In Mexico, plagues are not just historical but also political:

Mexicans have long been taught to blame diseases brought by the Spaniards for wiping out most of their Indian ancestors. But recent research suggests things may not be that simple.
While the initial big die-offs are still blamed on the Conquistadors who started arriving in 1519, even more virulent epidemics in 1545 and 1576 may have been caused by a native blood-hemorrhaging fever spread by rats, Mexican researchers say. …
Acuna-Soto’s theory — which has been published in several scientific journals, including Emerging Infectious Diseases and the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene — runs counter to the belief that most of Mexico’s Indian population died of Spanish-imported diseases such as smallpox, to which their bodies had no immunity.
“This wasn’t smallpox,” Acuna-Soto says. “The pathology just does not fit.”
He says some historians in Mexico are offended by his theory.
“Much of the reason why these epidemics were left unstudied was that it was politically and institutionally easier to blame the Spaniards for all of the horrible things that might have happened,” he said. “It was the official version of history.”