History Of Colonial Spanish America Research Articles

Transatlantic Obligations: Creating the Bonds of Family in Conquest-Era Peru and Spain

Since James Lockhart published in 1968 the pioneering Spanish Peru, 1532–1560, various scholars have successfully contributed to a better understanding of sixteenth-century Andean society. Jane Mangan offers in Transatlantic Obligations one of the most comprehensive attempts to study social dynamics in the Viceroyalty of Peru during the first century of colonization. Her focus is on the family, an institution that she understands as having played a central role in the colonial world due to its flexibility. Mangan shows how families established actions (via networks and obligations) and words (in a legal context) through which individuals were connected in different ways, such as dowries, bequests, legal powers, and letters. As these ties frequently linked spouses and children in several commitments from Peru to Spain and vice versa, Mangan's focus on the family assumes a transatlantic perspective, which gives this book its considerable value.The book is well grounded in an updated historiography from interdisciplinary fields such as family history, women's history, and migration history, though there are minor omissions. It would have been helpful for Mangan to take into account James Casey's 1987 research on the Mediterranean family and, more recently, Francisco Chacón and Joan Bestard's 2011 edited collection on the Spanish family; there is also considerable scholarship from Spanish scholars on migration history that could have been helpful in fleshing out these transatlantic connections discussed by Mangan. Her research is also based on a great deal of primary sources, a remarkable quality given how documentation for the sixteenth century in Latin America is often incomplete or has not been well preserved. Mangan faced this obstacle with thorough research in Andean and Spanish archives. The records come mostly from notaries, court cases, and bienes de difuntos (goods from Spaniards and foreigners deceased in the Spanish American territories whose transfer to inheritors was handled in Spain by the Casa de Contratación)—a considerable amount of primary sources that provide a firm foundation for the research.The book makes two main contributions. First, the author has been able to break the dichotomy between legal and other types of unions established by previous scholars who had studied the family in a transatlantic context, focusing primarily on legitimate structures. Mangan understands that in a society where illegitimacy was commonplace one must use an “expansive definition” of the family that follows how people in the sixteenth century understood their relationships to one another (p. 4). Hence the study gives attention to blood relations both legitimate and illegitimate. Most mestizo children lived with their indigenous mothers because Spanish fathers had abandoned them; but also, following Iberian patterns, Spanish families agreed to address economic and other demands from women who were not spouses and children who were not legitimate. Mangan describes, using numerous different examples, how many mestizo children in sixteenth-century Peru were moved from the home of their mothers to a Spanish household in order to give them a Spanish education; some even moved from Peru to Spain and never came back.The other remarkable achievement of this book is its taking into account of a wide range of historical actors, not only the elites and Spaniards who have been the focus of earlier historiography. Mangan focuses on fathers who neglected family duties or assumed them, such as the many conquistadores who actively fulfilled obligations to their children regardless of birth status or race. Legal powers and wills confirm these fathers' plans to ensure for their natural sons and daughters an Iberian and Christian upbringing, to such a degree that, remarkably, these children were named heirs in the later colonial period (pp. 174–77). As for indigenous women, the study makes clear the important roles that they performed as wives, companions, daughters, and, mainly, mothers active on behalf of their children, not always in accordance with the fathers (pp. 174–75). Spanish women—those wives left in the homeland, those who followed their husbands to Peru, or those required to raise the mestizo offspring of their own husbands or of other men in Peru and Spain—were principal characters in these stories of transatlantic ties. Finally, the picture is completed with an analysis of the emerging generation of mestizo children on both sides of the Atlantic.The book's documentary background and methodological perspectives allow Mangan to approach this colonial society via three variables: law, family, and race mixture. The final result is the first systematic study to show how the legal and cultural constructions of the family changed as a result of the conquest of Peru. This is a fascinating text that gives a panoramic view of blended families from both sides of the Atlantic. Mangan's book is undoubtedly an essential contribution to the social history of colonial Spanish America.

The Political and Institutional History of Colonial Spanish America

AbstractThis essay argues for a need to develop a new political history of colonial Spanish America in order to bring up to date the old institutional history of the Spanish empire. In recent decades, historians of colonial Spanish America have not shown much interest in the study of political and institutional history. Originally, this constituted a welcome reaction against the previous emphasis on the institutional and legal aspects of the Spanish empire. But one effect of this historiographical development has been that, while our knowledge of the social history of colonial Spanish America has progressed in an impressive way, our knowledge of the mechanisms of imperial rule has made very little progress in the last 50 years. As a result, colonial historians have to rely on antiquated or inadequate notions regarding the political and institutional nature of Spanish colonialism. However, the new political history of colonial Spanish America should not focus on the study of the colonial state, but rather on the political culture of the Spanish empire.

