As a musician, a poet and a madman, we all have a little bit of that, an old adage said, but that doesn't mean that just because we are a little affected, if it can be considered, that we deserve mistreatment, terrible treatment, truly terrifying treatment because it won't stay with me tonight when we cast a look at a famous psychiatric hospital in Mexico [Music] stories of the dark side for strange beings inexplicable events stories that other minds prefer to ignore [Music] for many years peopl
e who were affected in some way with their mental faculties were subjected to all kinds of atrocities from, of course, social cleansing, which was to completely eliminate them, consider them inappropriate, exterminate them and then subject them to confinement, simply remove them from society regardless of what the condition was, without much analysis or much study, they were placed in horrible spaces full of pain. and anguish, people could have some kind of illness, schizophrenia, paranoia, I do
n't know, I'm not a psychiatrist, but these illnesses didn't mean that they didn't have sensitivity, meaning that it hurt them, of course it hurt them, what happened was that they didn't have feelings, of course, they were also afraid of them. Of course they also had it, they could be different, they could have atypical behavior, they could have behavior that also escaped the conventional logic of each of the societies to which they belonged, but that did not mean that they were totally alien to
this, ok, they did not feel fear, disgust. hunger pain as time goes by in the 19th century they began to work more and more in a somewhat more humanistic aspect even when they did not have the clinical tools even when they did not have an appropriate diagnosis at least there is an interest and that is when they begin different currents emerged within the field of medicine itself focused on people's mental health and studying those disorders that had attracted so much attention and not only stud
ying them but also seeking some type of cure, some of these cures were worse than the disease itself. But there was already an interest in going beyond just locking them away from society where no one would see them, the madhouses , the asylums for lunatics, the hospitals for the insane because that is what they were called, they were truly horrible places and it is in French territory, England, different European countries that The idea begins to arise of giving something more, not just throwin
g them in a cell and there ending their days and no one seeing them, but giving some type of treatment, some type of extra, perhaps even achieving social reintegration, returning them to their environment, returning them to their homes. homes , apply treatments that allow them to adapt better, apply cures that allow them to put aside those disorders that affected them and in the United States this also translates into places with much more attention to the person, not only places of confinement
of oblivion but places where there were a treatment a search to return this person to his family environment to his society I don't know the idea was to help people a little that was not just about mistreating people but there was a legitimate effort and that however in Mexico in The 19th century did not even pass here, here it was a situation very similar to what had reigned in other countries since the 16th century, but at the beginning of the 20th century, 1900, Mexico was having a reforming
air, the government of that time led by General Porfirio Díaz. It was a very harsh dictatorial government, there were many terrible situations around this character, but at the same time he was also a man who wanted to project an image of prosperity, an image of modernity, to the rest of the world because he understood that Mexico needed investments from other countries. needed the technology of other countries, the railways, the electricity of the telephone, the telegraph, they needed all this
here, this was very backward and one of the ways to achieve this was by giving that image of modernity in the field of everything that was being organized from ports, railways, plants. of electrical generation, concern arose on the part of numerous doctors to create a general asylum in Mexico, a place where they could be sent to the mentally ill, regardless of their classification or diagnosis and who had an appropriate place where appropriate conditions of space, fresh air, activities, pleasant
landscapes, tranquility, all of this would collaborate with modern treatment techniques to move people forward at that time, Mexico had various psychiatric hospitals spread out that were not actually hospitals, they were asylums, they were places of confinement and some of them, the conditions were terrifying, they were places of oblivion, they were places where you could take the person and never see them again, where you wouldn't know what had happened. and one day there would be a letter to
a notice saying he had already died, he was buried and he could breathe calmly. The idea was to modernize this, create a place where it could be considered a sanatorium, a place to heal. The doctors of that time contacted different officials. From the administration of Porfirio Díaz, his own son, who was a civil engineer who at that time had prestige for his work, offered himself to the structural design and architectural conception, a specialist from France came, some French designs were copied
so that this would look very cute because Here they really liked it to look French and the idea is that it looks very nice but at the same time the doctors also come who start by asking for certain things. It's a good idea. It's first about separating the sick. They can't all be together because A person who is suffering from melancholy is not the same as someone who is violent and aggressive or someone whose cognitive faculties are damaged or someone who has early dementia as it was called or
