I really enjoyed reading about and analyzing the Casta paintings. Even without reading about them, it is obvious just by looking that one of their main purposes is to show the ways in which different races mix. But, as the reading suggests, these paintings could be seen as telling us more than just about racial […]
After watching the lecture and reading the articles, I was most inclined to write about Latin Americans’ “anxious identity” as well as the Casta paintings. “Latin America is a place where identity seems to come into focus, but also where identity always threatens to dissolve” This particular phrase from the lecture really stood out toContinue reading “week 3: the colonial experience”
Alec Dawson on the legacies of colonialism (podcast)
Week 3 lecture (video)
Coming from a country with a colonial history myself and having studied development and international relations, I found this week particularly interesting as it allowed me to engage with colonial experiences from another perspective. Whilst I am extremely familiar with … Continue reading →
Coming from a country with a colonial history myself and having studied development and international relations, I found this week particularly interesting as it allowed me to engage with colonial experiences from another perspective. Whilst I am extremely familiar with … Continue reading →
In light of the Fall of Granada in February of 1492, marking the end of Muslim rule of the Spanish Empire, and the declaration of the Alhambra Decree that ordered the immediate expulsion or forced Christian conversion of all Jews issued in the following month of March, Colombus’ exploration seems to have been rather unimportant …
Continue reading “The Early Development of the Latin American Identity”
A common denominator with different casta paintings is how they treat race as a central aspect of the piece of art. This is due to the definition of casta: a term that describes mixed-race individuals in Spanish America, resulting from unions of Spania…
I had learned a little about casta paintings in a cultural anthropology course a few semesters ago. Arguably, race is a constructed concept, and in colonial Latin America, it seems race was constructed to favour and ensure Spanish supremacy in the area. Interestingly, I think this relates to the general idea of Latin America; it […]
