History of Latin American Dermatology

The Indians of Uruguay and their relationship with Dermatologyas of 1610 with the hostilities of the bandeirantes. From then on, the lack of deep junglerefuges conditioned the natives’ way of living, leading to become even more nomadic 6 .The native legend states that the first young Charrúa woman who died defending herpeople from the bandeiras was buried on the slope of a hill, and that her betrothed remainedmany days alongside her grave until, in a later combat, he too was killed and wasburied alongside his beloved. After some time, the body of the girl sprouted from theearth converted into a red-blooming coral tree (ceibo); on its branches there would sit abird of red plumage, keeping a lookout on the horizon: it was the heart of her betrothed.The libertarian vermilion flycatcher reminds the Charrúa people that it must never acceptslavery and the bloom of the red ceibo is today our national flower 8 .The bandeirantes were armed groups created in São Paulo as a highly organized undertakingthat recruited Indians to be sold on the sugar plantations and farms of the region.São Paulo had been founded in 1543 on the very edge of the dividing line set by theTreaty of Tordesillas, signed between Spain and Portugal to establish the limits of Portugueseterritorial expansion in the Americas 9 .The massacres and persecution of the Charrúa continued for more than two centuries.At the Battle of the Yí (1703) the allied forces of Tape (Guaraní) and Spaniards killed 300Charrúa. In 1751, Governor Joaquín de Viana gave the order to “knife them to death.” In1797, the Corps of Blandengues was created for the purpose of “carrying out war withoutquarter against the infidels,” and many more such episodes can be listed 10 .On April 18, 1831, General Rivera, the country’s first President, savagely killed themembers of the last Charrúa tribes in an ambush at the Salsipuedes stream. The verysame men who had been his faithful soldiers were brought together at that location,under the pretext of seeking a Peace Treaty that ended in a betrayal.In a communication sent to General Laguna, who had been charged with gatheringthe Charrúa, President Rivera wrote to him, “Instill the greatest trust in them and assurethem of the President’s good will and friendship toward them...” The motive invoked bythe Government was that the Charrúa occupied lands that had been allocated (when itwas they who had inhabited them for 3,500 years), and that Rivera wanted to “pacify thecountryside.”The armed group at Salsipuedes was constituted by Guaraní brought from Paraguay,battalions of Argentines and Brazilians led by landowners, and the National Army underthe command of President Rivera and his nephew Bernabé Rivera. The latter was, sometime later, executed by a group of Charrúa headed by Chief Sepé, who had sworn to obtainrevenge against the “traitor Don Frutos Rivera” 11-13 .When we refer to the ethnocide carried out against the Charrúa, we must not forgetthat it was lengthily discussed and planned: prior to deciding on “Operation Salsipuedes,”thought had been given to sending them to Patagonia or expelling them to Brazil.In 1831, José Ellauri, the War Minister, signed a decree that allowed the Charrúa tobe shipped away “without allowing them to be disembark in port.” The Charrúa RamónMataojo, sent to France, is listed as hospitalized in Toulon from April 22 through 29,1832, and died on board ship on his return, on September 21 11, 16 .In those same years several Charrúa were exiled to the Malvinas Islands; there, underthe command of Antonio Rivero from Entre Ríos province, they attacked Luis Vernet’s establishmentin Puerto Soledad, on August 26, 1833. Some were caught and deported toValparaíso; others died in combat.In the Malvinas there lie Charrúa who fought in the defense of the Argentine andAmerican sovereignty over the islands in 1833. In 1982, when they were occupied by Argentinetroops, they gave the site the name of “Captain Rivero” in memory of the actionsof that Indian from Entre Ríos; then they named it Puerto Argentino and today it is againcalled Port Stanley 11, 13 .On February 25, 1833, four survivors of Salsipuedes were taken to France: Vaimaca391