Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection

by John Green

Even after New Mexico became a U.S. territory in 1848, it was regarded with suspicion by many white Americans. After all, the majority of people living in the territory were Indigenous people or people who spoke Spanish as their first language. And so despite New Mexico having the institutions needed for statehood, a large enough population, and a strong majority of its voters seeking statehood, the U.S. Congress repeatedly turned down New Mexico’s attempts to fully enter the Union. In order to please Congress, New Mexican officials realized they needed to recruit a larger white and English-speaking population, and thus began New Mexico’s quest to woo consumptives from the American Northeast and South with the promise of desert air, open skies, and world-class consumption care. That plan worked—by 1910, around 10 percent of all New Mexicans were tuberculosis patients,