someone who is in the process of becoming paralyzed due to syphilis if everything That was what happened here, there were sick people of all kinds, so they began to design that space and for this they chose some land on the outskirts of Mexico City - an old pulque hacienda that had fallen into disrepair became the perfect place. It is a space outside the city, it is quiet, it is not bustling, it has its own fresh water channel, the wind from the volcanoes reaches it, which is a fresh and delicio
us wind, and also from the gardens you could see the beautiful landscape, the snow-capped mountains. instead in an ancestral place in a place that since pre-Columbian times there had been settlements, it was known as mixcoac. Later in the colonial era it was a hacienda and its owner's last name was castañeda, which is why it was known as the hacienda de la castañeda and from then on it was The property is purchased, the design is made, the design is accepted and they begin to work on a construct
ion with hundreds of employees because the objective was for it to be ready to be inaugurated during the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the independence of Mexico. Porfirio Díaz had organized a series of events for the centenary of independence throughout the month of September there would be impressive inaugurations of great works there would be events parades everything would be very careful and the general asylum would become one of those special events it had been built on about 14
hectares of land 140 thousand meters squares it was very nice right now you will be seeing the general plan there when you entered through the main door after crossing the sentry box where the guards were you found yourself with a beautiful, very large garden in front you were greeted by the general services building with that staircase impressive, very palatial, in the French palatial style, high up, this general services building had classrooms for medical students, it had some offices, it ha
d administrative offices, it had a basement, it had other classrooms for therapies, many things on the right side, just as you come walking, they were The doctors' houses, each house had several bedrooms, its kitchen, its dining room, the idea was that, well, some doctors would have to come from afar, if they lived far away, well, that they had a place to stay, where they could be comfortable, where they could be safe, there was no direct access, that is, yes. Those people who were affected and
who would be hospitalized in this place were walking around, they could not get to the doctors' houses. They could walk in the gardens but that was a little far away and after that came the other buildings, first the distinguished ones, the central idea was that in this great hospital in this great asylum there would be people who would not pay anything and would be charged to the treasury . public and people who could pay for a better condition to be in better conditions, let's say it that way,
both them and them. One of the great initial successes is that the women's and men's rooms were separated in such a way that there was no interaction between the different inmates or at least that they were not all together and so we had distinguished men and women here there was no classification by condition because they were small private spaces a fairly high special fee was paid but in exchange for that they had a very careful service better quality food personal attention The family doctor
could come, nurses, nurses for each place, etc., etc. Then came the quiet buildings, each of these areas was independent, they were small buildings that were not connected to each other, they could be closed at night, each to their own . It was a good idea. The calm ones were the people who were not dangerous, those who perhaps suffered from some melancholy, those who had some dementia, whether precocious senile, etc. Then came another area, which was that of alcoholics. Alcoholics were alcohol
ics. It was a serious problem. Mexico had a brutal alcoholism problem and it was considered a disease, therefore people could be sent to the asylum for alcoholism. Later, a wing would be opened for drug addicts, which was also considered a problem that had to be treated beyond that, they had the area for the sick. epileptics, the so-called area of imbeciles, yes, it was called, I insist, excuse me if it is an aggressive word, it was the term that was used in 1908 to define the patients of th
is area. Today we would not use that word, but not by mistake were they people who had problems of learning people who had some type of motor difficulty, well today there are many ways to define them and generally it would be people with some learning complication etc. but at that time it was known like this there was also the workshop area, the bathroom area and a very special area good to the mortuary the mortuary was at the end at the back nor did it have its own exit for the people who died
to be taken there where there were also some operating tables where autopsies could be done to check the bodies the ugly area was outside Practically outside and on the right side was the infectious area, in an area that had been very carefully considered, these people could not have contact with others because they were generally people who suffered from syphilis, if syphilis is a disease that degenerates over time. person both physically and mentally so some of them ended up here semi-paralyze
d with progressive general paralysis, crazy, delirious and there was no cure at that time there was no cure so they were taken there [Music] later other rooms would be opened and many Years later, the children's area was originally not there, it was not contemplated, it was not necessary when this was inaugurated on September 10, 1910, a hundred and some years ago, it was a tremendous party. The first people to arrive were impressed because the gardens They were beautiful, everything was surroun
