Limpieza De Sangre In The Philippines

In her book, Genealogical Fictions: Limpieza de Sangre, Religion, and Gender in Colonial Mexico, Maria Elena Martinez exposes the relationship between limpieza de sangre and the sistema de castas through its origins in fifthteen-century Spain and its ambiguous implications in Spanish America. Originally containing religious connotations during the Spanish Inquisition over concerns of converted Jews and Muslims to Christianity, Martinez attempts to answer the question of how and why the notion of limpieza de sangre adopted into a colonial setting regarding race. Moving in a chronological order, Martinez divides her book into three sections: the genesis of limpieze de sangre in Spain, its transfer and purpose in early colonial Mexico, and its racial ramifications in eighteenth century Mexico.

Martiniez argues that the various factors in Spanish America played an interdependent role on the transfer of religiosity in limpieza de sangre into the racialization of the sistema de castas. In examining how limpieza de sangre transferred to the new world, Martinez mentions that the Spanish crown required …show more content…
She demonstrates the transition limpieza de sagre endured in New Spain to fit growing concerns of racial mixing in colonial Mexico. In addition to connecting the transatlantic notion of limpieza de sangre, Martinez's analysis on the rise of criollismo and other factors that developed purity of blood as it relates to whiteness remains a strong aspect of her work. While her analysis on the role of Africans and women to the development of limpieza de sangre and the sistema de castas remains underexamined, her inclusion of Native Indians to these developments are essential. Martinez's research and analysis serves as a model for historians to examine when investigating limpieza de sangre or the sistema de