Before Mestizaje: The Frontiers of Race and Caste in Colonial Mexico
Dec 2017 · Cambridge Latin American Studies Book 105 · Cambridge University Press
Ebook
317
Pages
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About this ebook
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.
About the author
Ben Vinson, III is the Dean of Arts and Sciences at the George Washington University, Washington, DC. He was formerly the director of the Center of Africana Studies at The Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of numerous books, including Bearing Arms for His Majesty: The Free-Colored Militia in Colonial Mexico (2002) and African Slavery in Latin America and the Caribbean (2007). He is the editor-in-chief of The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Latin American History.
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