Asian Slaves in Colonial Mexico: From Chinos to Indians (Cambridge Latin American Studies, Series Number 100) - Hardcover

Seijas, Tatiana

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1107063124 ISBN 13: 9781107063129

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2014

Synopsis

During the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, countless slaves from culturally diverse communities in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia journeyed to Mexico on the ships of the Manila Galleon. Upon arrival in Mexico, they were grouped together and categorized as chinos. Their experience illustrates the interconnectedness of Spain's colonies and the reach of the crown, which brought people together from Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe in a historically unprecedented way. In time, chinos in Mexico came to be treated under the law as Indians, becoming indigenous vassals of the Spanish crown after 1672. The implications of this legal change were enormous: as Indians, rather than chinos, they could no longer be held as slaves. Tatiana Seijas tracks chinos' complex journey from the slave market in Manila to the streets of Mexico City, and from bondage to liberty. In doing so, she challenges commonly held assumptions about the uniformity of the slave experience in the Americas.

About this title

Book Description:

This book tracks the complex history of Asian slaves who journeyed to Mexico on the ships of the Manila Galleon in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Tatiana Seijas examines the implications of these individuals' change in legal status from the bondage of chino slavery to the freedom of the Mexico City streets as liberated Indians.

About the Author:

Tatiana Seijas is Associate Professor of History at Pennsylvania State University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1107063124
• ISBN 13: 9781107063129
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 300