RESIGNIFYING MESTIZO CULTURE INLAND: Aguascalientes, New Galicia, 17th and 18th centuries

One of the most engaging debates in Latin American historiography revolves around the concept of mestizaje. For some historians and anthropologists, it is a "myth," a "legend," or a "mask" that hides the persistence of social discrimination, particularly against indigenous and Afro-descendant people; for others, like myself, the concept of mestizaje is not only the central theme of social and cultural history but can also be redefined and serve as an antidote against persistent racism or essentialism, both globally and locally. Because, in any case, we do not have another concept with such strength that helps us explain one of the most relevant processes in Latin American and Mexican history, in particular, although it requires giving it new historical content.
Certainly, the concept of mestizaje has had different uses. Perhaps the most well-known is the one generated by the Creole patriots who, in trying to differentiate themselves from the Spanish, proposed the fusion of Spanish and Indigenous as an alternative, an idea that would be reinforced and expanded in the 19th century by authors such as Francisco Pimentel and Justo Sierra, up to Vasconcelos' project and the "cosmic race," certainly a racial concept that aimed to "whiten" or "beautify" the Mexican population.
This racial use of miscegenation has been questioned and, according to historiographical advances, is fortunately in a steep decline. The development of historiography on Africans and their descendants in Mexico has clearly demonstrated that we could no longer speak of mestizaje solely based on the union of Spaniards and Indigenous people, without considering the fundamental contributions of the Afro-descendant population. The dilemma then seems to be whether to discard the concept of mestizaje or to re-signify it.
The book therefore has as its central focus the study of miscegenation in contrast to the traditional conception of the study of Spaniards and Indigenous people, with the aim of highlighting the relevance of Afro-Mestizos or, according to a period term, castes, in the formation of Aguascalientes society. The idea that mestizaje was solely the product of Spaniards and Indigenous people has been questioned in multiple ways, but especially due to the increasingly extensive bibliography on the history of African presence in the country. However, we know little about the manner, the times, the spaces, and the intensities in which the interactions of these groups of Spaniards, Indigenous people, and castes finally occurred.
Hence the interest that this study may have, as it is the first work to gather demographic information over 200 years for a parish, which years later and after multiple transformations would become a state of the Republic. That is to say, it is fundamentally a proposal of demographic history aimed at contributing to broader discussions about population growth and different social groups, about mortality crises, and in particular, about cultural interactions through mixed marriages, and the discussion about the illegitimacy associated with miscegenation. In short, it is a proposal about the dynamics of miscegenation and the contribution of the so-called "castes," that is, mestizos, mulattos, and blacks among others, to the formation of Aguascalientes society.