Before Mestizaje
The Frontiers of Race and Caste in Colonial Mexico

This book deepens our understanding of race and the implications of racial mixture by examining the history of caste in colonial Mexico.

Ben Vinson III (Author)

9781107670815, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 7 December 2017

304 pages, 29 b/w illus. 3 maps 27 tables
22.9 x 15.3 x 1.7 cm, 0.44 kg

'Before Mestizaje is a major contribution to an increasingly sophisticated literature about racial mixture in colonial Latin America with its critical scrutiny of the 'sistema de castas' and the political, legal, social, and cultural variables that shaped its development.' Susan Deans-Smith, The Journal of Interdisciplinary History

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.

1. Wayward mixture: the problem of race in the colonies
2. Mestizaje 1.0: the moment mixture had modern meaning
3. 'Castagenesis' and the moment of castizaje
4. The jungle of extremes (Castas)
5. Extreme mixture in a theater of numbers
6. Betrothed: marrying into the extremes
7. Betrothed: identity's riddle
8. Betrayed
9. Colonial bequests
Coda
Appendix A. Core records consulted from the Archivo General de la Nación
Appendix B. Place of origin of the extreme castas in Mexico City's marriage cases, 1605–1783
Appendix C. Extreme caste slave sales, from Mexico City Notarial Archive, seventeeth century
Appendix D. Identity reconsidered: factoring lineage into declarations of casta.

Subject Areas: Ethnic minorities & multicultural studies [JFSL1], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], History of the Americas [HBJK]