ded by a high and strong fence, the reason is that if there were people here undergoing treatment, they couldn't leave, they couldn't flee, so to speak, some of them could be dangerous, but there was an area for dangerous people, those who had committed crimes that didn't seem to be normal some of them were truly dangerous cannibals if there were not multiple murderers and also completely deranged these people had specific cells and powerfully prepared guards very large and very strong but there
was also the treatment the doctors are in charge of enabling this place in 1900 so Don't expect great technology, but there were, for example, bathtubs with both hot and cold water. cold water because there were treatments with hot water and cold water at that time, there were also some electrical therapies, not exactly electroshocks, but there were some electrical therapies, so in the basement there were generators, it was something very modern, this and these generators. They served and a set
with a series of transformers to prepare electric currents to be able to give a few touches subject to electric shocks etcetera etcetera etcetera there were the workshop areas to do crafts work it was very good initially it had capacity for about 1500 people its own kitchen its own dispensary doctor, his own pharmacy, let's go, the hallways were a delight, spacious, full of vegetation, each of the rooms with the precise number of beds with mattresses, sheets, whatever was necessary. People who
are affected by their mental faculties are not necessarily very clean people or very good appearance, some people in their delusions can commit acts that would seem to be even unpleasant or repugnant, however here the treatment was different, care had to be taken to ensure that they were well, therefore there was a very careful cleaning service, food care, the first patients to arrive, the first. people to arrive were about 800,880 people who began to be taken for treatment and everything was go
ing perfectly well except for one detail. On November 20, a couple of months later, the Mexican revolution breaks out if the Mexican people take up arms against that dictator who had built that general asylum of course it was a country at war that lasted for the next 20 years a terrible bloody war that caused chaos throughout the country successive crises one after another ironically between 1910 and 1916 the hospital was maintained quite well in fact It reduced its population, people did not ar
rive, obviously they were afraid to take a sick person there, even going out on the street was scary, but those who were there were in good condition even when the government itself stopped providing resources, food, whatever because there was no government in In reality, one leader followed another, this one was murdered, this one got up and well, this was chaos, therefore the hospital was maintained thanks to the people in the distinguished wards and the donations from charity, the people who
had relatives there who had the possibility to pay the population was low, the real problem would begin a few years later between 1916 and 1920 this population of economically well-off inmates began to decrease began to decrease and that good thing generated that it would begin to decline and decline and decline, adding this to the fact that the country was in war it was in flames the violence was terrible throughout Mexico there were outbreaks that a leader rose up here another there shootings
dead bombs an army arrived taking the plaza it arrived another one it expelled it leaving corpses everywhere but to make matters worse it also arrived at the Spanish fever that probably arrived in 1918 and wiped out the population. It is also chaos. All this adds up to the fact that in 1920 this hospital was horrible, just as I am telling you, in there there was no food there was no care in a period of ten years there were fourteen directors plus six interim directors who resigned one and one in
terim remained and then no one knew where the interim was. He was taken by arms by someone then he let him go and then other doctors arrived that became a real madness the food is scarce the attention is scarce no There was maintenance initially the building had a crew of gardeners a maintenance crew cleaning crews everything at that time there was nothing except many sick people as the Mexican revolution progressed many people began to present post-traumatic stress disorders if you want to call
it in contemporary terms and they were sent there, added to this, we began to see a rise of a pseudo morality, let's call it that way because in Mexico we began to see a strange episode where good customs and morality were recovered and therefore prostitution was considered a illness if moral alienation in the term and therefore if a young woman was surprised practicing prostitution she could be sent to the asylum and there if someone did not claim her she would probably stay but there were als
o other problems because the fact that there had been such a protracted crazy war generated an enormous increase in people sick with syphilis if the Mexican capital had a very high rate of sick people because many of them were soldiers who had come from other regions of the country and who had become involved in relationships with people who practiced prostitution and this resulted in 60 percent of the syphilitic patients in Castañeda being Soldiers or former soldiers, imagine what that was. Of
course, very soon the hospital that was designed for about 1,200 people had three thousand three thousand five hundred. The overcrowding was horrendous, but added to this, the lack of resources, the lack of clear, precise income, the little money that It was the distinguished pensioners who arrived, but the rest were good at eating what they could, sleeping three or four per bed in the 1930s, Mexico had already left the war behind, the Mexican Revolution had been left behind, other wars would co
