Like many previous works, this book reminds us that the Spanish imperial hierarchy distinguished rank in a multilayered fashion, primarily on the basis of calidad and policía rather than the more ethnically and racially oriented limpieza de sangre. Indeed, given the nature of the hierarchy, Carrera questions whether colonial notions of raza as lineage can be compared to nineteenth-century notions of race derived from social Darwinism. She uses court documents, literary sources, and edicts and decrees, as would any historian; however, as a trained art historian, she integrates a thorough review of the eighteenth-century casta paintings by Miguel Cabrera, Andrés de Islas, and others. She demonstrates that the clothing worn and mannerisms displayed define the quality and character of the Europeans, Amerindians, and Africans portrayed. This emphasis in late colonial iconography (which does not completely eliminate racial notions more akin to limpieza) helps to explain the transformations, by means...
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Book Review|
November 01 2004
Imagining Identity in New Spain: Race, Lineage, and the Colonial Body in Portraiture and Casta Paintings
Imagining Identity in New Spain: Race, Lineage, and the Colonial Body in Portraiture and Casta Paintings
. By Carrera, Magali M.. Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Series in Latin American and Latino Art and CultureCarrera
. Austin
: University of Texas Press
, 2003
. Plate. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index
. xviii
, 188
pp. Cloth
, $34.95.Hispanic American Historical Review (2004) 84 (4): 734–735.
Citation
Abel Alves; Imagining Identity in New Spain: Race, Lineage, and the Colonial Body in Portraiture and Casta Paintings. Hispanic American Historical Review 1 November 2004; 84 (4): 734–735. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/00182168-84-4-734
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