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This week’s topic, “the colonial experience” is largely centred on the ways in which colonialism expressed itself with regards its impact on the societies and peoples which it touched. Colonialism, as a very complicated phenomena finds expression in many modes, and has had wide-reaching impacts that persist today. Nevertheless, colonialism tends to strike in a pattern of faultlines in social fabric, compartmentalizing populations and polarizing relations. Of those faultlines, two are especially highlighted in this week’s readings: race in Casta Paintings, and gender in the case of Lieutenant Nun. Race is a...read more read full post >>

As always, the ignorance of those long dead, who were raised in a different time with very different ideals, does not fail to irritate me. Of course it's impossible to enslave all the Indigenous Americans because more than half the population has been ... read full post >>

As always, the ignorance of those long dead, who were raised in a different time with very different ideals, does not fail to irritate me. Of course it's impossible to enslave all the Indigenous Americans because more than half the population has been ... read full post >>

As always, the ignorance of those long dead, who were raised in a different time with very different ideals, does not fail to irritate me. Of course it's impossible to enslave all the Indigenous Americans because more than half the population has been ... read full post >>

As always, the ignorance of those long dead, who were raised in a different time with very different ideals, does not fail to irritate me. Of course it's impossible to enslave all the Indigenous Americans because more than half the population has been ... read full post >>

Although I had learned about Spanish colonization and the conquistadors briefly in junior high and high school, I didn’t really know much about the Casta paintings until doing this week’s readings.  What surprised me about the article of the Casta paintings was that these artifacts were controversial even in their day, albeit the controversy was […] read full post >>

What became of the America’s after colonization was a complex process of cultural diversification. It is interesting to see how after 1942, the continent of America (both North and South) became diversified in terms of the different races and peoples that began to settle in the Americas. The Casta Paintings are a very clear example […] read full post >>

I will be honest – Before LAST100, I had never heard of Casta Paintings before. However, after watching the lecture video, reading “Casta Paintings” by Susan Deans-Smith, and taking a closer look at these paintings, I have learned a fair bit. Casta paintings depict the different mixes in Latin America, starting with 3 different ‘purebreds’ …

Continue reading "Week 3: The Colonial Experience"

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One of the great tragedies of history, it seems to me, is Spain’s apparent inability to recognize value in culture other than its own. Not only did the country conquer and expel those who did not meet the monarchy’s strict standards of conformity at home, they also went abroad and decimated cultures- either through total […] read full post >>

So this week was focused on the Casta Paintings or grouping of people based on race. It was used for social control and often dictated someones role in the social system. Some defining characteristics depicted in the paintings were the clothes the people were wearing. Generally the “purer” European descendant wore the most elaborate and expensive clothing. So Spain during this time of colonization and expansions of the new world seemed to be having a sort of identity crisis in the homeland. They wanted to create a more uniform land....read more read full post >>