Free Colored Voices: Issues of Representation and Racial Identity in the Colonial Mexican Militia

Abstract

Colonial Mexico represents an important case study for deepening our understanding of black peoples and cultures in the New World. Although slavery imports never reached the levels of those in the United States, Jamaica, Brazil, or Cuba, sufficient numbers of Africans arrived in the colony to make indelible contributions. Indeed, during the peak years of Mexican slavery, from 1570-1650, the colony ranked highly among the leading New World importers, receiving roughly half of all slaves entering the Indies. At any given moment during this period, slave totals averaged between 20,000 and 45,000 persons.(1) Of course the demographic impact was far more profound than the numbers suggest. Miscegenation between masters and slaves gave rise to an array of Afro-mestizos, of whom the most common categories were the pardos and mulattos.(2) Already by the 1640s their numbers had surpassed 100,000. A century later, the 1742 census noted that their population had more than doubled, reaching slightly over 280,000, and nearly 370,000 by 1793.(3) Since most Afro-Mexicans by this time were freedmen, Mexico's 18th century free-colored population was among the largest in the Americas. But the lives of Mexico's free-coloreds remain an understudied topic.(4) This can be partially credited to the long-held viewpoint which maintains that free-coloreds occupied a marginal space in Mexican colonial society. It is argued that, never fully belonging to the Indian, black, or white racial categories, free-coloreds worked tirelessly to establish lasting links with these particular groups.(5) In colonial Veracruz, for instance, Afro-Mexicans represented the most socially exogamous group in the region, with pardos forming strong ties with Indians, and mulattos with whites.(6) Works concentrating on these issues have added to our general understanding of colonial society, particularly by raising the interesting hypothesis that Afro-Mexicans served as an amalgamating social force, easing racial tensions and bringing together the culturally rigid Spanish and Indian sectors. But in the process these works fail to increase understanding of free-coloreds as a group, since stronger emphasis is placed on how Afro-Mexicans distributed their social weight throughout society, rather than on how relations functioned among themselves. This article attempts to clarify the discussion on free-coloreds by using an institutional approach to examine their lives. Specifically, this study concentrates on free-colored militiamen. One major advantage in using this methodology is that through analysis of the militia, unique insights are opened into the themes of corporate and racial identity. Colonial Spanish American society was stratified along color lines, creating the complex sociedad de castas, or society of castes, which situated white Spaniards at the top of the social ladder.(7) Instituted as a social control mechanism, the society of castes assigned numerous titles to the various shades of mixed-bloods and attempted to restrict their activities. One can argue about whether these racial labels were actually effective in controlling behavior.(8) Economic necessity often directed mixed-bloods, blacks, and Indians into a wide variety of occupations, including several highly skilled positions that were supposedly reserved exclusively for whites. Moreover, the meaning of race as outlined by the caste system was itself questionable. For wealthy white merchants, clergymen, and bureaucrats, the racial schema certainly seemed valid, since these individuals had a vested interest in preserving their monopolistic hold over the colony's resources. Their positions of power served to support and inform a racial identity, often reflected in concern over marriage choice.(9) But did the mulatto ever feel such an identity? Did free-coloreds even bond or feel a race-based affinity, especially considering that racial discourse during the colonial period was largely defined by, and worked for, the benefit of others? …