me, of course, but it had left it behind. The Mexican Revolution, however, La Castañeda, the General Asylum of Mexico is still a kind of ancient monument, a kind of example of the ugly past, the one that no one wants to see has cost thousands and thousands of deaths and having it there creates a lot of situation for the governments that go happening and this means that not only are they not given more attention but there is also a lot of rejection in the meantime, however, things continue to wor
k in there, the people who are there require attention, the citizen committees, the people from the charity organizations, the candle. perpetual, the ladies of charity usually go there to visit the sick to bring food for donations. There is some effort from some government institution to help and that is how in 1932 the infant wing was opened to the children's wing because there was also a Huge problem, many of these children were with severe disorders derived from the war, they were people who
did not have families who had lost everything and outside due to the war, famine or the Spanish fever, this country was affected in a way that you cannot imagine. Not only did the population not grow, but it decreased, and this was reflected in the number of people who ended up there with all kinds of disorders. Obviously, these conditions meant that not only was there no possibility of cure, but there was also no real control. [Music] and by saying there was no real control it is because the of
ficial institutions demanded certain requirements, for example two certificates to admit a person who stayed and they required two certificates that there was a mental problem, when arriving at the entrance of the asylum the person would be checked by an expert who would determine what the suffering was, however the sufferings could be as varied as moral alienation, what did they refer to by that? Another of the favorite sufferings will be that of mental alienation, mental confusion, which it wa
s not very clear what they were referring to. In addition to this, they could simply enter with intoxication, rebellion and rebelliousness, they are a rebellious person and also in the case of certain people it could be due to issues related to abnormal sexual impulses. All this served to and remove a little bit of the society that was trying to leave and recover . remove the ugly people who did not like them and so for example a homeless person who had no home could be sent to her what is the d
isorder in reality he did not have any but he was sent there and could get there and stay there for a long time a person An alcoholic who was caught drunk could be sent when there begins to be more activity in terms of drugs. They could also be sent and a period comes that is very black, very dark as the new morality that was emerging in an upper social class becomes evident . rebellious daughter, for example, who had had a love affair with some gentleman not accepted by the family, could be sen
t to the asylum, abnormal sexual impulses, nymphomaniac, whatever, they invented something, there was no problem, the family doctor and another certified doctor were already certified. You are unknown to the known and inside you saw 3,500 people with a staff of no more than 100 who took care of all those people who took care of all those people of course no one but there were other problems, for example some of the cases that are mentioned that They are very punctual. It is that case of an attra
ctive young woman who arrived while pregnant. The young woman assured that she was no longer crazy, but of course in a psychiatric hospital many people arrive claiming that. She was admitted. She became a somewhat rebellious, somewhat aggressive person. She cried, melancholic, depressed. Sometimes she was violent, they ended up having a series of cocktails, including the famous insulin shock, a kind of insulin overdose that puts the person in a coma and then injects them with a solution of water
and sugar that recovers them but makes them calm. The product of pregnancy was never achieved. It was obvious that there was also another treatment that was in great demand at that time and that was also widely used in another form of shock, metra sol shock, which produced seizures with these two combinations. The person calmed down and slowed down their movements. functions and was left in a limbo, the reality is that that young woman did not in fact suffer from any mental disorder, she was si
mply the inappropriate lover of a public official of that time. It was uncomfortable because while the party lasted, the joy came, but at the moment in which the girl She assured that she was carrying the son of that official in her womb and began to ask for some things. It was dangerous for a moral society that was developing a new morality where the movies presented an ideal family, dad, mom, little house, children, everything was very nice, the fact that this girl I went out and said with res
pect to them, I have a son of that man, it was chaos inside. Of course, there is also the case of that wealthy widow lady who ended up there. She was not sick with anything. She was sent there because they needed to get someone out of the way. who is sick, who was considered unfit to make decisions, could not dispose of her inheritance or all her assets and of course the relatives of the deceased husband took charge of managing all the assets and everything that belonged to her, they declared he
r sick violent and aggressive mental illness with depressive processes and other things and she ended up with senile dementia even though she was barely 50 years old. Of course, after a series of treatments and interventions, it ended badly. The last news we have of her was in 1934 shortly Before she died, a visitor found her sitting absently with a lost gaze, various treatments that had left her in that condition, so if the original idea was that of a model hospital, the reality in the 1930s wo
