HIS240: Latin America to Independence

Fall Semester 2005

Essay #2: Spanish America Identity

Due: Monday, December 5^th.

Form: 5-8 pages. Papers must be typed, double-spaced, numbered, and stapled. Cite your sources appropriately and consistently (footnotes, endnotes, or in text).

Topic: Consider the nature of “identity construction” in Spanish America. How did various groups define themselves? In what ways did all these definitions include the growing sense of being “American”?

Self-definitions almost always include a definition of the other. Often, in Spanish America, one group would define itself in terms of another. At times these are positive definitions (we are like them in these ways); at times these are negative definitions (we are distinct because we differ from them in this important way).

In what ways, then, did these various identities create common ground or strict divisions between the various groups? How did class, race, gender, occupation, etc. color the ways in which people defined themselves in Spanish America? What was at stake in these definitions? What cost or benefit might come from defining yourself in a certain way, or convincing other to define you in that way?

How was Spain viewed from the perspective of these developing American identities? How did the nature of identity construction serve as a foundation for an independent identity within the Americas?

Make reference to at least six of the documents in the Mills & Taylor collection. Also, consider LaFaye, Burkholder, I, Worst of All, The Mission, and other material covered in class. You may go back to Broken Spears and A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies, if they serve your argument.

Structure: As always, state your thesis clearly and support it with a well structured argument. You are welcome to come to my office hours to discuss your thesis or outline of your paper. Papers must have a title (more suggestive than “paper #2), a clear introduction, and a conclusion that does more than repeat your thesis.