Race, Sex, and Segregation in Colonial Latin America

Race, Sex, and Segregation in Colonial Latin America

Author: Olimpia Rosenthal

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-12-30

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 1000829227

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This book traces the emergence and early development of segregationist practices and policies in Spanish and Portuguese America - showing that the practice of resettling diverse indigenous groups in segregated "Indian towns" (or aldeamentos in the case of Brazil) influenced the material reorganization of colonial space, shaped processes of racialization, and contributed to the politicization of reproductive sex. The book advances this argument through close readings of published and archival sources from the 16th and early-17th centuries, and is informed by two main conceptual concerns. First, it considers how segregation was envisioned, codified, and enforced in a historical context of consolidating racial differences and changing demographics associated with the racial mixture. Second, it theorizes the interrelations between notions of race and reproductive sexuality. It shows that segregationist efforts were justified by paternalistic discourses that aimed to conserve and foster indigenous population growth, and it contends that this illustrates how racially-qualified life was politicized in early modernity. It further demonstrates that women’s reproductive bodies were instrumentalized as a means to foster racially-qualified life, and it argues that processes of racialization are critically tied to the differential ways in which women’s reproductive capacities have been historically regulated. Race, Sex, and Segregation in Colonial Latin America is essential for students, researchers and scholars alike interested in Latin American history, social history and gender studies.


Book Synopsis Race, Sex, and Segregation in Colonial Latin America by : Olimpia Rosenthal

Download or read book Race, Sex, and Segregation in Colonial Latin America written by Olimpia Rosenthal and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-12-30 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book traces the emergence and early development of segregationist practices and policies in Spanish and Portuguese America - showing that the practice of resettling diverse indigenous groups in segregated "Indian towns" (or aldeamentos in the case of Brazil) influenced the material reorganization of colonial space, shaped processes of racialization, and contributed to the politicization of reproductive sex. The book advances this argument through close readings of published and archival sources from the 16th and early-17th centuries, and is informed by two main conceptual concerns. First, it considers how segregation was envisioned, codified, and enforced in a historical context of consolidating racial differences and changing demographics associated with the racial mixture. Second, it theorizes the interrelations between notions of race and reproductive sexuality. It shows that segregationist efforts were justified by paternalistic discourses that aimed to conserve and foster indigenous population growth, and it contends that this illustrates how racially-qualified life was politicized in early modernity. It further demonstrates that women’s reproductive bodies were instrumentalized as a means to foster racially-qualified life, and it argues that processes of racialization are critically tied to the differential ways in which women’s reproductive capacities have been historically regulated. Race, Sex, and Segregation in Colonial Latin America is essential for students, researchers and scholars alike interested in Latin American history, social history and gender studies.

Condemning Mestizaje: Spatial Segregation and the Racialization of Sex in Colonial Latin America

Condemning Mestizaje: Spatial Segregation and the Racialization of Sex in Colonial Latin America

Author: Olimpia Eurydice Rosenthal

Publisher:

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 185

ISBN-13:

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The central objective of this project is to chart the relationship between early-modern notions of race that developed in the Iberian-Atlantic world and systems of colonial racialization that emerged in the Americas in relation to mestizaje. By analyzing three case-studies from Latin American's early-colonial period, I show that as anxieties about racial mixture got intertwined with the Iberian notion of purity of blood, spatial segregation and the curtailment of interracial sex became two of the main issues around which early-colonial discourses on mestizaje were articulated. In chapter one, I justify the use of the term race for analyzing this period by drawing from current scholarship whose aim is to historicize this notion as a means to better theorize it. Moreover, I explain the specific elements that inform the theory of race that I develop throughout this project, including Bernasconi's formulation of race as a border concept, JanMohamed's notion of racialized sexuality, and Foucault's account of how biopower can help us theorize the interconnections between race and reproductive sex. In the second chapter, I examine Vasco de Quiroga's decisive influence in the formation of the Dual Republic model of spatial segregation in Mexico, and I show how the racialization of space during this period led to a dualistic conception of society that by definition left no place for the liminal figure of the mestizo. In chapter three, I examine a policy adapted by the Portuguese Crown during the sixteenth century whereby white Portuguese women were taken to Brazil in an effort to reduce interracial sex and miscegenation. Lastly, in chapter four I analyze Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala's abject characterization of mestizos in Peru, and I demonstrate that two of the key issues around which he organized his demand for colonial reforms were spatial segregation and the curtailment of interracial sex. By examining these three cases-studies comparatively, and further incorporating a transatlantic perspective that situates them within broader developments that were taking place during the early-modern period, I emphasize the importance that the study of colonial Latin America has for current efforts to historicize the notion of race.


