Los estudios sobre la presencia de Espana en America se han multiplicado durante la ultima decada. Sin embargo, este auge tan notable no se ha visto reflejado a traves de un agudo analisis que ponga en claro muchos de los asuntos que hicieron que la colonia permaneciera en atraso considerable no tan solo del resto de America sino de los otros pueblos europeos y de la propia metropoli Dentro de este grupo de asuntos no ventilados con la profundidad que se merecen, para el mejor entendimiento de las postrimerias de la etapa colonial, destacan las Reformas Borbonicas y por ende de su principal promotor en la Nueva Espana: Don Jose Bernardo de Galvez El Mexico Borbonico, 1763 a 1810, tuvo su origen en la exitosa colaboracion de un gobierno despotico pero ilustrado, con un grupo vigoroso de comerciantes capitalistas y millonarios mineros. Por to que, el exito de las reformas economicas del gobierno dependio del espiritu de empress y del capital de aquellos hombres de negocios Este periodo de la etapa colonial hispanoamericana para mejor entenderla, se debe reflexionar, primero, con la visita de Galvez (1765--71), por ser la energica reorganizacion que en todos los aspectos de la administracion colonial el Visitador Jose deGalvez realizo. Revolucion en el gobierno, que no unicamente implicaba la creacion de instituciones nuevas, sino que tambien exigia la importacion de nuevos hombres La realidad es que Jose de Galvez pronto fue conocido, no unicamente, por su preferencia por los peninsulares, sino tambien por su persistente favoritismo por sus compatriotas malaguenos, y por su implacable nepotismo. Durante su ministerio (1776--87), se crearon cientos de puestos administrativos en las grandes dependencias fiscales de recaudacion de impuestos y del monopolio del tabaco y en las intendencias, Galvez dio rienda suelta a sus inclinaciones De especial importancia es la Visita a la Nueva Espana, su significado, su importancia y caracteristicas. Incluye las Instrucciones a Jose B. de Galvez para la Nueva Espana y las Instrucciones, y llegada a la Peninsula de Yucatan, de la Comision, enviada por el propio Galvez. Se hace referencia a la manera en que interpreto y llevo a la practica las reformas borbonicas en la Nueva Espana, e iniciandolas de manera conjunta en Veracruz y, en consecuencia, su impacto para la Peninsula de Yucatan. (Abstract shortened by UMI.) / acase@tulane.edu

How did indigenous government and indigenous notions of autonomy in Mexico City's peripheral neighborhoods change when new peoples---Afro-Mexicans, mestizos, Asians, and Spaniards---emerged as numerically dominant groups during the seventeenth century? To answer this question this dissertation uncovers how everyday citizens of Mexico City lived, constructed alliances, worked, and identified with one another when they came into contact. In addition, it demonstrates how the complex and ethnically diverse city created social alternatives for individuals outside of the framework of Republicas devised by Spanish conquerors. This work privileges the voices and actions of working-class individuals, and seeks to discover how they understood their social and cultural world. Because the creation of modern Mexican identity occurred on a working-class level, largely through the process of mestizaje, using this approach enables this work to glimpse the processes of identity formation from a non-elite perspective Fundamental to this project is the understanding that the two peoples who came into contact in 1519, Spaniards and Nahuas, were both hierarchical and imperial. Their encounter, which is understood quite well from an elite perspective, must be better understood also as a non-elite phenomena. Working-class Indians in Mexico City reacted to the introduction of new Spanish-styled Indian governments in many variant ways. This is the story of macehuales (non-elite Indians) who rejected indigenous governments and in so doing created new social and political space by forming alliances based on community identity. It is also the story of how new community identities served to undermine the institutions of Spanish-styled indigenous self-government. By rejecting both Hispanic and indigenous culture and institutions in their pure forms, non-elite Mexico City residents created 'ladino spaces' in which they constructed social organization outside the framework of elite design / acase@tulane.edu

