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Race and Caste in Colonial Mexico
I. La Republica de Indios
- A. Spanish Crown wanted to keep groups separate
- 1. Amerindians in the the Republica de Indios
- 2. Whites and Blacks in a Republica de Espanoles
- 3. Each republic with its own laws
- 4. Indians live in separate communities
- 5. Races separate in terms of marriage, jobs
B. This plan unrealistic
- 1. Miscegenation and acculturation take place for many reasons
- 2. No Spanish women in first wave; not very many until 1550
- 3. Economic, social realities insure biological and cultural intermingling
C. Catstas develop quickly
- 1. Spanish law designed around "purebloods"
- a. Creole (Mexican-born) and Penisulare (Spanish-Born) whites at top
- b. Indians and African next
- 2. Mestizo, Mulatto, and Zambo part of scene very quickly
- 3. Lots of crazy terms for other mixtures
II. Spaniards
- A. Very regionalistic Spain, carried over to the New World
- 1. Spaniards viewed people from home region as an extended family
- 2. Tended to help out people from home region
- 3. "Spanish" (Castillian) does not become dominant tounge until 1600s
- B. Why go to Mexico ?
- 1. To join families
- 2. Artisans looking for job opportunities
- 3. Many arive in retinues of royal officials
- 4. Many came as indentured servants - poor people were largest group
- C. Limpieza de sangre
- 1. Spanish law put emphasis on putrity of blood
- 2. Must be able to prove an all-Spanish, all-Christian ancestry
- 3. Basques held an exalted, arrogrant position
- 4. Steady darkening of creoles led to a penisulare-creole divide
III. Amerindians
- A. Enourmous demographic disaster was the end for the Indian cities - people became rural
- B. Tribute contributes to acculturation
- 1. Must pay in European goods (pigs, chicken) - grew to like them
- 2. Need for cash pushed many into market life
- 3. Desire to escape tribute propelled many into Spanish towns
- 4. Eventually replaced tribute with free-wage work gangs - more acculturation
- C. What held Indian communities together was a strong sense of family, community
- 1. Family made few concessions to Europe, though polygamy eliminated
- 2. Acculturation fastest in North and near large cities
- D. Revolts
- 1. Indians generally accepted Crown's legitimacy
- 2. Were quick to revolt over grievances, violations of perceived rights
- 3. Revolts did not challenge basic system, and judges were lenient
IV. Mestizos
- A. Hard to identify
- 1. Biological mestizos in 1500s tended to identify with one or the other
- 2. Spanish law did not account for them for a long time
- B. Outcasts
- 1. Those identified as mestizos considered to be illegitimate
- 2. This put a number of legal and psychological burdens on them
- 3. Not until 1700s did law and society see them as unique group
- C. Go-betweens, innovators
- 1. Some able to bridge gap, act as acculturating force in both directions
- 2. Marginal status pushed them into pushing the limits of tradition
- 3. But if successful, sought white status
V. Africans and mulattos
- A. Juan Garrido - free black - Cortes's valet and a conquistador in his own right
- B. But most arrived as slaves
- 1. Some 200,000 over colonial era
- 2. Because few women brought, mullatos and zambos much more common
- 3. Worked in sugar, pearl fishing, mines, ranching, numerous crafts
- 4. Agents of acculturation, as they had little choice but to identify with Spaniards
- C. Revolts and Maroon communities
- 1. A number of revolts
- 2. Authorities often dealt with them harshly
- 3. Authorities forced to give official status to some maroon communities
- D. Free blacks and mulattos
- 1. Through manumission, maroons, family ties, a free black community develops
- 2. Lived and worked in the same world as mestizos
- 3. Black men usually took Indian wives
- 4. Common for high-ranking white men to have a mullata mistress
- 5. Possible for successful mulattos to buy certificates of whiteness
- 6. In this way, Afro-Mexicans merged with the creole and mestizo world
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