{"id":50616,"date":"2016-12-12T22:18:09","date_gmt":"2016-12-12T22:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=50616"},"modified":"2017-03-01T21:21:01","modified_gmt":"2017-03-01T21:21:01","slug":"guest-post-a-view-from-the-past-the-contingencies-of-racialization-in-15th-and-16th-century-iberia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=50616","title":{"rendered":"Guest Post: A View from the Past: The Contingencies of Racialization in 15th- and 16th-Century\u00a0Iberia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guest Post: A View from the Past: The Contingencies of Racialization in 15th- and 16th-Century\u00a0Iberia<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The Junto: A Group Blog on Early American History<\/a>
\n2016-12-12<\/p>\n

Marley-Vincent Lindsey<\/strong><\/a>
\nBrown University, Providence, Rhode Island<\/em><\/p>\n

When Paul Gilroy<\/a> wrote his now-classic critique of cultural nationalism<\/a> in 1995, he conceived\u00a0a Black Atlantic<\/a>\u00a0that was a geo-political amalgamation of Africa, America, the Caribbean, and Europe. Gilroy was particularly interested in the construction of a modern, post-colonial cultural space\u00a0in which slavery remained\u00a0a part of modern black consciousness. His book is particularly noted for the introduction of race as a critical consideration in exploring the Black Atlantic.<\/em><\/p>\n

It is fitting then, that we kick off our week-long discussion of the Black Atlantic with a post by Marley-Vincent Lindsey<\/a>, which explores considerations of race in the Iberian Atlantic. Subsequent posts will consider Black responses to freedom (and unfreedom), historical narrative, race, and of course, power.<\/em><\/p>\n

Juan Garrido<\/a> was a typical conquistador<\/a>: arriving in Hispaniola<\/a> by 1508, Garrido accompanied Juan Ponce de Le\u00f3n<\/a> in his invasion of Puerto Rico<\/a>, and was later found with Hernan Cort\u00e9s<\/a> in Mexico City<\/a>. Yet his proofs of service, a portion of which was printed by Francisco Icaza<\/a> in a collection of autobiographies by the conquistadors and settlers of New Spain<\/a>, made a unique note: de color negro<\/em>, or \u201cof Black color.\u201d1<\/sup><\/p>\n

What significance was the color of his skin? From our crystal ball of future development, the answer is obvious: Spain<\/a> had developed a particularly unique concern for racializing individuals, and the Iberian excursions throughout the western and southern coasts of Africa <\/a>added fuel for \u201chardening identities\u201d of what was significant about being Black or White. This unique historical contingency, argued James Sweet<\/a>, was the genesis for American conceptions of race.2<\/sup><\/p>\n

Supporting this construction is the intuitive power of 1492, when Columbus<\/a> invaded the ocean blue. Iberia\u2019s<\/a> box score for the year also included the seizure of Granada<\/a> and the expulsion of Jews who refused conversion. For the century prior, there existed a rich vocabulary through which differences of religion were literally racialized: by 1611, Corrubias\u2019 Spanish dictionary defined raza<\/em> in reference to humans as being bad lineage, like Jewish or Muslim ancestry. Medievalists<\/a> like David Nirenberg<\/a> have traced these discourses through which raza gained biological potency through Castilian<\/a> and Aragonese <\/a>experiences with Jews and Moors<\/a>.3<\/sup>…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is fitting then, that we kick off our week-long discussion of the Black Atlantic with a post by Marley-Vincent Lindsey, which explores considerations of race in the Iberian Atlantic. Subsequent posts will consider Black responses to freedom (and unfreedom), historical narrative, race, and of course, power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,21,28,459],"tags":[17639,20017,1592,6011,892,25730,25729],"class_list":["post-50616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-latincarib","category-europe","category-history","tag-marley-vincent-lindsey","tag-new-spain","tag-paul-gilroy","tag-portugal","tag-spain","tag-the-junto","tag-the-junto-a-group-blog-on-early-american-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50616"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51971,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50616\/revisions\/51971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}