Vistas, 1520-1820: Visual Culture in Spanish America/ Cultura Visual de Hispanoamérica (review)

Reviewed by: Vistas, 1520-1820: Visual Culture in Spanish America/ Cultura Visual de Hispanoamérica Keri Holt Vistas, 1520-1820: Visual Culture in Spanish America/ Cultura Visual de Hispanoamérica. By Dana Leibsohn and Barbara E. Mundy. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2010. DVD, $39.95. Vistas is an interactive digital resource for studying the visual culture of colonial Spanish America. Developed by art historians Dana Leibsohn (Smith College) and Barbara E. Mundy (Fordham University), Vistas is a library and teaching resource that addresses a long-standing difficulty of accessing visual materials in Spanish colonial studies. With its annotated collection of images of paintings, sculpture, architecture, maps, and everyday material objects, Vistas provides a much-needed visual archive for students and teachers working in a range of disciplines. In addition, the supplemental material included in the Vistas program offers a dynamic means of illustrating the complex social, political, and artistic dimensions of life in Spanish colonial America in a user-friendly format. The Vistas program involves two separate components—an interactive DVD and a password-protected website (password provided with purchase). The website is the repository for the digital library, which includes more than three hundred high-resolution images with supporting annotations. This collection encompasses a wide range of media, including paintings and sculptures, as well as images of maps, colonial architecture, and everyday material objects such as cookware, tools, clothing, and religious articles. The diversity of the collection is one of its strong points, providing users with a multidimensional view of Spanish colonial culture that goes beyond aesthetic appreciation to address the complex political and social issues underlying these images, particularly with regard to race, gender, religion, and economics. [End Page 104] While the digital collection is a valuable resource in its own right, the critical strength of the Vistas project lies in its DVD program. Organized into thematic sections such as "Making Sense of the Pre-Columbian," "Reckoning with the Mestizaje," "Patterns of the Everyday," "Mechanics of the Art World," and "Otherwordly Visions," the DVD presents informative essays about key concepts, events, and traditions that shaped Spanish American colonial life. These thematic sections also present comparative discussions of featured images, historical timelines, glossaries, and a library of primary documents that invites students to examine images in the context of personal letters, royal laws and degrees, business records, and travel narratives. A searchable bibliography provides additional resources for more advanced study. One of the program's most noteworthy aspects is its emphasis on comparative and transnational approaches. Rather than portraying the history of colonial Spanish America in terms of oppositional binaries—colonizers versus colonized, European versus indigenous culture, Christian versus non-Christian, etc.—Vistas encourages students to view Spanish colonial history in terms of complex and varied experiences of interaction and exchange. In doing so, it acknowledges how this history was shaped by racist and exploitive policies and ideologies inherent in Spanish imperialism. While the program encourages colonial critique, however, it also invites students to recognize the integrations that resulted from intercultural encounter. Many of the images featured in the program, for instance, foreground the hybrid or mestizaje dimensions of Spanish colonial culture. In the "Otherwordly Visions" section, a number of images highlight a blending of European and indigenous beliefs and iconography, as in an eighteenth-century pendant featuring the Virgin Coronada whose face exhibits European features, yet whose body and setting are decorated with local materials and indigenous symbols. Another annotated discussion of a "zemi"—a religious figurine used in Caribbean Taíno culture—explores how its material components, which include Caribbean fibers, Venetian glass, and an African rhinoceros horn, illustrate the place of colonial culture within global networks of exchange. The bilingual format of the Vistas program is also worth noting. The written portions of the program are available in Spanish and English (users select their preferred language on the opening page), and the bilingual emphasis is evident throughout, particularly in the "Primary Document" sections, which reproduce all texts in the original Spanish, accompanied by an English translation. Through this dual-language format, the program is available to a much wider audience. In addition, its bilingual dimensions represent an important step in transforming the monolingual approach that...

James Lockhart and Stuart B. Schwartz, "Early Latin America: A History of Colonial Spanish America and Brazil" (Book Review)

James Lockhart and Stuart B. Schwartz, "Early Latin America: A History of Colonial Spanish America and Brazil" (Book Review)

Early Latin America: A History of Colonial Spanish America and Brazil

List of tables, figures and maps Preface Part I. The Context: 1. Iberian ways 2. Indigenous ways Part II. Origins and Early Maturity: 3. From islands to mainland: the Caribbean phase and subsequent conquests 4. Conquest society: central areas 5. Maturity in the Spanish Indies: central areas 6. Brazilian beginnings 7. Brazil in the sugar cane 8. The fringes Part III. Reorientations: 9. Late colonial times in the Spanish Indies 10. Brazil in the age of gold and absolutism 11. Epilogue: the coming of independence Bibliography Index.

Lockhart James and Stuart B. Schwartz: Early Latin America: A History of Colonial Spanish America and Brazil (Cambridge University Press, 1983, £30.00 hardback, £9.93 paper). Pp. 487.

Lockhart James and Stuart B. Schwartz: Early Latin America: A History of Colonial Spanish America and Brazil (Cambridge University Press, 1983, £30.00 hardback, £9.93 paper). Pp. 487.

Early Latin America: A History of Colonial Spanish America and Brazil.

Early Latin America: A History of Colonial Spanish America and Brazil.

Early Latin America: A History of Colonial Spanish America and Brazil

Early Latin America: A History of Colonial Spanish America and Brazil

Early Latin America: A History of Colonial Spanish America and Brazil, by James Lockhart and Stuart B. Schwartz

<i>Early Latin America: A History of Colonial Spanish America and Brazil</i>, by James Lockhart and Stuart B. Schwartz

Early Latin America: A History of Colonial Spanish America and Brazil

Early Latin America: A History of Colonial Spanish America and Brazil

The Entrepreneurial Reorganization of an Artisan Trade: The Bakers of Buenos Aires, 1770-1820

Although there have been numerous important contributions to the social history of colonial Spanish America published in recent years, these studies have generally ignored the artisan and semi-skilled working classes that were, numerically, the largest urban components of these societies. This article will examine one colonial artisan group, the bakers of Buenos Aires, during a period when the city and its hinterland experienced significant economic and political change, 1770-1820. At the beginning of the period, Buenos Aires was little more than a large village with a population of approximately 20,000 and an economy dominated by contraband trade. As part of a major reform of Spanish strategic and economic policy, Buenos Aires was selected in 1776 as the political capital of a new viceroyalty that included the vast region bordered by the Andes, the Atlantic and Brazil. The city's new political importance with a viceregal court, enlarged military garrisons and augmented bureaucracy stimulated both urban and regional economies and attracted large numbers of immigrants from the interior and from Europe. It is increasingly clear that these alterations in the city's economic life and social structure contributed to the political crisis that culminated in the independence period. Although this study will concentrate on a single occupational group, it is hoped that this effort to measure the responses of the bakers to the altered opportunities and challenges of the late colonial and early independence periods will also provide some new insights into the economic and political history of the region during this crucial period.

Studies in the Colonial History of Spanish America

Studies in the Colonial History of Spanish America

M. Góngora, "Studies in the Colonial History of Spanish America", trans. R. Southern (Book Review)

M. Góngora, "Studies in the Colonial History of Spanish America", trans. R. Southern (Book Review)

Studies in the Colonial History of Spanish America

Studies in the Colonial History of Spanish America

Studies In The Colonial History of Spanish America. By Mario Góngora. Translated by Richard Southern. ([Latin American Studies No. 20.] New York: Cambridge University Press, 1975. Pp. xi, 293. Glossary. Notes. Abbreviations. Bibliography. Index. $17.95.)

Studies In The Colonial History of Spanish America. By Mario Góngora. Translated by Richard Southern. ([Latin American Studies No. 20.] New York: Cambridge University Press, 1975. Pp. xi, 293. Glossary. Notes. Abbreviations. Bibliography. Index. $17.95.)

Studies in the Colonial History of Spanish America

Studies in the Colonial History of Spanish America

Studies in the Colonial History of Spanish America.

Studies in the Colonial History of Spanish America.

Studies in the Colonial History of Spanish America

Studies in the Colonial History of Spanish America

Bureaucracy and Disaster: Mexico City and the Flood of 1629

The foundation of cities and the articulation of urban networks are a persistent theme in the history of colonial Spanish America. As administrative-social service centers and as foci of trade and, sometimes, manufacturing, cities were the meeting ground of the policies of the metropolis and the concerns of its subjects, the local creoles, castas, and Indians. This mediating position has influenced the kinds of questions asked about cities by Latin American urban historians. Those who, with this author, believe that the city's administrative function was paramount, consider the following questions most useful in determining the role of urban centers within the Spanish empire: was city government merely the agent of the Crown, was it the spokesman of a local oligarchy, or did it permit some degree of popular participation? Was the operation of municipal government characterized by co-operation or by conflict? What was the relative importance of formal institutions created by the Crown, such as the cabildo and the real acuerdo, and informal institutions, such as the family and the client system, in the conduct of city business?

The Social History of Colonial Spanish America: Evolution and Potential

“Social History” should be readily definable as the study of historical phenomena which transcend the individual and manifest themselves in human groups. But such a definition includes almost all meaningful history; it seems to fit precisely those political and institutional studies to which social history is ordinarily contrasted. Since our main concern here is with practical historiography rather than with questions of genre, I will simply indicate through description and elimination the kind of history I mean.