but indeedat the level of those of North America. They lived in communities; they had houses withfurniture for sleeping in and for cooking. They made pottery, worked stone and textiles,371