Abstract
Purchasing Whiteness: Pardos, Mulattos, and the Quest for Social Mobility in the Spanish Indies, written by Ann Twinam
Highlights
Purchasing Whiteness is the story of gracias al sacar, a phenomenon allowing mulattos and pardos to purchase whiteness in Spanish America
Defects of naturaleza could be erased by purchasing the gracias al sacar
Castas petitioned for occupational exemptions: in Cuba, a pardo petitioning to practice as a surgeon had the defect of pardoness erased; and in Panama, a pardo petitioner applied to become a notary. In the latter case, the Crown attorney recommended that dispensations could be purchased for pardoness, setting a precedent for the implementation of the whitening gracias al sacar petitions
Summary
Ann Twinam Purchasing Whiteness: Pardos, Mulattos, and the Quest for Social Mobility in the Spanish Indies. Purchasing Whiteness is the story of gracias al sacar, a phenomenon allowing mulattos and pardos to purchase whiteness in Spanish America. Petitioners were not seeking to become white; rather pardos and mulattos wanted exemptions to participate in occupations (practice as surgeons, serve as notaries, and receive ordination as priests) and enjoy privileges otherwise reserved for Whites (graduate from universities, obtain titles of courtesy, and freely marry).
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