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Dissertation Information for Ondina Ester Gonzalez

NAME:
- Ondina Ester Gonzalez

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- History

SCHOOL:
- Emory University (USA) (2001)

ADVISORS:
- Susan Migden Socolow

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Peter J Bakewell
- Jeffrey Lesser

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: The innocents: Children of colonial Spanish America with a case study of eighteenth-century Havana

Abstract: Between 1711 and 1752, nine hundred and thirty-five children were abandoned in Casa Joseph, Havana's foundling home. This study is an attempt to contextualize these children's lives as well as non-foundlings from other parts of the Indies. Children were key to the existence of societies throughout colonial Spanish America, not only in assuring the continuation of those societies but as tools used to cement alliances, to guarantee dynasties, and to bring honor (or dishonor) to families. Undoubtedly they occupied women's time and engaged men's attentions. However, to date, our lack of work on children's lives and on childhood in the colonies limits our understanding of the society as a whole. This dissertation begins to fill that lacuna.

An important and critical place to begin any study is with the structures which give shape and context to the topic under review. It is no different with an examination of the lives of children. A necessary step in putting their experiences within a contextual framework is to understand the institutions--legal and religious--which defined their lives. While this type of study typically only give us entrée to the theoretical and ideal, it nevertheless lays the foundation upon which reality is built.

The first goal of this work is to examine the points of contact between children, primarily but not exclusively white, of colonial Spanish America and the institution which governed their lives. The second goal is, as much as possible, to examine these junctures within a given situation, colonial Havana, in order to bring to life the experiences of a group of children in that city. This examination concerns itself chiefly with what were the societal structures of a child's life, what parameters and expectations did society place on children, what were the physical realities of a child in colonial Havana. To understand how these structures interacted in the lives of children in Spanish America, this work includes a case study of the foundlings in Casa Joseph which allows for a careful examination of children's encounter with three key elements--family laws, the church, and the physical world--which affected all children throughout the colonial world.

MPACT Scores for Ondina Ester Gonzalez

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-02-02 22:55:21

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Students under Ondina Ester Gonzalez

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None