Dissertation Information for Irene Elizabeth Vasquez NAME: - Irene Elizabeth Vasquez
DEGREE:
- Ph.D.
DISCIPLINE:
- History
SCHOOL:
- University of California, Los Angeles (USA) (2004)
ADVISORS: - Kevin Terraciano - James Lockhart
COMMITTEE MEMBERS: - Steve Loza
MPACT Status: Fully Complete
Title: The indigenous factor in Nueva Vizcaya: The north of Mexico, 1550--1790
Abstract: The central notion of the dissertation is to show that though the indigenous populations of the north of Mexico did not determine the shape of things after contact with the Spaniards as obviously as did the native peoples of central Mexico in their area, nevertheless in a different way they exercised decisive influence on Spanish measures, and in places retained much of their cultural heritage from initial contact to the 1790's. Emphasis is placed on the great variety of the landscapes and peoples of the north, both before and after contact.
Scholarship has depicted the northern region as characterized by Spanish initiative and ingenuity in refashioning Native settlement, labor, and leadership patterns. However, Spanish policies not only reflected past practice and experience in the Caribbean and central Mexico, varied greatly from locality to locality, and were of varying durability, but they were effective only when they were consonant with local indigenous realities and had the Natives' consent. Even Spanish-devised institutions such as the mission and presidio were far from the monolithic systems they were once imagined to have been. Spanish officials always negotiated with Native leaders and individuals in making their innovations; the imposition of Spanish institutions in the north was not a one-sided process. Although Native groups often put up strong and long-lasting military resistance, that was not their only tactic, and they abandoned rebellion when it no longer suited their interests. Indigenous officials pursued legal redress in resisting forced settlements, religious indoctrination, and the appropriation of their lands. Issuing formal complaints against Spanish officials and continuing indigenous sacred practices despite all discouragement were among the ways Native people of the north asserted themselves. Rather than viewing the Spanish regime in the north as entirely Spanish-directed and distinct from the center, this study presents the major facets of the northward advance as an evolving process in which both Natives and Spaniards took part.
This manuscript is in aim and outlook a preliminary social history that touches on the experiences of those often overlooked, including Native women. The author relies on traditional accounts and archival records used by previous scholars, but also taps a rich record of Native petitions, housed in the archiepiscopal archive of Durango, that have heretofore been underutilized.
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MPACT Scores for Irene Elizabeth Vasquez A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-08-11 12:15:37
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