SciELO - Scientific Electronic Library Online

 
vol.39 issue1The Indigenous Families of Santafé, New Kingdom of Granada according to 16th and 17th Century Wills author indexsubject indexarticles search
Home Pagealphabetic serial listing  

Services on Demand

Journal

Article

Indicators

Related links

  • On index processCited by Google
  • Have no similar articlesSimilars in SciELO
  • On index processSimilars in Google

Share


Anuario Colombiano de Historia Social y de la Cultura

Print version ISSN 0120-2456

Abstract

RAPPAPORT, JOANNE. Good Blood and Spanish Habits: Rethinking Alonso de Silva and Diego de Torres. Anu. colomb. hist. soc. cult. [online]. 2012, vol.39, n.1, pp.19-48. ISSN 0120-2456.

This article explores the porous border between mestizos and indigenous people in the sixteenth-century New Kingdom of Granada by inquiring into how mestizo aspirants to Muisca cacicazgos presented themselves and were characterized by their adversaries in their negotiation of relationships with the Spanish Crown, local encomenderos, and their own subjects. The reflection focuses particularly on two men: don Alonso de Silva, cacique of Tibasosa and don Diego de Torres, cacique of Turmequé, both of whom were sons of women belonging to Muisca succession lines, but were raised in their Spanish paternal households, received an education befitting that of elite mestizos, and used their extensive command of legal literacy to achieve chiefly status. Their aspirations ran counter to those of other elite mestizos of the time, who sought social acceptance in the Spanish society of Santafé and Tunja. In contrast, these two consistently described themselves as privileged candidates for elite indigenous status by resorting to markers of Christian and Iberian identity.

Keywords : mestizaje; Muisca cacicazgos; early Colonial period; Santafé; Tunja.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )