Historia Crítica (Jun 2002)
Tres aproximaciones al mestizaje en América Latina colonial.
Abstract
Based on the exploration of three approaches to crossbreeding in the colonial history of Latin America: Race Mixture in the History of Latin America by Magnus Mörner, El Mestizaje como Gesta by Juan Olaechea Labayen and El Pensamiento Mestizo by Serge Gruzinski, the purpose of this article is to shed light on some of the limitations of the linguistic and conceptual tools available to historians to enable them to understand the crossbreeding process. Thus, the exercise proposed here is historiographical in nature since the immediate object of analysis is the three texts mentioned above. Nevertheless, the horizon on which the questions are formulated are the terms of the explanations themselves. The specific objectives are: firstly, to locate the central question in each work and its objective; secondly, to identify the concept elaborated by each author with respect to crossbreeding. Starting from there, the focus is placed on two main points: the relationship between crossbreeding and crossculturing and between crossbreeding and social order, in order to finally explore one of the dilemmas historians face by asking how they establish the categories with which they work.
