Browsing by Author "Monahan, Kate"

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    Desirable Difference: Representations and Realities of Japanese and Other Asians In Colonial New Spain
    (2014) Monahan, Kate; Krippner, James; Smith, Paul J., 1947-
    As Hispanic empires expanded in the early modern era, cultural intermixing took place on many different levels. The galleon trade between Manila and Acapulco, beginning in the 1560s, opened flows of goods, ideas, silver, and most importantly, people between Asia and New Spain. Conceptions of the East in New Spain were informed by representations that had come before. With the influx of people and products into New Spain, however, uniquely New Spanish representations of Asian-ness gained popularity even as pre-existing markers of identity were called upon. Although on the surface Asians in New Spain were seen as a homogenous group, Japanese Christians accessed elite positions in society due to their visibility as internationally important political, economic, and religious actors. The public presence of weighty Japanese in New Spain via diplomatic envoys, travelers' stories of desirable opulence and Japanese Christians' potential for piety, and the use of Japanese artistic techniques and visual references in New Spanish art all reinforced the elite positions of Japanese Christians in New Spanish society. Similarly, the New Spanish elite accessed Japanese society, finding a mirror image to connect with which provided both historical legitimacy (as kingdoms with storied yet non-European histories) and an affirmation of their economic power and place within a global hierarchy. Depictions of the Japanese contrasted with those of other New Spanish Asians, whose varied countries of origin did not have the same cultural cachet and whose opportunities were thus more limited by the caste system. As the flow of Asians into New Spain slowed in the eighteenth century, however, the presence of Asians was lost from the historical and national narrative.
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    "¿Qué es lo que soy?": La identidad china en Nueva España a través de las representaciones textuales en los siglos XVI y XVII
    (2014) Monahan, Kate; Castillo Sandoval, Roberto
    The 1692 biography of the Indian slave and religious figure Catarina de San Juan by her confessor Juan Castillo Grajeda constructs a vision of Catarina, and by proxy Asians in New Spain, as inherently servile and humble, reinforcing their place in the caste hierarchy. Catarina's position as an incredibly popular religious figure and eventual emblem of Puebla's religious legitimacy, however, also challenged that hierarchy.