B
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esides serious illness
linked to military forays into former colonies or due to climatic bad
adaptation, change or weather disaster, Montezuma’s revenge refers to a kind of
curse that European visitors, tourists from anywhere can go through.Natives and locals used
to call these ailments: Montezuma’s wrath or revenge because of this last Aztec
emperor enslaved and killed by Hernan
Cortes, an illiterate conquistador whose
name has survived his massive killing
among Aztec Indians.
Today, it is considered that any visitor
undergoing traveler’s diarrhea (TDs) is a sort of victim of the Montezuma’s
curse. Te same can be said about Gandhi’s revenge, the Egyptian Mummy’s Tummy
or the curse linked to the Slave route, or triangular Trade of the French in
the late 18th century.
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| Montezuma |
Whatever it might be, Traveler’s
diarrhea is the most striking aspect of this so-called revenge. A parasite
known as E. coli embodies this Inca revenge and seems to have something to do with
drinking water, half-cooked food and poor sanitation. Add other parasites
namely: Shigella, Salmonella, Yersinia, campylobacter as well as protozoans
such as Giardia; all of them can cause TD too.
Montezuma and his fellow citizens can smile
from their graves when watching their victors or descendants’ pay any tribute to innocent and
however vital drinking water of Aztec plateaus. As if, finally in this world,
there exists neither victor nor defeated.
Sic Gloria transit mundi…
