Construyendo Identidades: Mujeres Afro Descendientes En La Nueva Espana A Traves De Los Documentos Coloniales Siglos Xvii Xviii.

This study examines the intersections of gender and race in Mexico during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The project analyzes archival documents from Inquisition trials, legislation in the form of Royal Decrees, and literary works for the purpose of investigating the ways in which women of African ancestry were depicted in Mexican society by hegemonic institutions. To date, the history of the black population in Mexico, in particular Afro-Mexican women, has been studied primarily from a statistical point of view. This approach calls for a reexamination of the archival documents in order to reconstruct the lives of black females and their influence in the colonial period.