Hierarchy, Commerce and Fraud in Bourbon Spanish America

Download or read book Hierarchy, Commerce and Fraud in Bourbon Spanish America written by Ruth Hill and published by Vanderbilt University Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.