Book Synopsis Condemning Mestizaje: Spatial Segregation and the Racialization of Sex in Colonial Latin America by : Olimpia Eurydice Rosenthal

Download or read book Condemning Mestizaje: Spatial Segregation and the Racialization of Sex in Colonial Latin America written by Olimpia Eurydice Rosenthal and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The central objective of this project is to chart the relationship between early-modern notions of race that developed in the Iberian-Atlantic world and systems of colonial racialization that emerged in the Americas in relation to mestizaje. By analyzing three case-studies from Latin American's early-colonial period, I show that as anxieties about racial mixture got intertwined with the Iberian notion of purity of blood, spatial segregation and the curtailment of interracial sex became two of the main issues around which early-colonial discourses on mestizaje were articulated. In chapter one, I justify the use of the term race for analyzing this period by drawing from current scholarship whose aim is to historicize this notion as a means to better theorize it. Moreover, I explain the specific elements that inform the theory of race that I develop throughout this project, including Bernasconi's formulation of race as a border concept, JanMohamed's notion of racialized sexuality, and Foucault's account of how biopower can help us theorize the interconnections between race and reproductive sex. In the second chapter, I examine Vasco de Quiroga's decisive influence in the formation of the Dual Republic model of spatial segregation in Mexico, and I show how the racialization of space during this period led to a dualistic conception of society that by definition left no place for the liminal figure of the mestizo. In chapter three, I examine a policy adapted by the Portuguese Crown during the sixteenth century whereby white Portuguese women were taken to Brazil in an effort to reduce interracial sex and miscegenation. Lastly, in chapter four I analyze Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala's abject characterization of mestizos in Peru, and I demonstrate that two of the key issues around which he organized his demand for colonial reforms were spatial segregation and the curtailment of interracial sex. By examining these three cases-studies comparatively, and further incorporating a transatlantic perspective that situates them within broader developments that were taking place during the early-modern period, I emphasize the importance that the study of colonial Latin America has for current efforts to historicize the notion of race.

Imperial Subjects

Imperial Subjects

Author: Matthew D. O'Hara

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 2009-04-22

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 0822392100

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In colonial Latin America, social identity did not correlate neatly with fixed categories of race and ethnicity. As Imperial Subjects demonstrates, from the early years of Spanish and Portuguese rule, understandings of race and ethnicity were fluid. In this collection, historians offer nuanced interpretations of identity as they investigate how Iberian settlers, African slaves, Native Americans, and their multi-ethnic progeny understood who they were as individuals, as members of various communities, and as imperial subjects. The contributors’ explorations of the relationship between colonial ideologies of difference and the identities historical actors presented span the entire colonial period and beyond: from early contact to the legacy of colonial identities in the new republics of the nineteenth century. The volume includes essays on the major colonial centers of Mexico, Peru, and Brazil, as well as the Caribbean basin and the imperial borderlands. Whether analyzing cases in which the Inquisition found that the individuals before it were “legally” Indians and thus exempt from prosecution, or considering late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century petitions for declarations of whiteness that entitled the mixed-race recipients to the legal and social benefits enjoyed by whites, the book’s contributors approach the question of identity by examining interactions between imperial subjects and colonial institutions. Colonial mandates, rulings, and legislation worked in conjunction with the exercise and negotiation of power between individual officials and an array of social actors engaged in countless brief interactions. Identities emerged out of the interplay between internalized understandings of self and group association and externalized social norms and categories. Contributors. Karen D. Caplan, R. Douglas Cope, Mariana L. R. Dantas, María Elena Díaz, Andrew B. Fisher, Jane Mangan, Jeremy Ravi Mumford, Matthew D. O’Hara, Cynthia Radding, Sergio Serulnikov, Irene Silverblatt, David Tavárez, Ann Twinam


