Description
Book SynopsisThroughout the 18th and early 19th centuries, illegitimate offspring of elite families in colonial Spanish America appealed to the Council of the Indies in Spain to purchase legitimations. This analysis provides a detailed picture of attitudes to illegitimacy in colonial Spanish America.
Trade Review"Beautifully written, capaciously documented, and compellingly argued, this book contributes enormously to the colonial Spanish-American historiography on race, social status, and culture, as well as on how these themes were played out in daily life as concerns for honor, gender, and sexuality."—Ramón Gutierrez, University of California, San Diego
"Fresh, well written, thoroughly documented, and extraordinarily informative, this outstanding social history is one of the most important works in colonial Spanish American history published in the 1990s."—
Choice"Twinam's book reflects mature scholarship developed over several decades of research and reflection . . . and is a good example of how social history can be done. . . . She has produced a book that illuminates very important aspects of Spanish American social history and late-18th-century Bourbon policy."—
Journal of Social History"Twinam has carefully reconstructed the world of the local elite, while providing a nuanced and detailed analysis of the social and economic costs of illegitimacy."—
Colonial Latin American ReviewTable of ContentsPart I. Introduction: 1. Antecedents 2. Precedents: sexuality and illegitimacy, discrimination, civil legitimation Part II. Life Course: 3. Mothers: pregnant virgins, abandoned women and the private and public price of sexuality 4. Fathers: life course and sexuality 5. Babies and illegitimacy: the politics of recognition from the font to the grave 6. Children: growing up illegitimate 7. Adults: passing, turning-point moments, and the quest for honor 8. Adults: the quest for family property Part III. The State's Response: 9. Royal officials: prelude (1717-1760) and early policy formation (1761-1775) 10. Bourbon reformers: the activist camara 1776-1793 11. Reform and retreat: Bourbon social policies after 1794 Part IV. Aftermaths: 12. The legitimated: life after Gracias al Sacar 13. Conclusion.
