Blogs

First and foremost, I would like to say shoutouts to Jon's haircut in this one. It looks nice.Re: Religion as WeaponIn one of our previous classes, we discussed (briefly) the use and implementation of religion re: the new world. In my group, we discuss... read full post >>

First and foremost, I would like to say shoutouts to Jon's haircut in this one. It looks nice.

Re: Religion as Weapon

In one of our previous classes, we discussed (briefly) the use and implementation of religion re: the new world. In my group, we discussed that religion has the ability to be used as a weapon intended to indoctrinate people. One of my classmates in the discussion called himself a "recovering catholic", and never have I found a term with more relatability than that one. Upon leaving this discussion, I wondered if there was any room for spirituality in religious institution. It seems to me that in history (such as the Philippines, which was also a Spanish colony at one point), religious institutions are primarily used to instill certain morals and ideas in the best interests of the colonizers. The term "ethnic cleansing" comes into play in the lecture in pertaining to this, with the King and Queen of Spain made it clear that an unwillingness to concede to their religion would be punishable by death. I find it really tough to come up with a response to this aside from silence and a lot of lingering thoughts all pointing to "that's so wrong." Really depressing stuff.    

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Re: Casta Paintings

Casta paintings are an interesting breed, as they function as art pieces, as well as a potential piece of anthropological and historical research for a shifting culture. I kind of see a lot of relevant contributions that casta paintings. The first being the aforementioned potential piece of anthropological and historical research of latin american culture during colonial rule. It allows us, as people who are looking into history and culture, to contextualize and peer into the ideals and societal perceptions of the spanish colonial elite on the growing society they are a part of, as well as how they perceived groups of people. However, that component is dedicated more to the future (us as observers) as opposed to the present of the casta paintings. I feel like casta paintings have the capacity to be construed as blueprints for to literally box in certain groups into certain stereotypes. And even as anthropological and historical research, they can get pretty unreliable at certain parts, like having certain groups of people labelled as "I don't know understand you are" or "a step backward". There are points when looking at and reading about casta paintings where it's remarkably easy to say "that's problematic".

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This week we are looking at the Colonial experience through Cast Paintings, the story of Luitenent Nun, peer videos and lecture. I found the Memoir of Catalina de Eraus very interesting. I had never heard of Catalina nor of another female colonizer. Her journey from a convent, to multiple cities in Spain, to crossing the seas […] read full post >>

The Sistema Casta was a complex system in which Spanish colonizers attempted to make distinctions between as many different interracial... read full post >>

In Casta painting, groups are distinguished from one another in a variety of ways. Clothing is one way in which this is achieved. The whiter the person, the nicer, or more elaborate the clothing. The depictions of a Spanish family of entirely European descent show figures with the most refined wardrobes considering the fashion of […] read full post >>

I hadn’t thought of the colonial experience as a Spanish (or European) crisis of identity before. I had pictured the colonizers as eagerly consuming all the land they were able to, and exploiting those resources and people who lived there. … Continue reading → read full post >>

When learning about history, what seems to stick with me the most is how historical events and ideas manifest themselves in the present day. When reading about casta paintings this week from Susan Deans-Smith’s article, I kept thinking about how these … Continue reading → read full post >>

After reading about the Casta Paintings, the deconstructionist side of me wonders what Jacques Derrida would have to say about them and everything they stood for. I find it fascinating that the separation of society is so fastidiously depicted in the paintings right down to what was worn by whom; and I suppose they had […] read full post >>

This week we have looked at casta paintings and the colonial experience. I found the casta paintings really interesting because they represented the social hierarchy found in Latin America at the time. At first, I tried to search for any signs that casta paintings might’ve had the intention of celebrating diversity  by showing the different […] read full post >>

The Meeting of the Two Worlds In the second week of the course, we discussed the Columbus’ discovery of the Americas, and how this interaction between the two different worlds led to the creation of the term ‘Latin America’. In … Continue reading → read full post >>