Book Synopsis Imperial Subjects by : Matthew D. O'Hara

Download or read book Imperial Subjects written by Matthew D. O'Hara and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2009-04-22 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In colonial Latin America, social identity did not correlate neatly with fixed categories of race and ethnicity. As Imperial Subjects demonstrates, from the early years of Spanish and Portuguese rule, understandings of race and ethnicity were fluid. In this collection, historians offer nuanced interpretations of identity as they investigate how Iberian settlers, African slaves, Native Americans, and their multi-ethnic progeny understood who they were as individuals, as members of various communities, and as imperial subjects. The contributors’ explorations of the relationship between colonial ideologies of difference and the identities historical actors presented span the entire colonial period and beyond: from early contact to the legacy of colonial identities in the new republics of the nineteenth century. The volume includes essays on the major colonial centers of Mexico, Peru, and Brazil, as well as the Caribbean basin and the imperial borderlands. Whether analyzing cases in which the Inquisition found that the individuals before it were “legally” Indians and thus exempt from prosecution, or considering late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century petitions for declarations of whiteness that entitled the mixed-race recipients to the legal and social benefits enjoyed by whites, the book’s contributors approach the question of identity by examining interactions between imperial subjects and colonial institutions. Colonial mandates, rulings, and legislation worked in conjunction with the exercise and negotiation of power between individual officials and an array of social actors engaged in countless brief interactions. Identities emerged out of the interplay between internalized understandings of self and group association and externalized social norms and categories. Contributors. Karen D. Caplan, R. Douglas Cope, Mariana L. R. Dantas, María Elena Díaz, Andrew B. Fisher, Jane Mangan, Jeremy Ravi Mumford, Matthew D. O’Hara, Cynthia Radding, Sergio Serulnikov, Irene Silverblatt, David Tavárez, Ann Twinam

The Women of Colonial Latin America

The Women of Colonial Latin America

Author: Susan Migden Socolow

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2000-05-18

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 9780521476423

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Surveying the varied experiences of women in colonial Spanish and Portuguese America, this book traces the effects of conquest, colonisation, and settlement on colonial women, beginning with the cultures that would produce Latin America.


Book Synopsis The Women of Colonial Latin America by : Susan Migden Socolow

Download or read book The Women of Colonial Latin America written by Susan Migden Socolow and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2000-05-18 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Surveying the varied experiences of women in colonial Spanish and Portuguese America, this book traces the effects of conquest, colonisation, and settlement on colonial women, beginning with the cultures that would produce Latin America.

Race, Colonialism, and Social Transformation in Latin America and the Caribbean

Race, Colonialism, and Social Transformation in Latin America and the Caribbean

Author: Jerome Branche

Publisher: University Press of Florida

Published: 2019-04-01

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 081306399X

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This collection of essays offers a comprehensive overview of colonial legacies of racial and social inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean. Rich in theoretical framework and close textual analysis, these essays offer new paradigms and approaches to both reading and resolving the opposing forces of race, class, and the power of states. The contributors are drawn from a variety of fields, including literary criticism, anthropology, politics, and sociology. The contributors to this book abandon the traditional approaches that study racialized oppression in Latin America only from the standpoint of its impact on either Indians or people of African descent. Instead they examine colonialism's domination and legacy in terms of both the political power it wielded and the symbolic instruments of that oppression. The volume's scope extends from the Southern Cone to the Andean region, Mexico, and the Hispanophone and Francophone Caribbean. It contests many of the traditional givens about Latin America, including governance and the nation state, the effects of globalization, the legacy of the region's criollo philosophers and men of letters, and postulations of harmonious race relations. As dictatorships give way to democracies in a variety of unprecedented ways, this book offers a necessary and needed examination of the social transformations in the region.


