Hierarchy, Commerce, and Fraud in Bourbon Spanish America: A Postal Inspector's Expose

ISBN-13: 9780826514929 / Angielski / Twarda / 2006 / 408 str.

Ruth Hill

Opis

Using El lazarillo de ciegos caminantes (the -Guide for Blind Rovers- by Alonso Carrio de Lavandera, the best known work of the era) as a jumping off point for a sprawling discussion of 18th-century Spanish America, Ruth Hill argues for a richer, more nuanced understanding of the relationship between Spain and its western colonies. Armed with primary sources including literature, maps, census data, letters, and diaries, Hill reveals a rich world of intrigue and artifice, where identity is surprisingly fluid and always in question. More importantly, Hill crafts a complex argument for reassessing our understanding of race and class distinctions at the time, with enormous implications for how we view conceptions of race and class today.