Alejandro Ramirez y Blanco served the Spanish crown as Secretary to the Captain General of Guatemala, Intendent of Puerto Rico, and Intendent of Havana and Superintendent of Cuba. Historiography debates the efficacy of the institution of the intendency and of the character and merits of Ramirez himself. This study first examines the intellectual milieu in Enlightenment Europe that influenced Spain and the education of this intendent and then examines his life and work Ramirez accomplishments prove that the institution of the intendency was effective in implementing reforms, but that this depended on the man appointed to serve. In this case, Ramirez improved the conditions in Puerto Rico and Cuba and raised the standard of living of the residents through the building of coalitions between peninsular Spaniards and the colonial elite to implement beneficial changes. It also shows that continuation of these reforms after the tenure of a talented official depended on the quality of the men chosen for replacements and that in these two colonies, those who served after Ramirez, abandoned reforms, thus mitigating long-term benefits of his service Historians either eulogize or demonize Ramirez for the effects of his actions. This study determines that both are true, although those actions for which he draws criticism either remained within the mainstream of Spanish Enlightenment policies or came as a result of circumstances in which he served as an unknowing participant. Nevertheless, his devotion to service, his integrity, and his honesty serve as an example of the best that the Spanish crown offered its empire / acase@tulane.edu

Juan Fermin de Aycinena became the wealthiest, the most prominent, and probably the most powerful individual in late colonial Central America. A mid-eighteenth century immigrant from Navarre (via New Spain), Aycinena adroitly manipulated Spanish colonial institutions (family, state and church) in amassing unrivalled wealth, status, and power. To be sure, Aycinena displayed remarkable business acumen. But he also had the great fortune to arrive in Central America at the time of its greatest economic expansion, based largely on indigo. Numerous entrepreneurs took advantage of the opportunities presented by the dramatic economic growth, but Aycinena's success dwarfed all others. Staked to great wealth through his first marriage, he became the region's leading exporter, importer, and lender. At the same time, he became an important buttress of Spanish power in Central America. Aycinena contributed to commercial expansion, isthmian defense, and the church. A decisive moment in his ascent came in the aftermath of the 1773 destruction of Santiago de Guatemala, capital of colonial Central America. The physical transfer and construction of a new Central American capital was largely his responsibility. For his numerous services to the Spanish Crown, Aycinena received a Castilian title, the only title in late colonial Central America. The acquisition of the title in itself illustrates an important phenomenon, the dual operation of prestige and profit motives. A further indication of such combined motives was his establishment, in the year of his death, of an entailed estate. Aycinena was able to place his family in such a position that it would continue to dominate Central America politics, commerce, and society for much of the nineteenth century, and in some ways, even to the present. Although Aycinena was the Kingdom of Guatemala's most successful businessman, and thus an exceptional one, his career nevertheless tells us much about business, politics, and society in Bourbon Central America / acase@tulane.edu

In 1970, the University of California published the second, revised edition of John Leddy Phelan's seminal study, The Millennial Kingdom of the Franciscans in the New World. Since the publication of Phelan's first edition in 1956, most subsequent related historiography has upheld Phelan's implicit argument that a wave of millennial fervor swept the Franciscans of sixteenth-century New Spain. This thesis contends that millennialism was rather an intellectual movement of a small number of friar-historians including Toribio de Benavente 'Motolinia', (1482/91-1569), Geronimo de Mendieta, (1528-1604), Andres de Olmos (d. 1571) and Pedro Oroz (d. 1597). Through the rhetorical tool of a Joachite schema of divine history, the millennialist, most especially Mendieta, protested the policies of the Spanish crown which attacked the power and position of the Franciscan order in the second half of the sixteenth-century. In addition, millennialism was a technique which allowed the Franciscan historians to escape the confining methodologies of scholastic historiography. Finally, by tracing the development of millennial thought in the Franciscan order, this thesis clarifies many terms such as millennialism, Messianic, mystic and millenarianism that authors mistakenly employ interchangeably through most of the historiography / acase@tulane.edu