Book Synopsis Race, Colonialism, and Social Transformation in Latin America and the Caribbean by : Jerome Branche

Download or read book Race, Colonialism, and Social Transformation in Latin America and the Caribbean written by Jerome Branche and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2019-04-01 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays offers a comprehensive overview of colonial legacies of racial and social inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean. Rich in theoretical framework and close textual analysis, these essays offer new paradigms and approaches to both reading and resolving the opposing forces of race, class, and the power of states. The contributors are drawn from a variety of fields, including literary criticism, anthropology, politics, and sociology. The contributors to this book abandon the traditional approaches that study racialized oppression in Latin America only from the standpoint of its impact on either Indians or people of African descent. Instead they examine colonialism's domination and legacy in terms of both the political power it wielded and the symbolic instruments of that oppression. The volume's scope extends from the Southern Cone to the Andean region, Mexico, and the Hispanophone and Francophone Caribbean. It contests many of the traditional givens about Latin America, including governance and the nation state, the effects of globalization, the legacy of the region's criollo philosophers and men of letters, and postulations of harmonious race relations. As dictatorships give way to democracies in a variety of unprecedented ways, this book offers a necessary and needed examination of the social transformations in the region.

Sexuality and Marriage in Colonial Latin America

Sexuality and Marriage in Colonial Latin America

Author: Asunci¢n Lavrin

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 1989-01-01

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 9780803279407

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"Few decisions in life should be more personal than the choice of a spouse or lover. Yet, throughout history, this intimate experience has been subjected to painstaking social and religious regulation in the form of legislation and restraining social mores." With that statement, Asunción Lavrin begins her introduction to this collection of original essays, the first in English to explore sexuality and marriage in colonial Latin America. The nine contributors, including historians and anthropologists, examine various aspects of the male-female relationship and the mechanisms for controlling it developed by church and state after the European conquest of Mexico and Central and South America. Seldom has so much light been shed on the sexual behavior of the men and women who lived there from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. These chapters examine the variety of sexual expression in different periods and among persons of different social and economic status, the relations of the sexes as proscribed by church and state and the various forms of resistance to their constraints, the couple's own view of the bond that united them and of their social obligations in producing a family, and the dissolution of that bond. Topics infrequently explored in Latin American history but discussed her include premarital relations, illegitimacy, consensual unions, sexual witchcraft, spouse abuse, and divorce. Lavrin's opening survey of the forms of sexual relationships most discussed in ecclesiastical sources serves as a point of departure for the chapters that follow. The contributors are Serge Grunzinski, Ann Twinam, Kathy Waldron, Ruth Behar, Susan Socolow, Richard Boyer, Thomas Calvo, and María Beatriz Nizza da Silva. Asunción Lavrin is a professor of history at Arizona State University at Tempe. Her 1995 book, Women, Feminism, and Social Change in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay, 1890-1940, won the Arthur P. Whitaker Prize from the Middle Atlantic Council on Latin American Studies.


Book Synopsis Sexuality and Marriage in Colonial Latin America by : Asunci¢n Lavrin

