Dissertation Information for Hillel EyalNAME:
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SCHOOL: ADVISORS: COMMITTEE MEMBERS: MPACT Status: Fully Complete Title: Colonizing the colonizer: Spanish immigrants and Creoles in late colonial Mexico City Abstract: This dissertation is concerned with Spanish immigration in late colonial Mexico City and the social relations between Spanish immigrants and creoles, or American-born persons of Spanish descent. Despite the numeric negligibility of immigrants, it is hard to overstate their social, economic and cultural impact on colonial society. Towards the end of the colonial period, the old conflict between Spaniards and Creoles had intensified, as the latter were gradually displaced from positions of wealth and power vis-à-vis the former. Scholarly research has usually focused on elite occupations, thus identifying between Spanish origins and elite status. However, despite their overwhelming presence in the colonial elite, only a small share of these immigrants ever made it into the upper echelons of colonial society. This dissertation tackles the problem from a different angle by looking at Spanish versus American birth as the key social category. It also uses evidence from both sides of the Atlantic to study Spanish immigrants and their creole cousins systematically. I employ readily quantifiable sources to detect such patterns as economic mobility, marriage and social networks, comparing the two groups in a rigorous fashion. I argue that the social background of the immigrants, as well as the process and institutional framework of immigration, accounts for the nature of the Spanish community in Mexico and its attendant conflict with the local creoles. Furthermore, I argue that the Spanish-born community in the New World was far from monolithic, presenting strong variation of wealth, status and social networks along regional lines. |
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