COLUMBUS AND COVID-19 Amerindian Antecedents to the Global Pandemic

Abstract

The eruption and spread of COVID-19 affords us the opportunity to look back and reflect on the role disease has played in shaping Indigenous destinies in the Americas. Discussion illuminates problems of data, chronology, impact, and identification in distinct settings — Hispaniola, Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil — and situates regional findings, historically, in hemispheric and global context.