Download or read book Sexuality and Marriage in Colonial Latin America written by Asunci¢n Lavrin and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 1989-01-01 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Few decisions in life should be more personal than the choice of a spouse or lover. Yet, throughout history, this intimate experience has been subjected to painstaking social and religious regulation in the form of legislation and restraining social mores." With that statement, Asunción Lavrin begins her introduction to this collection of original essays, the first in English to explore sexuality and marriage in colonial Latin America. The nine contributors, including historians and anthropologists, examine various aspects of the male-female relationship and the mechanisms for controlling it developed by church and state after the European conquest of Mexico and Central and South America. Seldom has so much light been shed on the sexual behavior of the men and women who lived there from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. These chapters examine the variety of sexual expression in different periods and among persons of different social and economic status, the relations of the sexes as proscribed by church and state and the various forms of resistance to their constraints, the couple's own view of the bond that united them and of their social obligations in producing a family, and the dissolution of that bond. Topics infrequently explored in Latin American history but discussed her include premarital relations, illegitimacy, consensual unions, sexual witchcraft, spouse abuse, and divorce. Lavrin's opening survey of the forms of sexual relationships most discussed in ecclesiastical sources serves as a point of departure for the chapters that follow. The contributors are Serge Grunzinski, Ann Twinam, Kathy Waldron, Ruth Behar, Susan Socolow, Richard Boyer, Thomas Calvo, and María Beatriz Nizza da Silva. Asunción Lavrin is a professor of history at Arizona State University at Tempe. Her 1995 book, Women, Feminism, and Social Change in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay, 1890-1940, won the Arthur P. Whitaker Prize from the Middle Atlantic Council on Latin American Studies.

Coded Encounters

Coded Encounters

Author: Francisco J. Cevallos Candau

Publisher: Amherst: University of Massachussetts Press

Published: 1994

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13:

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An excellent collection of essays about colonial Lain America that help us to rethink and reconfigure the traditional canon and issues of representation. The essays range from a consideration Amerindian codes of map-making to the career of a transvestie nun. Contributors include Walter Mignolo, Maureen Ahern, Abel Aives, Rolena Adorno, Lucia Helena Santiago Costigan, Pedro Lasarte, Raquel Chang-Rodrigez, Regina Harrison. Asuncion Lavrin, Stephanie Merrim, Nina M. Scott, Antonio Carreno, Julie Greer Johnson, Karen Stolley, and Antonia Benitez-Rojo


Book Synopsis Coded Encounters by : Francisco J. Cevallos Candau

Download or read book Coded Encounters written by Francisco J. Cevallos Candau and published by Amherst: University of Massachussetts Press. This book was released on 1994 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An excellent collection of essays about colonial Lain America that help us to rethink and reconfigure the traditional canon and issues of representation. The essays range from a consideration Amerindian codes of map-making to the career of a transvestie nun. Contributors include Walter Mignolo, Maureen Ahern, Abel Aives, Rolena Adorno, Lucia Helena Santiago Costigan, Pedro Lasarte, Raquel Chang-Rodrigez, Regina Harrison. Asuncion Lavrin, Stephanie Merrim, Nina M. Scott, Antonio Carreno, Julie Greer Johnson, Karen Stolley, and Antonia Benitez-Rojo

Racial Identification in Colonial Latin America

Racial Identification in Colonial Latin America

Author: Brandon P. Combs

Publisher:

Published: 2024

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

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This thesis will analyze the evolution of racial identity during the colonial period in Spanish Latin America and how Casta paintings in the seventeenth century led to the creation of a society based on social stratification originating from the mixing of races. The chapters of this thesis will track the evolution of how those of mixed racial heritage have been viewed in Latin American society. I also examine how the visual identification of "mixed race" has affected the social class or social status of people of mixed races during the Colonial period. This thesis will incorporate various literature regarding the origins of Casta paintings and their multifaceted meanings. This thesis will also examine the intersectionality of visual representation of race, gender, and religion. These visual forms of racial art set forth the foundation of a new social hierarchy based on the idea of Spanish purity of blood and the mixing of races. The aim of this thesis is to reveal how those of mixed races, especially in Latin American society, have faced oppressive social standing. I argue that many mixed-race individuals face a dual identity crisis in which they do not know which group or culture they are "supposed" to identify with or belong to. This marginalization has been inscribed and reinscribed through visual representations. Often those of mixed races are not allowed to fully participate in the advantages or disadvantages of at least one of their races. Historians and scholars have deemed this the crisis of "dual identity." With this thesis, I provide insight into the daily struggles of identifying as a mixed marginalized group in a society that emphasized racial difference and hierarchy. I also explore the intersections of this hierarchy with gender. Finally, this thesis explores the difficulties of attempting to identify as one race or another and the social struggles that emerge for people of mixed race.


