Locating Race in Late Colonial Mexico

Abstract

It is a warm summer morning in late eighteenth-century Mexico City. An evening rain has left a soft haze hanging over the cobblestone streets; the sweet smell of wood fires fills the nostrils as street vendors prepare fresh tortillas; the swishing sound of brooms is heard as merchants sweep the walkways in front of their shops. The bells of the cathedral drone the beginning of another busy day in the capital city of New Spain.