Socio-Cultural Mobility

Conflict, incorporation, mestizaje, and social mobility have been unremitting, formative topics through the history of Latin America. Whether social and cultural mixing between the Indians and the Europeans, the Indians and the Africans, or the Europeans and the Africans, it cannot be denied that the theme of mestizaje and the social structures that came to exist in Latin America were definitive in shaping nearly every aspect of this time period from formation to revolution. This cross-mixing and combination of groups and people across varied social strata brought to the region a myriad of cultural, political, religious, and economic impositions, but what is most interesting is the role that marriage, concubinage, and romantic relations played in this period. Within this paper, I will argue that within the Colonial World, these institutions were hardly founded either solely or even minutely in love, but in fact, were economic and social institutions that served as a primary outlet to both uphold and build social hierarchy, to achieve honor and status, and to abet as a tool for socio-cultural mobility.

Within our course, we spoke extensively about the life and story of Chica Da Silva, and how concubinage was one of the most common ways for female slaves to earn liberty in the colonial period. We learned that there was opportunity for upward mobility and social ascension for those women who could “maintain long-standing affairs with white men.” Chica was the prime example of a slave who ascended from nothing to a position of incredible prestige, wealth, and stature stemming from the manumission papers granted by her lover Joao Fernandes. Romantic relations (in this example, concubinage) served as an economic and social means of ...

... middle of paper ...

...ey. Under Investigation for the Abominable Sin: Damian de Morales Stands Accused of Attempting to Seduce Anton de Tierra de Congo. Colonial Lives: Documents on Latin American History 1550-1850. Edited by Richard Boyer & Geoffrey Spurling. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Van Deusen, Nancy. "Wife of My Soul and Heart, and All My Solace": Annulment Suit Between Diego Andres de Arenas and Ysabel Allay Suyo. Colonial Lives: Documents on Latin American History 1550-1850. Edited by Richard Boyer & Geoffrey Spurling. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Buschges, Christian. Don Manuel Valdivieso y Carrion Protests the Marriage of His Daughter to Don Teodoro Jaramillo, a Person of Lower Social Standing. Colonial Lives: Documents on Latin American History 1550-1850. Edited by Richard Boyer & Geoffrey Spurling. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000.