Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Books
  3. Before Mestizaje
  • Cited by 16
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
November 2017
Print publication year:
2017
Online ISBN:
9781139207744
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781139207744
Subjects:
Area Studies, Latin American Studies, History, Regional History after 1500, Latin American Government, Politics and Policy, Latin American History
Series:
Cambridge Latin American Studies (105)
Information

Book description

This book opens new dimensions on race in Latin America by examining the extreme caste groups of colonial Mexico. In tracing their experiences, a broader understanding of the connection between mestizaje (Latin America's modern ideology of racial mixture) and the colonial caste system is rendered. Before mestizaje emerged as a primary concept in Latin America, an earlier precursor existed that must be taken seriously. This colonial form of racial hybridity, encased in an elastic caste system, allowed some people to live through multiple racial lives. Hence, the great fusion of races that swept Latin America and defined its modernity, carries an important corollary. Mestizaje, when viewed at its roots, is not just about mixture, but also about dissecting and reconnecting lives.  Such experiences may have carved a special ability for some Latin American populations to reach across racial groups to relate with and understand multiple racial perspectives. This overlooked, deep history of mestizaje is a legacy that can be built upon in modern times.

Reviews

'This is a brilliant book. Meticulously researched, cogently argued, and beautifully written, it insightfully explores the myriad ways in which the problem of racial diversity profoundly affected not only the Spanish colonial reality but also the Spanish imperial psyche.'

Franklin W. Knight - The Johns Hopkins University

'Before Mestizaje is a richly layered and sophisticated account of the meanings and practices surrounding race and difference in colonial Mexico, and a model for understanding the intersections of law, economy, and cultural practices in the constitution of a social order.'

Laurent Dubois - Duke University, North Carolina, author of Haiti: The Aftershocks of History

'Before Mestizaje is a major contribution to an increasingly sophisticated literature about racial mixture in colonial Latin America with its critical scrutiny of the 'sistema de castas' and the political, legal, social, and cultural variables that shaped its development.'

Susan Deans-Smith Source: The Journal of Interdisciplinary History

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

Contents

Contents

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Total number of HTML views: 0
Total number of PDF views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

Book summary page views

Total views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed.