1. Introduction; 2. The natural lords: asserting continuity, 1531–66; 3. Cacique informants and early Spanish texts, 1535–80; 4. Cacique-chroniclers and the origins of Creole historiography, 1580–1640; 5. Cacique-hidalgos: envisioning ancient roots in the mature colony; 6. Cacique-patrons: Mexicanizing the Church; 7. Cacique-letrados: an Indian gentry after 1697; 8. Cacique-ambassadors and the 'Indian nation' in Bourbon Mexico; 9. Conclusion.
This book explores colonial indigenous historical accounts to offer a new interpretation of the origins of Mexico's neo-Aztec patriotic identity.
Peter B. Villella is Assistant Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro.
'Professor Villella has proven that there is no key juncture in the
development of Mexico's imaginary past in which indigenous figures
were not involved. After reading Villella's book, one can in no way
argue that Indians themselves were not integrally involved in the
production and evolution of the nation's self-understanding. It is
a masterful work.' Camilla Townsend, Rutgers University, New
Jersey
'Indigenous Elites and Creole Identity in Colonial Mexico,
1500–1800 is a masterful, revisionist study of native leaders in
New Spain who capitalized on their ancestral heritage to create and
secure prestigious positions for themselves and their families.
Covering the longue durée of the colonial era, Peter B. Villella's
exemplary research, most remarkably, reveals that the native
peoples' glorious primordial story of Aztec achievement also served
their counterparts, the creole Spaniards, who appropriated the same
indigenous sources and monuments as patria to exemplify Mexico as
grand and equivalent to any place in the world. Erudite and
eloquently written, the book is a landmark contribution to our
field.' Susan Schroeder, France Vinton Scholes Professor of
Colonial Latin American History Emerita, Tulane University
'This beautifully written book is a magnificent contribution to
Latin American intellectual history. Villella uses a rich variety
of legal records, unpublished manuscripts, and printed books to
examine the historical consciousness and vision of indigenous
nobles in New Spain who strategically adapted their own
Mesoamerican concepts of hereditary authority and rank to Spanish
notions of nobility in order to maintain and advance their status
in the colonial order. Villella shows how indigenous and mestizo
writers and actors participated in the construction of a local,
proto-nationalist, patriotic discourse that has been attributed
primarily, if not exclusively, to Spanish Creoles.' Kevin
Terraciano, University of California, Los Angeles
'In his engaging and comprehensive Indigenous Elites and Creole
Identity in Colonial Mexico, 1500–1800, Professor Peter B. Villella
takes the reader beyond this well-established narrative to examine
the conditions and strategies that allowed generations of
indigenous noble families from diverse ethnic groups to preserve
some recognizable guise of their original status under increasingly
adverse circumstances. The author painstakingly shows how the
Indian nobility developed and exploited its ties to sectors of a
creole elite that was still finding its footing in colonial
society.' Osvaldo Pardo, Hispanic American Historical Review
'… deftly exposes how both indigenous elites and creoles
selectively employed the historical past to serve the different
needs of each body. … Villella's work is impressive in its use of
archival sources to cast a brighter light on the myriad ways
natives, and even creoles, engaged history to further their
ambitions …' Mark Christensen, Latin American Research Review
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