Book Synopsis Racial Identification in Colonial Latin America by : Brandon P. Combs

Download or read book Racial Identification in Colonial Latin America written by Brandon P. Combs and published by . This book was released on 2024 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thesis will analyze the evolution of racial identity during the colonial period in Spanish Latin America and how Casta paintings in the seventeenth century led to the creation of a society based on social stratification originating from the mixing of races. The chapters of this thesis will track the evolution of how those of mixed racial heritage have been viewed in Latin American society. I also examine how the visual identification of "mixed race" has affected the social class or social status of people of mixed races during the Colonial period. This thesis will incorporate various literature regarding the origins of Casta paintings and their multifaceted meanings. This thesis will also examine the intersectionality of visual representation of race, gender, and religion. These visual forms of racial art set forth the foundation of a new social hierarchy based on the idea of Spanish purity of blood and the mixing of races. The aim of this thesis is to reveal how those of mixed races, especially in Latin American society, have faced oppressive social standing. I argue that many mixed-race individuals face a dual identity crisis in which they do not know which group or culture they are "supposed" to identify with or belong to. This marginalization has been inscribed and reinscribed through visual representations. Often those of mixed races are not allowed to fully participate in the advantages or disadvantages of at least one of their races. Historians and scholars have deemed this the crisis of "dual identity." With this thesis, I provide insight into the daily struggles of identifying as a mixed marginalized group in a society that emphasized racial difference and hierarchy. I also explore the intersections of this hierarchy with gender. Finally, this thesis explores the difficulties of attempting to identify as one race or another and the social struggles that emerge for people of mixed race.

Race and Sex in Latin America

Race and Sex in Latin America

Author: Peter Wade

Publisher:

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 203

ISBN-13: 9781783715374

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Interdisciplinary, pioneering overview of growing literature on race and sex in Latin America.


Book Synopsis Race and Sex in Latin America by : Peter Wade

Download or read book Race and Sex in Latin America written by Peter Wade and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Interdisciplinary, pioneering overview of growing literature on race and sex in Latin America.

Colonialism Past and Present

Colonialism Past and Present

Author: Alvaro Felix Bolanos

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2012-02-01

Total Pages: 309

ISBN-13: 0791489760

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This collection of essays offers alternative readings of historical and literary texts produced during Latin America's colonial period. By considering the political and ideological implications of the texts' interpretation yesterday and today, it attempts to "decolonize" the field of Latin American studies and promote an ethical, interdisciplinary practice that does not falsify or appropriate knowledge produced by both the colonial subjects of the past and the oppressed subjects of the present. Using recent developments in postcolonial theory, the contributors challenge traditional approaches to Hispanism. The colonial situation under which these texts were composed, with all its injustices and prejudices, still lingers, and most studies have consistently avoided the connection between this colonial legacy and the situation of disenfranchised groups today. Colonialism Past and Present challenges discursive strategies that celebrate only European cultural traits, dismiss non-European cultural legacies, and solidify constructions of national projects considered natural extensions of European civilization since independence from Spain.


Book Synopsis Colonialism Past and Present by : Alvaro Felix Bolanos

Download or read book Colonialism Past and Present written by Alvaro Felix Bolanos and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays offers alternative readings of historical and literary texts produced during Latin America's colonial period. By considering the political and ideological implications of the texts' interpretation yesterday and today, it attempts to "decolonize" the field of Latin American studies and promote an ethical, interdisciplinary practice that does not falsify or appropriate knowledge produced by both the colonial subjects of the past and the oppressed subjects of the present. Using recent developments in postcolonial theory, the contributors challenge traditional approaches to Hispanism. The colonial situation under which these texts were composed, with all its injustices and prejudices, still lingers, and most studies have consistently avoided the connection between this colonial legacy and the situation of disenfranchised groups today. Colonialism Past and Present challenges discursive strategies that celebrate only European cultural traits, dismiss non-European cultural legacies, and solidify constructions of national projects considered natural extensions of European civilization since independence from Spain.