Women Blacks and Natives in Colonial Latin America

Women, Blacks and Indigenous People in Colonial Latin America

Colonial Latin America was a diverse country, though it largely consisted of women, blacks and indigenous peoples. The manner of life for these groups was not always the same, as class could be divided between slaves and owners; and even in the work, there was diversity according to region. For example, in various urban areas, women "administered bakeries and worked in wax and tobacco factories."[footnoteRef:1] Thus, women's work depended upon social and ethnic orientation, with "some being considered more appropriate for the urban non-affluent white woman, and others most commonly carried out by Indians, castas or blacks."[footnoteRef:2] This paper will discuss the ways in which these particular groups worked and lived in Colonial Latin America. [1: Asuncion Lavrin, "Women in Spanish American Colonial Society," in The Cambridge History of Latin America, edited by Leslie Bethell (UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 330.] [2: Lavrin, "Women in Spanish American Colonial Society," 330.]

The work that women, blacks and indigenous persons performed was, as Lavrin has noted, dependent upon class and ethnicity as well as by whether or not a woman was married. By the 16th century, ranches were being administered by unwed women, regardless of ethnicity; lower class women participated in laborious tasks such as sewing, pottery making, food preparation, and working in the local markets.[footnoteRef:3] Women served in a manner of capacities, as "wives, concubines, spinsters, mothers, and nuns" in most places in Colonial Latin America.[footnoteRef:4] Wealthy women (typically widowers) were not docile, but would invest in manufacturing companies, as they did in Mexico City, or own stores.[footnoteRef:5] The indigenous population prior to that time had been skilled in hunting, in regions such as Brazil, and their labor consisted mainly of fulfilling basic necessities.[footnoteRef:6] However, once colonized, the indigenous population was often enslaved and used to meet the needs of the colonizers, producing crops that could be sent back to Europe for profits.[footnoteRef:7] This labor was typically intensive and the indigenous populations were unfit for it; thus slaves from Africa were brought in to do the manual labor -- but they were also used in the military campaigns against the indigenous peoples.[footnoteRef:8] Blacks in Peru were used on plantations later on in the colonial era -- initially they were used for mining.[footnoteRef:9] [3: Lavrin, "Women in Spanish American Colonial Society," 330.] [4: Susan Socolow, "Women and Work" in The Women of Colonial Latin America (Emory University, 2000), 112.] [5: Susan Socolow, "Women and Work," 113.] [6: John Hemming, Red Gold (MA: Harvard University Press, 1978), 27.] [7: Karen Spalding, Huarochira (CA: Stanford University Press, 1984), 213.] [8: Mark Burkholder, Lyman Johnson, "Population and Labor" in Colonial Latin America (UK: Oxford University Press, 2008), 131.] [9: James Lockhart, "Negroes," in Spanish Peru, 1532-1560 (WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994), 185.]

Thus, each member group -- women, blacks and indigenous persons -- had an important role in colonial society. Spanish women in Peru were a large minority and played a significant role in shaping colonial Spanish culture in the colonies in Peru; prior to their arrival, the indigenous women shaped the culture and society in so far as they retained their indigenous beliefs and customs; the Spanish women, however, instilled their Catholic beliefs in the colonies and thus re-directed the course of civilization in these regions.[footnoteRef:10] The indigenous peoples were important to the colonial society in the sense that they knew the land, the peoples, and could educate the newcomers on many things; while the blacks were mainly used as a labor force, whether in military services, mining or plantations. [10: James Lockhart, "Spanish Women and the Second Generation," in Spanish Peru, 1532-1560 (WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994), 150.]

Not all of these groups were poor. Colonial women could amass great fortunes through inheritance, marriage or through sheer management of their own affairs. Indigenous populations likewise could amass wealth and land; blacks were far less likely to be wealthy, as they were used essentially as a slave labor force; and not all women in colonial Latin America enjoyed wealth; many too were afflicted by poverty as a result of hardship, disease (especially in factories, where many worked or administered alongside children), war, and climate.[footnoteRef:11] [11: Susan Socolow, "Women and Work," 123.]