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Guatemala experienced a dramatic series of transformations in the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries during over seven decades of rule by a series of Liberal dictators. This study explores the crucial role that regional diversity played in conditioning the nature, pace and direction of change in that period. Using the Department of San Marcos as an exemplar of Guatemala's Occidente and the Department of Chiquimula as an example from the Oriente, the dissertation explores the impact of Liberal policies on land, labor and agriculture in these two distinct regions. By focusing on three policy areas which were crucial elements of the Liberal efforts to transform Guatemala after 1871, this study highlights the disparate outcomes of national polices as they came into contact with the radical diversity which is so characteristic of Guatemala In both Chiquimula and San Marcos the intentions of the distant ruling elites rarely became a reality. As the newly ascendent Liberals seized power in 1871 they dreamed of transforming Guatemala and they rapidly passed a series of laws meant to radically change the country and propel it into a new era. Their efforts, however, were quickly frustrated by the weakness of the Guatemalan state and the radical diversity of Guatemalan society. Attempts to transform land tenure patterns through laws encouraging land titling, selling off national lands, and encouraging settlement had a variety of outcomes. In both regions, however, local conditions had a huge effect on how these policy efforts played themselves out. Many of Chiquimula's and San Marcos' communities effectively used the new laws to amass larger municipal lands. Rather than fostering the formation of coffee fincas and individual property as the Liberal had hoped, the new laws confirmed clear title on peasant producer and communities. The Liberal efforts to force the nation's majority to work on coffee plantations, road crews, and state projects through a regime of forced labor had a similarly ambiguous effect on the two regions studied here, and their efforts to boost export production worked magnificently to encourage coffee production, but most Guatemalans remained small to medium staple producers. The changes wrought by law were uneven and often the outcomes were far from those intended In short, Guatemala had been transformed by a myriad of forces by the end of the Liberal era in 1945, however, state policies played really only a minor part in those changes. While the elites in the capital dreamed of forging a new nation through laws and decrees, their actions were consistently frustrated by the diversity of Guatemalan society. Local political culture, ecological variation, ethnic diversity, and the tenuous integration of the country all militated against the formation of a unified nation and the efforts of the ruling elites tended to exacerbate divisions rather than subsume them. As a result, throughout most of the period under study here, the municipalities of Guatemala were able to negotiate and condition the nature and direction of the changes taking place within their society. This was possible because it remained their society. The national state was institutionally weak and Guatemala continued to be a country of pueblos / acase@tulane.edu

This is a study of Los Altos, a region located in the western highlands of Guatemala, focusing on the period 1750-1885. During these years the region underwent significant demographic, economic, and social changes. These changes, in turn, laid the foundation for the gradual transformation of Los Altos, a backwater region of the Spanish Empire, into the leading economic and political region of modern Guatemala. Based on archival sources, this dissertation aims to reconstruct and analyze that historical process with a view to integrating Los Altos's experience into Guatemala's historical narrative, emphasizing the region's key role in the formation of the Guatemalan nation-state In the latter part of the eighteenth century, there emerged an economically and politically ambitious regional elite made up of the most successful commercial agriculturists and merchants of Los Altos. In the nineteenth century, drawing from their experience under the reform-oriented Bourbons and the liberal Spanish Cortes, these notables's aspirations crystallized into a strong regionalist movement against the dominant merchant and planter interests of Guatemala City. The movement eventually bore fruit in 1838, when Los Altos became the sixth state of the Central American Federation. The union collapsed, however, and the dissident departments were forcibly reintegrated into the state of Guatemala by the rising caudillo, Rafael Carrera, with the enthusiastic support of the Indian population. Though repressed, regionalist and liberal sentiments-remained strong among the non-Indian sectors throughout the long conservative regime. Shortly after Carrera's death, a new generation of Altense liberals raised the banner of revolt. In alliance with disaffected elements from the capital and Oriente, they succeeded in toppling the conservative regime and restoring liberal rule. The Altense coffee planter, Justo Rufino Barrios, took over the government in 1873, becoming the most powerful political figure of Central America until his death in 1885. Under Barrios's Reforma regime, Los Altos became the leading coffee-producing region of Guatemala, and its wealthy coffee planter class assumed influential positions in national politics as well. Guatemala was governed by Altense caudillos until 1920. The Altense liberal legacy has continued to shape Guatemalan historical development down to this day / acase@tulane.edu

This study examines the history of Protestant work in Guatemala, from the efforts of foreign Bible vendors, in the early nineteenth century through 1983, when the nation's first evangelical president, General Efra(')in R(')ios Montt, was ousted from office This work seeks to answer two central questions. (1) Why did the efforts of American missionaries between 1890 and 1960 have such poor results? (2) What kinds of changes took place after 1960 that allowed Protestants to account for twenty-five percent of Guatemala's population in 1980? This work suggests that the foreign missionaries offered a formula for salvation that was culturally inappropriate for most Guatemalans. The missionaries emphasized the ideals complemented the political goals of the Liberal governments who sponsored the missionaries. They had little appeal, however, for the average Guatemalan, who continued to adhere to Catholic, organic values Following the overthrow of the revolutionary government of Jacobo Arbenz in 1954, however, Guatemalan Protestantism changed dramatically, as nationalistic native Protestants began to leave the missions to form their own congregations. These new sects were indigenous in form and Pentecostal in theology. Simultaneously, a new breed of American missionaries began to flow into the country, calling for an end to sectarianism and offering Protestantism as a spiritual alternative to communism. The new missionaries launched an evangelical revival in the early 1960s which gave new impetus to the indigenous Protestant churches. Buffered by the association of evangelicalism and anti-communism, the native evangelicals could redirect the frustrated nationalism of the Arbenz period into a religious forum Guatemala's 1976 earthquake spurred Protestant growth in two ways. (1) Protestant relief workers exposed large numbers of Guatemalans to their message. (2) the earthquake signaled the beginning of a downward spiral of national chaos marked by warfare, terror, and economic decline. In the midst of this trauma, the indigenous Protestant churches offered spiritual solace, and a political stance which absolved the believer from the dangerous demands of Catholic Liberation Theology. Indigenous Protestantism has become the new religion of the helpless and the hopeless in Guatemala, and for that reason, it continues to thrive. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.) / acase@tulane.edu

This study explores architectural imitation in relation to preservation, using Mexico City and Buenos Aires as case studies, emphasizing the period 1880-1930, which carried on the first important architectural and urban transformation after independence in Latin America. By using architectural forms being employed in Europe at the time and whose focus was located in Paris, Mexico city and especially Buenos Aires made extensive use of eclectic forms. This eclecticism and its cosmopolitanism was a truly architecture international style located in several continents besides Europe and America in Asia and Africa. Architects and urban planners proclaimed the dictum of Paris' architectural schools in cities like Washington, Mexico City and Buenos Aires that shared the same spirit of time. This period can be considered modern despite the use of forms and elements from styles of the past because its attitudes and feelings were cosmopolitan, embracing new construction technologies together with new materials like cement, steel and glass and their application to new buildings. Artistic and architectural forms of colonial and pre-Hispanic origin were found together with art deco, modernism and avant-garde'. It is within this period that preservation was introduced as a nationalistic attitude and together with it was also fostered the use of baroque, indigenous and colonial forms; alas, the demolition of traditional fabrics to raise modern buildings was accepted by most as a necessary condition to reach the modernization sponsored by the elite. However the centralism expressed through the intervention of the capital cities allowed to preserve intact the greater part of colonial cities since progress did not arrive there, and those cities were the majority / acase@tulane.edu