A Troubled Marriage
Indigenous Elites of the Colonial Americas

Sean F. McEnroe (Author)

9780826361196

Paperback / softback, published 30 April 2020

344 pages, 21 figures
22.6 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm, 0.497 kg

McEnroe's is an arresting voice. Attentive to the perspectives and ingenuities of all kinds of people, to the energy of their meaningful stories and places, and with a hemispheric vision and cross-imperial implications (that are rarely faced), A Troubled Marriage offers a meditation upon the dynamic intercultures at the heart of the emerging Americas." - Kenneth Mills, author of Idolatry and Its Enemies: Colonial Andean Religion and Extirpation, 1640-1750

"Combining archival sources from three continents with a huge body of scholarship, Sean McEnroe explores boundary crossing throughout the vast early Americas. While mindful of power, he introduces us to dozens of fascinating people who transgressed categories, hierarchies, and identities across the hemisphere. Sweeping in scope yet grounded in the details of individual lives, A Troubled Marriage deserves a wide readership." - Brian DeLay, author of War of a Thousand Deserts: Indian Raids and the U.S.-Mexican War

A Troubled Marriage describes the lives of native leaders whose resilience and creativity allowed them to survive and prosper in the traumatic era of European conquest and colonial rule. They served as soldiers, scholars, artists, artisans, and missionaries within early transatlantic empires and later nation-states. These Indian and mestizo men and women wove together cultures, shaping the new traditions and institutions of the colonial Americas. In a comparative study that spans more than three centuries and much of the Western Hemisphere, McEnroe challenges common assumptions about the relationships among victors, vanquished, and their shared progeny.