SanPabloLeperColony-Aly

=San Pablo Leper Colony= by Aly Haskell

What are Leper Colonies?[[image:Dibujo_6.JPG.jpeg width="478" height="195" align="right"]]
Leper colonies are institutions that quarantine people infected with leprosy. Often also called leprosarium or lazar houses. Most are set up by religious orders, usually Christian based. They first started appearing in the Middle Ages and had their own kind of currency based on the belief that if handed regular money, they could spread the disease (Leper Colony).

**The San Pablo Leper Colony:** The San Pablo Leper Colony is located in the Amazon Rainforest close to Iquitos (San Pablo, Peru). It is famous because it is in the novel, The Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Che and his friend Alberto visited the leprosarium, leper colony, in 1952. Both Alberto and Che were medical students wanting to specialize in leprosy. "In Lima they know Dr. Hugo Pesce, militant doctor of the Communist Party and one of the most important researchers about leprosy in Latin America at those times, and founder of a Center for Lepers in Huambo" (Moratal Ibáñez, Carli, Kennel). The connection in Lima, Peru proved to be very valuble. This is because Dr. Pesce inspired both Ernesto and Alberto to work with lepers, because he was one of the leading researchers in the field at the time. While at the colony both Ernesto and Alberto worked very hard. However, while working with patients it is always protocol to wear gloves; Ernesto refuses to work with gloves and chose to come in contact with the lepers by shaking bare hands. Lastly, he, "makes his symbolic "final journey" that night when, despite his asthma, he swims across the river that separates the two societies of the leper colony, to spend the night in a leper shack, instead of in the cabins of the doctors " (The Motor Cycle Diaries (film)). This shows his dedication to the patients and that he has no regard for the division of the doctors and patients. He ultimately believed in equality.

Dr. Hugo Pesce
Dr. Hugo Pesce is a Peruvian/Italian doctor that opened many leprosariums including San Pablo. His work inspired Alberto and Ernesto to study leprosy. On being a Communist, Ernesto owes his Marxist views from Pesce. Commenting that he first read Karl Marx in 1951 while working at Pesce's leprosarium (Hugo Pesce). Ernesto,"who would years later become internationally known as the iconic Marxist revolutionary", owes his views partially to Pesce (The Motor Cycle Diaries (film)). Thanks to this specialist, Ernesto Guevara learned about the views of Marx and the division of healthy and sick.

 WORKS CITED:
 Hugo Pesce//. Wikipedia, 3 Oct. 2010. Web. 7 Jan. 2011.//

 Leper Colony//. Wikipedia, 10 Dec. 2010. Web. 7 Jan. 2011.//

 Moratal Ibáñez, Laura María, Alberto J. Carli, and Beatriz Kennel. //Inequity. A Trip through Latin America: The Motorcycle Diaries (2004)//. Journal of Medicine and Movies, Oct. 2005. Web. 7 Jan. 2011.

 The Motorcycle Diaries (film)//. Wikipedia, 23 Dec. 2010. Web. 7 Jan. 2011.//

//San Pablo, Peru//. Wikipedia, Feb. 2009. Web. 7 Jan. 2011.