USC_AMST 554Readings in Chicano/Latino History
w/ USC Professor George Sanchez
Negotiating Conquest: Gender and Power in California, 1770s to 1880s. By Miroslava Chávez-García. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2004. xxvii + 240 pp. Illustration, map, tables, glossary, notes, bibliography, index. $39.95.)
November 18, 2009
The study of women’s history has been a topic of much discussion in academia, but the study of Mexican-American, Indigenous, African, and mixed raced women in the history of California is a new frontier. In her book, Negotiating Conquest, Miroslava Chávez-García has found a way to bring forward the often dismissed history of women in the West. By using a legal framework in which court documents tell the story of how women negotiated power and conquest from their husbands, their families, the legal system, the government and each other, Chávez-García paints a picture in which the status of women in society played a huge role in her ability to move ahead. Most urgently, for students and scholars unfamiliar with intersectional identity, Chávez-García describes in great detail the various descriptions of mulatas/mulatos – men or women of Spanish African descent, indio/india – Native man or woman or member of an North American indigenous people, indegenas – indigenous people, neofita/neofito – Christianized native men or women, espanoles/espanolas – Spanish men and women, gentiles – Non-Christian pagan people, casta – a racially mixed individual, and gente de razon – Spanish speaking colonists as distinguished from the native peoples of California.
These identification markers are important as they are part of the fabric of history in which Chávez-García sets her narrative as to who was able to seek assistance from the courts when it came to land, power, abuse and the Americanized trend of divorce. Using legal court documents, Chávez-García sets out to argue that gender played a role in early California throughout the Spanish and Mexican eras and the American West. Negotiating Conquest is not only referring to colonial conquest, but also refers to the negotiation that women made in order to achieve personal upward mobility. Part of negotiation power for women also including the negotiation of power by men. Although most of the court documents used by Chávez-García are set in the 1840’s and some are incomplete, the documents show that women were able to take to court husbands who illegally took possession of their lands and/or were not responsible bread winners or fathers. Because gender roles played a big role in the household, expectations of female roles also deemed for the expectations of male roles. This shift in power and the degree in which women knew how to maneuver within the system allowed them to seek independence from otherwise uncomfortable situations that dealt with physical abuse, infidelity, and lack of financial care.
This power however, was limited. Chávez-García demonstrates in her book that it was women who were gente de razon and espanolas that securely moved through the system. Neofitas, indias, indegenas, castas, and mulatas, had little resources or means. This class system amongst women adds to the many layers of patriarchy, gender, and the position of power in which Mexican California originated from and how it changed with the development of the American West. Chávez-García adds a new and exciting narrative to the history of women, women of color and the often overlooked history of a multi-lingual, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and three times colonized California.
These identification markers are important as they are part of the fabric of history in which Chávez-García sets her narrative as to who was able to seek assistance from the courts when it came to land, power, abuse and the Americanized trend of divorce. Using legal court documents, Chávez-García sets out to argue that gender played a role in early California throughout the Spanish and Mexican eras and the American West. Negotiating Conquest is not only referring to colonial conquest, but also refers to the negotiation that women made in order to achieve personal upward mobility. Part of negotiation power for women also including the negotiation of power by men. Although most of the court documents used by Chávez-García are set in the 1840’s and some are incomplete, the documents show that women were able to take to court husbands who illegally took possession of their lands and/or were not responsible bread winners or fathers. Because gender roles played a big role in the household, expectations of female roles also deemed for the expectations of male roles. This shift in power and the degree in which women knew how to maneuver within the system allowed them to seek independence from otherwise uncomfortable situations that dealt with physical abuse, infidelity, and lack of financial care.
This power however, was limited. Chávez-García demonstrates in her book that it was women who were gente de razon and espanolas that securely moved through the system. Neofitas, indias, indegenas, castas, and mulatas, had little resources or means. This class system amongst women adds to the many layers of patriarchy, gender, and the position of power in which Mexican California originated from and how it changed with the development of the American West. Chávez-García adds a new and exciting narrative to the history of women, women of color and the often overlooked history of a multi-lingual, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and three times colonized California.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment