Socio-Cultural Mobility

2376 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Civilization of Latin America

Conflict, incorporation, mestizaje, and social mobility have been unremitting, formative topics through the history of Latin America. Whether social and cultural mixing between the Indians and the Europeans, the Indians and the Africans, or the Europeans and the Africans, it cannot be denied that the theme of mestizaje and the social structures that came to exist in Latin America were definitive in shaping nearly every aspect of this time period from formation to revolution. This cross-mixing and combination of groups and people across varied social strata brought to the region a myriad of cultural, political, religious, and economic impositions, but what is most interesting is the role that marriage, concubinage, and romantic relations played in this period. Within this paper, I will argue that within the Colonial World, these institutions were hardly founded either solely or even minutely in love, but in fact, were economic and social institutions that served as a primary outlet to both uphold and build social hierarchy, to achieve honor and status, and to abet as a tool for socio-cultural mobility.
Within our course, we spoke extensively about the life and story of Chica Da Silva, and how concubinage was one of the most common ways for female slaves to earn liberty in the colonial period. We learned that there was opportunity for upward mobility and social ascension for those women who could “maintain long-standing affairs with white men.” Chica was the prime example of a slave who ascended from nothing to a position of incredible prestige, wealth, and stature stemming from the manumission papers granted by her lover Joao Fernandes. Romantic relations (in this example, concubinage) served as an economic and social means of ...

... middle of paper ...

...ey. Under Investigation for the Abominable Sin: Damian de Morales Stands Accused of Attempting to Seduce Anton de Tierra de Congo. Colonial Lives: Documents on Latin American History 1550-1850. Edited by Richard Boyer & Geoffrey Spurling. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Van Deusen, Nancy. "Wife of My Soul and Heart, and All My Solace": Annulment Suit Between Diego Andres de Arenas and Ysabel Allay Suyo. Colonial Lives: Documents on Latin American History 1550-1850. Edited by Richard Boyer & Geoffrey Spurling. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Buschges, Christian. Don Manuel Valdivieso y Carrion Protests the Marriage of His Daughter to Don Teodoro Jaramillo, a Person of Lower Social Standing. Colonial Lives: Documents on Latin American History 1550-1850. Edited by Richard Boyer & Geoffrey Spurling. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Show More
Related

  • Racial Hierarchy in Casta Paintings

    1444 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the eighteenth Century, Colonial European and Mexican artists were fascinated with the emergence of racial blending within the Spaniard bloodline. Works of art began displaying pieces that portrayed three major groups that inhabited the colony— Indians, Spaniards, Africans and other ethnicities. This new genre of painting was known as Casta painting and portrayed colonial representations of racial intermarriage and their offspring. Traditionally Casta paintings were a pictorial genre that was often commissioned by Spaniards as souvenirs upon their arrival from New Spain (Mexico). And yet, why would such works have so much fascination despite its suggestive theme? It is clear that Casta paintings display interracial groups and couples, but they seem to have a deeper function when it comes to analyzing these works. These paintings demonstrate that casta paintings were created to display racial hierarchies within the era. They depict the domestic life of interracial marriages and systematically categorized through a complete series of individual paintings. It is clear that the fascination of these works reflected the categorizing of new bloodline that have been emerging and displays these characters in a manner that demonstrates the social stereotypes of these people by linking them with their domestic activities and the items that surround them as well. Despite the numerous racial stereotypes that are illustrated in these works, casta paintings construct racial identities through visual representations.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Matthew Restall's Seven Myths Of Spanish Conquest

    1144 Words  | 3 Pages

    Anais Nin once said that “we write to taste life twice: in the moment and in retrospection.” In his book, Seven Myths of Spanish Conquest, Matthew Restall tries to change our perception of the past in other to open our eyes to what life was really like during the colonial period. As Restall puts it, the main propose of the book is to “illustrate the degree to which the Conquest was a far more complex and protracted affair” (p.154) than what was supposed in the latters and chronicles left by the conquistadores. Each one of Restall’s chapters examines one of seven myths regarding the mystery behind the conquest. By doing so, Matthew Restall forces us to look back at the Spanish conquest and question

    Read More

  • Juan N. Seguin: Texas Hero

    3094 Words  | 7 Pages

    Teja, Jesus F. De La. A Revolution Remembered: The Memoirs and Selected Correspondence of Juan N. Seguin. Austin: State House Press, 1991.

    Read More

  • How Did Christopher Columbus's Relationship With The Spanish Crown Change Over Time?

    706 Words  | 2 Pages

    One question posed by the authors is “How did Columbus’s relationship with the Spanish crown change over time, and why?” In simple terms, Columbus’s relationship with the

    Read More

  • Pueblo Revolt of 1680

    833 Words  | 2 Pages

    C. W. Hackett, ed., Historical Documents relating to New Mexico, Nueva Vizcaya, and Approaches Thereto, to 1773, vol. III (Washington: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1937), 327-35.

    Read More

  • The Women Of Colonial Latin America Analysis

    1470 Words  | 3 Pages

    Six chapters form the core of the book. In “Women, Marriage and the Family,” the author gives specific consideration to the ideologies of gender apparent in the Church and family law, contrasting the traditions of Latin America’s different socioracial groups and economic classes. The chapters “Women and Work,” “Women and Slavery,” and “The Brides of Christ” offer summaries bolstered by statistics and specific examples of the choices and criticisms that determined the standards of women’s lives in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. For example, in “Women and Work”, Socolow writes, “Female silk spinners were so numerous in Mexico City that in 1788 they were allowed to organize their own guild” (115). She compellingly contends that sex was the most important element determining a person’s standing in society: “race and social class were malleable; sex was not”

    Read More

  • Panama Deception

    961 Words  | 2 Pages

    Burns, E. B., & Charlip, J. A. (2007). Latin America: an interpretive history (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall.

    Read More

  • The Relationship between Sugar and Slavery in the Early Modern Period

    3555 Words  | 8 Pages

    The Dutch seaborne empire (London, 1965) Canny, Nicholas: The Oxford History of the British Empire,vol I, TheOrigins of the Empire (New York 1998) Curtin, Philip D: The rise and fall of the plantation complex:essays in Atlantic history (Cambridge, 1990). Dunn, Richard S: Sugar and Slaves (North Carolina,1973) Haring, C.H: The Spanish Empire in America(New York, 1947) Hemming, John: Red gold: the conquest of the Brazilian Indians (Southampton 1978) Hobbhouse, Henry: Seeds of Change: Five plants that transformed mankind (1985) Mattoso, Katia M de Queiros: To be a slave in Brazil 1550-1888 (New Jersey, 1986) Mintz, Sidney W: Sweetness and Power (New York 1985) Winn, Peter: Americas:The changing face of Latin America and the Caribbean (California, 1999)

    Read More

  • Douglas Monroy's Thrown Among Strangers: The Making of Mexican Culture in Frontier California

    1454 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the first section, Monroy describes the Indian and the Iberian cultures and illustrates the role each played during missionization, as the Indians adapted ?to the demands of Iberian imperialism.?(5) He stresses the differen...

    Read More

  • Bartolome De Las Casas Research Paper

    1242 Words  | 3 Pages

    To the defense of the Spaniards, there was little knowledge that the diseases of the Columbian exchange had caused the widespread, mass deaths of the natives. Las Casas was pivotal in bringing to light the brutal treatment of the natives. The crown took this information seriously. If it hadn’t been for Las Casas stance on anti-brutality against the natives, change would not have come for a long

    Read More

  • Role Of Honor In Colonial Latin America

    860 Words  | 2 Pages

    Honour was a principle that members of colonial society protected fiercely but whether one’s bloodline automatically inherited respect was debatable. The diverse society of ten required the judicial system to settle when these interests collided. During the colonial period, the defining characteristic of Latin American society was its highly stratified society. The rights afforded to the different social classes differed greatly depending on which class they belong. Those with pure Spanish blood were the elites of the society. Beneath them on the social hierarchy lay the plebians, people with mixed racial backgrounds including creoles and mulattoes. Next were the “indios” (indigenous

    Read More

  • The Center of Gravity During the Falkland Conflict

    1940 Words  | 4 Pages

    Rock, D. (1987). Argentina, 1516-1987: From Spanish Colonization to Alphonsín. Berkley: University of California Press.

    Read More

  • Spanish Labor Systems

    2172 Words  | 5 Pages

    From Spain's early arrival in the Caribbean through their establishment of the Spanish empire indigenous people were exploited through cheap, slave like labor. One of the most incredible subjects raised by the documents presented in Colonial Spanish America is the topic of Labor Systems that were imposed on the indigenous people. Spain tried to excuse this exploitation by claiming to save these indigenous people by teaching them the ways of Christ but many of the Articles in Colonial Spanish America, Struggle & Survival, and The Limits of Racial Domination prove otherwise. Through letters, personal stories, and other documents these books present accounts that tell about the labor system used in this area. They tell of the Spanish labor systems such as the encomiendos and later rapartamientos and how these operations were run.

    Read More

  • The Impact Of Colonialism In Latin America

    1021 Words  | 3 Pages

    Reflecting back on the statement historian Jaime E. Rodriguez gave on the impact that independence had on the people of Latin America. “The emancipation of [Latin America] did not merely consist of separation from the mother country, as in the case of the United States. It also destroyed a vast and responsive social, political, and economic system that functioned well despite many imperfections.” I believe that the eagerness to get rid of slaves

    Read More

  • Characters of Pedro Paramo Used to Critique Mexico

    1206 Words  | 3 Pages

    Life in Mexico was, before the Revolution, defined by the figure of the patron that held all of power in a certain area. Juan Preciado, who was born in an urban city outside of Comala, “came to Comala because [he] had been told that [his] father, a man named Pedro Paramo lived there” (1). He initially was unaware of the general dislike that his father was subjected to in that area of Mexico. Pedro was regarded as “[l]iving bile” (1) by the people that still inhabited Comala, a classification that Juan did not expect. This reveals that it was not known by those outside of the patron’s dominion of the cruel abuse that they levied upon their people. Pedro Paramo held...

    Read More

More about Socio-Cultural Mobility

Open Document