uld be one of panic, the photographs that are preserved from that time. then they show a spectacularly atrocious vision of mentally ill people walking with a kind of little bottle hanging around their necks, that little bottle represented their food, their drink, their everything, there was no other, you arrived at meal time and there they would throw a handful of beans at you and that was if you were lucky. If you didn't go without food and so three or four of these inmates trying to sleep in a
stinking bed with a mattress from 1910 totally rotten full of urine isis excrement with rats everywhere the walls had begun to deteriorate due to the lack maintenance at the beginning all the walls were carefully indented to avoid the proliferation of bed bugs fleas and all that there was animal control rat control but little by little all this was lost and then since the mattresses were spoiled which is the best solution ladies and gentlemen, take them out and throw them outside and burn them
and then they sleep on the irons of the bed or on the floor because you can't also sleep there and the treatments turned that into a place of experimentation that was another truly terrible thing but at the same time There was a problem with the minimum medication pharmacy and this was partly due to the fact that there was a process of change, the General Asylum of Mexico came under the control of Mexico City and therefore Only sick people from the city itself would arrive there, other facilitie
s throughout the country would provide service to the states, but in the capital this was the one in the capital and we returned to the same question. Who do you dislike? Over there, political critic, criticism, does any public official give you your opinion ? that it is not your job to be crazy to go to the asylum and thus 45 percent of the people who entered the asylum between 1930 and 1940 lacked a real diagnosis. There were doctors, yes, there were doctors but that was too much, of course, w
hat was experienced there were the horrors that They lived and remained impregnated in this place throughout the almost 50 years that it lasted as such as a full operation and at full capacity. Some 61 thousand files are currently recorded. Currently, the historical archive of the Ministry of Health of Mexico preserves 61 thousand or so files . after that period of time and during the last years there were another four or five thousand files that were entered, however the biggest errors occurred
between 1920 and 1945 when it began to see a little more activity and attention partly because Mexico had seen seriously affected by the second world war economically speaking mexico was not in the war it was not invaded it did not participate more than very externally but the economic crisis that reigned the lack of control all this left these buildings in ruins the walls severely damaged with damp rats lack of food There is an impressive story from 1940, a woman learns that a friend of hers w
ho is known from the capital's society is hospitalized. She does not believe she was sick. She was a person a little removed from society. She was a bit of a lonely hermit. She had never been married. She had never been married. interested in this by someone else, probably a fairly shy and normal person, or if it wasn't normal, it doesn't matter. The fact is that the friend ended up there, as she would say in 1970, and when a journalist came to visit her, she identified herself and asked for per
mission to access it and They denied it when she asked emphatically why she was being denied. She was asked to return a little later but to please bring with her the largest bag she could of bolillos. The bolillos are pieces of white bread. It is an individual piece of bread. It is not like a baguette that is very big but it looks like the inside is white the outside is golden crispy delicious when they are hot they are delicious she is surprised and excuse me so please bring the bag no problem
you can come in but bring the bag of bolillos she leaves she goes back nearby and there were some constructions some urbanization buys a bag in a bakery as big as she can and returns and is given access when they start walking they arrive at the pavilion where one of her friends is admitted enters walking and suddenly she is overwhelmed to an extreme degree by the image that opens in front of her several doors are closed along a central corridor the doors are closed her companion or friend is in
the background in one of the cells as she walks they begin to go out through the windows hands the little windows of the doors those that are closed hands come out several hands hands that come out asking what the person accompanying her the assistant a woman says please one in each hand and she begins to give a ball with each hand of course he doesn't reach very far when he stays there and then he has to walk faster when he reaches his friend he is in bones completely reduced skeleton without
hair he is wearing a kind of robe only a white thing that is not really a clinical gown but rather white clothing a kind of horribly dirty nightgown everything smells bad everything is decadent the friend is horribly damaged when she gives one of those rolls that she has saved the woman eats it with incredible anxiety because she hasn't eaten anything for several days nothing, there is no food, when he leaves there he tells the employee who has accompanied him now what is happening here if they
have not sent us food and just as in several of the files, deaths are recorded that do not correspond to mental illnesses, some people They died very quickly, just five months after arriving, so if there was something horrible there, the time It continued to happen and in the 1950s a good part of the population that occupied this space of the Castañeda asylum began to be transferred to rooms called farms, farms, hospitals. In these places they were given tasks, sowing, sunbathing, etc., not that
