Colonial Lives

Description

Colonial Lives offers a rich variety of archival documents in translation which bring to life the political and economic workings of Latin American colonies during 300 years of Spanish rule, as well as the day-to-day lives of the colonies' inhabitants.
Intended to complement textbooks such as Burkholder and Johnson's Colonial Latin America by presenting students with primary sources -- the raw materials on which the facts in other textbooks are based -- this reader strives to illustrate the impact of issues such as race, class, gender, sexuality, culture and religion in the daily lives of both natives and colonists alike. The concerns, struggles and perspectives of the inhabitants of colonial Latin America are reflected in transcripts of civil and criminal court cases, administrative reviews, ecclesiastical investigations, Inquisition trials, wills, and letters the editors have included in this reader.
Each document is prefaced by an introduction that places it in the social and political context of the period. The book also includes a glossary of terms and lists of suggested further readings. Most uniquely, the book offers helpful thematic cross-referencing sections and an index of themes which allow instructors to easily adapt the book to their courses and to assign readings according to the criteria of their own specific curriculums.

Table of Contents

Maps and Figures
Acknowledgments
Document Themes
Document Genres
Introduction, Richard Boyer and Geoffrey Spurling
1. The Indians of Tejupan Want to Raise Silk on Their Own (Oaxaca, Mexico, 1543), Woodrow Borah
2. Land Concentration and Environmental Degradation: Town Council Records on Deforestation in Uyumbicho (Quito, 1553-96), Karen Viera Powers
3. The Telling of Tales: A Spanish Priest and His Maya Prisoners (Yucatan, 1573-90), Matthew Restall
4. Directorio Para Confesores: "Lords Who Hold Temporal Government Over Vassals" (Mexico, 1585), John F. Schwaller
5. "In the Service of God, I Order These Temples of Idolatrous Worship Razed to the Ground": Extirpation of Idolatry and the Search for the Santuario Grande of Iguaque (Colombia 1595), J. Michael Francis
6. Affairs of the Courtroom: Fernando de Medina Confesses to Killing His Wife (Charcas, 1595), Thomas A. Abercrombie
7. The Spiritual and Physical Ecstasies of a Sixteenth-Century Beata: Marina de San Miguel Confesses Before the Mexican Inquisition (Mexico, 1598), Jaqueline Holler
8. Spaniards in the Nahua Countryside: Dr. Diego de Le?n Plaza and Nahuatl Land Sale Documents (Mexico, Early Seventeenth Century), Rebecca Horn
9. Under Investigation for the Abominable Sin: Damián de Morales Stands Accused of Attempting to Seduce Antón de Tierra de Congo (Charcas, 1611), Geoffrey Spurling
10. "Wife of My Soul and Heart, and All My Solace": Annulment Suit Between Diego Andrés de Arenas Ysabel Allay Suyo (Huánuco, Peru, 1618), Nancy van Deusen
11. Favored Women, Subjected Indians: The Settlement of Pero d'Araujo's Estate in São Paulo (1637-40), Muriel Nazzari
12. Catarina Maria Complains that Juan Teioa Forcibly Deflowered Her (Mexico, 1693), Richard Boyer
13. On Her Deathbed, Maria de la Candelaria Accuses Michaela de Molina of Casting Spells (Guatemala, 1696), Martha Few
14. Dance of the People: The Chuchumbé (Mexico, 1766), Sergio Rivera Ayala
15. Drinking, Gambling, and Death on a Colonial Hacienda (Quito, 1768), Ann Twinam
16. Letters of Insurrection: The Rebellion of the Communities (Charcas, 1781), S. Elizabeth Penry
17. Scandal at the Church: José de Alfaro Accuses Doña Theresa Bravo and Others of Insulting and Beating His Castiza Wife, Josefa Cadena (Mexico, 1782), Sonya Lipsett-Rivera
18. Don Manuel Valdivieso y Carrión Protests the Marriage of his Daughter with Don Teodoro Jaramillo, a Person of Lower Social Standing (Quito, 1784-85), Christian Bridges
19. Permission to Marry: Eighteenth-Century Matrimonial Files (Montevideo, 1796), Susan Migden Socolow
20. Felipe Edimboro Sues for Manumission, Don Francisco Xavier Sánchez Contests (Florida, 1794), Jane Landers
21. "The Most Vile Atrocities": Accusations of Slander Against María Cofignie, Parda Libre (Louisiana, 1795), Kimberely S. Hanger
22. Urban Slavery in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil: The Wills of Captain Joaquim Félix de Santana, Colonel Manoel Pereira da Silva, and Rose Maria de Conçeicão (1809, 1814, 1843), Hendrik Kraay
23. Meltdown in New Spain: Viceroy Apodaca's Account of the State of Rebellion (Mexico, 1816), Christon I. Archer and Alex Taylor del Cid
Glossary
Bibliography
Sources and Credits for Illustrations
Contributors
Index