it was better, in fact . It is believed that it was much worse but the population within the asylum decreased. Even so, it still had a terrible appearance. Early in the 60s, it became evident that it was not sustainable. This space was not sustainable because it gave a bad image. It is not that it could not be fixed, of course. that it could have been fixed and done something better but that was not important it was about erasing that erasing it and you also know how to do business the fact is
that in 1964 the patients who were there for 1968 began to be transferred to other institutions It is empty and completely demolished, only the general services façade of the general services building that a famous architect from Mexico City recovered and installed in his own house at the foot of the volcanoes was rescued and the beautiful façade is still there, it was moved to There the rest was completely demolished for two real reasons, first because the land was worth gold to Mexico City - i
t was growing, moving very quickly in that direction and this enormous 14 hectare property was converted into residential buildings and shopping centers and a huge road that crossed on one side so yes it was very deteriorated but it was also a great business but with the end of the castañeda the demolition the removal of all the rubble did not end the story that had occurred and inside the treatments of the time were brutal, that is true, they were brutal in many aspects, for example, for syphil
itic patients, there was no real treatment until they were fully developed and there was a facility to obtain penicillin in a better way that these people could be cared for and Seeing that it was not lethal and that it could be cured, the arrival, for example, of the encephalogram, also helped enormously so that people could be diagnosed. Many of these people did not have psychiatric disorders, but rather neurological ones, problems that could be solved in other ways, but the treatments that we
re developed here At first they were truly terrible, ice water baths were a common practice, the person was immersed in a tub full of ice with only the face out. I don't know the reason, but some of the other treatments will be worse in a description made in 1940. A journalist, a nurse who had deserted due to the horrors she had experienced, described the treatment of a patient. There was a woman who suffered from a strange melancholy, so it was decided to raise her body temperature. A tub of wa
ter was prepared so hot that the contact of The burning hand was stripped to the flashlight and immediately entered. Her skin began to turn an intense red color. The woman was kicking and screaming. The melancholy had indeed disappeared, but not because of the treatment. What they were seeing was a person in terrible agony. The next The stage of the treatment consisted of placing ice bags on her head once they took her out of the boiling water, the one with her body completely scalded in a red c
olor typical of second degree burns on 100% of the body, and they placed ice on her head. woman began to turn a dark color almost black' and began to suffer convulsions and her stomach returned minutes later she was dead the treatment had not worked as new treatments also arrived insulin shock was a common practice it left the person lethargic but there was a risk great that after the shock they did not come to their senses it also worked and it is believed that more than one was subjected to th
e shock for an order paid one undesirable relative who had left a juicy will died during the treatment the inheritance belongs to whoever sees it claim it is not It also required a lot of course the other treatments such as electroshocks when electroshocks begin they become a constant therapy today they continue to be used electroconvulsive therapies yes but controlled and with certain practices and with a lot of supervision at that time it was experimental and here they were applied daily with
a simple objective those who were active quarrelsome quarrelsome keep them calm those who were delirious absent those who did not matter could walk around Walking around with their delusions naked and dirty, no one paid attention to them, but those who could become violent or those rebellious children in the term used could be subjected to these treatments. There was a case that was narrated in the 50s by a relative about a 17-year-old young man. He was incredibly violent, quarrelsome, they didn
't see him, rude drunk, he fought with his mother, he insulted his father, his brothers, he was the terror of the neighborhood until one night when he returned drunk and taken to the asylum while there, he became violent, he wanted to leave, he wanted to return to his world, no. accept this hit one hit another and then they do a special treatment at that time it was known as leuco take lobotomy basically make a minimal perforation in the forehead cut the nerves that join both brain lobes and the
person is left slow for the next few months they would pass The days he sat in the sun looking at infinity, sometimes he didn't realize it and he urinated. Sometimes he didn't eat for several days because he didn't remember. When he died a year later, it was simply because of the illness. He had a problem with moral alienation, so no treatments. They were only cruel, they could also be deadly, then there were other therapies, all of them brutal, those who did not seem to react very well or thos
e who had become rude were locked in a room for as long as necessary, they stayed there in these punishment cells, there were no There was not enough space to lie down in or at all, nor was there a bathroom, so anyone who wanted to settle down in any way would have to do so on their own feces in a small humid space, constantly keeping away the rats. Death here could come in the thousand ways that you can. You can imagine and no one would care because his corpse would probably be used back in the
mortuary for the medical students who had to practice on a corpse. Many of the people who entered here were not sent by any doctor. Seventy-something percent of them. The people would be sent by the authorities because they had arrived and had been arrested for prostitution, drunkenness, homelessness, bad examples, for whatever reason they were taken there, but even within that enormous percentage, the vast majority were referred by their own relatives who denounced them. So here the most terri
ble thing of all is that in this place it was the family themselves that put you in and left you there. It has been said that some of them left on average after a month and a half, if in the files that appear in the historical archive of According to the Secretary of Health, the average length of stay for inmates was 18 months, so it doesn't seem so terrible and indeed many people came in and after a few months they left, sometimes they came back, sometimes there were no times when they left the
ir homes and stayed there . In some cases and many others there is no exit record, which means that there they died, their body was worked in some way or it simply went to the mass grave because many of the people who arrived there were homeless people who did not have any personal information. There was no document that would identify them, no family and as such they said goodbye, so if the treatments were also atrocious, now we still need something more. This place was known as the gate to hel
l, if they also called it the palace of madness, there were many names to define it and very afraid of this place, some people who came to be there early in the 60s in 1958 1959 1960 narrated amazing episodes in there on the one hand there were people affected by their mental faculties who walked around delirious there was the composer who was always composing something the poet who always recited the same poetry the person who herded his sheep and there were no sheep the lawyer who was always d
efending someone but there was no one to defend and he was not a lawyer the doctor the doctor who passed by checking everyone and diagnosing everyone and prescribing everyone, of course, there was no doctor for a person with a delirium. At that time, a young nurse arrived there for one of the things that are done in social service or a professional practice, these people who were walking around in the gardens note that she is very at the end they looked normal in the sense that they were dressed
they were more or less clean all with their hair shaved completely cut to avoid the proliferation of lice and similar things but when outside entry into In the women's area, things were different. She recounted having seen women in terrible conditions, beaten, injured, probably abused. They were places where there was no longer any control. She left there with a terrible depressive problem and never returned. She asked for a transfer and was sent to do whatever service. In another hospital, tha
t was the hospital in the La Castañeda asylum in 1968, Mexico was going to host the Olympics or if that face of modernity that Porfirio Díaz had wanted to give in 1910 was repeated, the same thing would have to be given that appearance of a modern country, an orderly country, organized, prosperous, with a view to the future, come the Olympics and then come the World Cup and then the Tlatelolco massacre where the young people rise up, protest and swing them and kill them is to be the Mexico that
had a madhouse. called la castañeda and where life has no value, they demolished it because it looked bad because the land was going to be sold at a high price because the tourists were coming because the world was going to come to see Mexico, how do you have 3,000 overcrowded people living among their own excrement? sleeping on the old iron beds from the Porfirian era sleeping on the floor swallowing cans they demolished it by 1972 there is nothing left of the castañeda there is nothing left no
w these beautiful buildings have been built they are very beautiful 11 story buildings we must admit that the architectural design is very careful the urban design is very careful they are small islands in the middle of the city perfectly varied with controlled access gardens very beautiful sculptures very modernist tall buildings six hundred and forty-four apartments for each building four per floor with its own elevator controlled access Not everyone comes in, just the neighbors and everythi
ng is very good. When the first apartments are sold, people arrive happy because they smell new and you have a tremendous view of the city, but those who have a view of the volcanoes have a better view and the gentle wind. and as night falls the lights turn on by themselves and the guards appear because there is security they begin to patrol here and there the big fences protect you feel good it's 1972 it's modern Mexico what happened in 1968 has already happened in Tlatelolco of corpus in 71 wh
ere they killed students also now it's 72 and in exchange this we are already new and the buildings are so beautiful that when the first people arrive they take their elevator and go up they arrive at their apartment they get in generally they are newly married couples you know why there is a series of benefits to be able to buy as a family if you work and you work you can contribute to buy your apartment in comfortable facilities and pay for it little by little except that no one tells you that
when night falls when the city is silent you begin to hear screams voices laughter screams of pain throughout your building, you know perfectly well that only four families live in this building, one apartment above you, one in front of you and another down there, who the hell is shouting, men's voices, women's voices, wails, howls, laughter when they come out to see, no. There is nothing when all the men come down there because obviously they go out to see what it is about and they find themse
lves at the foot of the building. They realize that there is no one, that no one is shouting, but they realize that on the other side of the garden there in the other building as well. They got out and they also look scared because they heard it too and further away in the parking lot when that man arrived at night she was surprised to realize that there were several people around her who disappeared in moments because there in that place in that property in that place the mark was left the mark
of pain of fear of hunger of death because it is one thing to have a mental disorder to suffer a medical condition to have a problem and another thing is to have been tortured beaten hurt to be hungry fear cold dirt and injustice because only God knows how many people were there that in reality not only were they not sick with anything but they had been sent because they were in the way of someone or you who think today so many years away there are still those who claim that from time to time d
own there in the middle of these beautiful buildings that are preserved also because they were great works but down there still if you are careless to walk at night you will be able to hear how someone walks next to you madly laughing and disappears or how further on there is a white lady, all you could see was a white silhouette that wanders around sadly bringing us to memory those photographs of the people who were here and who have already left maybe I was wrong maybe if you are a psychiatris
t I can say that I am wrong I do not want to ensure that what I have said is totally real I am basing it on witnesses that I do not know and I do not I was there, I didn't see it, I just told you what was said to have happened in that place ah [Music] and as is customary to lighten the atmosphere a little, what do you think if we send greetings and congratulations, we begin with David Torres in Arteaga Coahuila, he is fulfilling years old anna byc is also celebrating her birthday lina quesada in
venezuela and also congratulations claudia corporation buenos aires argentina a big hug claudia for asia de muñoz's husband who are in ecuador and she forgot to tell us her name but we are glad that she thinks of us and we send a big hug to her husband for May and Moreno Carol between threads and points is in Costa Rica for Emilio Camposano Angela Castillo Carmen María Ramírez Bustamante lifelong friend of the channel of course Jessica Geraldo in the Dominican Republic Héctor Ismael Manzanos an
d his son both in Mexico City celebrating their birthday we send you both a hug thank you for joining us we know that father and son accompany us and that gives us pleasure Adriana de Bosé also always accompanies us light and flowers and Marcelino who are celebrating 13 years of marriage wind in stern, may you do very well, keep going with love, holding each other's hands, scratching your back, doing that little lice, sharing a movie, having a tasty dinner, sometime keep it up, we need many stro
ng united couples who believe that this adventure is worth it, of course, for Anselma Murillo, who fulfilled years and for the store they are also looking for a birthday girl and with great pleasure we send a huge greeting to the engineer Gregorio González, a fellow colleague who is a civil engineer and guesses that his baby was just born a short time ago and he is fascinated, we send him a big hug, it is going to be a great person, from here we wish him that everything goes very well in his lif
e, congratulations on that little one and of course we also send him a hug to his wife Alejandro Rafael Salvador congratulates his mother his mother's birthday just yesterday, Sunday, April 24, and for that reason We are sending him a hug from his father, his mother and he usually watch the programs so we are very happy to have them join us as a family and the hug will follow. Then here I have Irma Infante in Piura, which is the north of Peru, she tells us in her email that The temperatures ther
e are on average 39 degrees so I am hot and when things go up to 46 degrees how crazy how outrageous and she sent a huge hug to her daughter Pamela Pamela is a computer engineer and it is a great source of pride for her and Dalí is her son and he is always with her and it is also her great pride, her great love, I send her a big hug and she is grateful that you are always accompanying her. Then here I have Gabriel Islas, he sends a special greeting to his wife who has She recently had surgery an
d we know that it's going to turn out well. Cheer up. Cheer up and prepare delicious things for her. Go to the store. Take care of her. Whoever feels loved will see how she gets out of the illness faster. Grisel Cepol and her husband Alfredo Acuña Berrones who is going through a delicate situation thanks to the stories you are distracted in a healthy way see the channel in san luís potosí mexico we hope that move forward and we thank you for allowing us to accompany you, for allowing us to trans
mit to you things that distract you, that take you to other places and other times, even if sometimes they are ugly things like this Miriam García and her grandparents, Jesús García and Evangelina Álvarez, who are always with us well. javier portocarrero elizabeth and her son fabián who are in chile we send a hug to all of them alejandra vargas who is in Colombia marilú days in irapuato guanajuato lorena figueroa Morales Marcela Henao Velázquez her dear grandfather shut up her tata Juan Filidor
velas that her age and two years who asks to listen to the gentleman who explains the stories very well from Puerto Natales in the extreme south of Chilean Patagonia. We send a big hug to the grandfather of Don Juan' Filidor Velázquez. We love the idea of being accompanied by a person who has lived so much . and that you have so much experience, we love the idea that you have such a good opinion of us and in such high esteem, we send a big hug to all of you, a very good night and may you rest
in peace [Music]
[Music] [Laughs]
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