Aimee Dávila Hisey

Presented at Sixteenth Century Society Conference, 20 August 2016:

Following a variable history of tension and tolerance, both secular and religious, surrounding relationships of concubinage and cohabitation in Medieval and Early Modern Spain; the Church sought greater control of religious life, particularly over the sacrament of marriage, with the Council of Trent. The quest for such control came to the New World in the form of the Inquisition. The Church thus exercised its strengthened restrictions, and both prosecuted and punished sexual relationships outside of marriage via the Inquisition with more frequency, as did local Church and secular courts. Still, sexual relationships of concubinage and cohabitation, termed 'amancebamiento' within the archive, took place in many forms and with some frequency throughout the Colonial period in New Spain. This calls into question whether public perceptions of sex and sexuality reflected those held by the Church and Inquisition. If not, then further questions arise as to the circumstances surrounding these unions.
This paper will address the following concerns: Why did these relationships persist at the risk of secular or ecclesiastical prosecution? Who engaged in these types of relationships and did they occur most often within any particular level of Colonial society? How did the Church, Inquisition, and secular courts prosecute these offenses? And what did amancebados face in terms of social implications for these unions?

Presented at 2021 Annual Conference for Rocky Mountain Council for Latin American Studies

This paper explores the complex and shifting religious identity of notorious surgeon Francisco Maldonado de Silva. As case study in both authority and agency, this paper will examine Maldonado de Silva’s axes of identity and argue that the authority earned with his university education and licensure also garnered Maldonado de Silva a striking degree of agency before the Holy Office.

Born the son of a New Christian father and an Old Christian mother and raised and educated as a devout Catholic, Francisco Maldonado de Silva earned his degree as a surgeon, becoming well-versed in both medicine and theology. After practicing medicine alongside his father, Maldonado de Silva learned of his father’s crypto-Judaism and ultimately embraced the Law of Moses. When his father, Diego Nuñez de Silva came before the Lima Tribunal, denounced as a crypto-Jew in 1605, Nuñez de Silva quickly reconciled himself with the Church. Maldonado de Silva continued to embrace the Law of Moses in spite of the potential repercussions. The Holy Office arrested him in 1626. During his 12 years in jail, Maldonado de Silva engaged in prolonged theological debates with inquisitors and theologians alike, justifying his faith in the Law of Moses. I argue that the authority bestowed upon him by his degree granted Maldonado de Silva a degree of agency not extended to other crypto-Jews before the Inquisition, including his father before him. The case of Francisco Maldonado de Silva, and that of his father Diego Nuñez de Silva complicates the categorization of crypto-Jews. This paper will call the binary of Old and New Christians into question, advocating for a more nuanced spectrum of crypto-Judaism that takes both axes of identity and assertions of agency into consideration. Lastly, this paper will analyze Maldonado de Silva’s imprisonment and death as a performance of identity, ultimately resulting in his choice to die as a Jew, Heli Nazareno, and not as a relajado.

In 1508 Ferdinand of Aragon issued a decree restricting Jews, Muslims, converts from either faith, and their children from travelling to Castile’s newly claimed territories.
In spite of attempts to prevent non-Christians from entering the territories of New Spain and Peru, the sheer size of viceregal territories coupled with roundabout means of traveling to the ‘New World’ facilitated clandestine emigration to the viceroyalties and thwarted the crown’s efforts to restrict or halt such travels.

Evidence suggests that a meaningful number of the Jews, or more precisely crypto-Jews, who made their way to the New World were medical practitioners. This presentation seeks to uncover the means of knowledge circulation between and among crypto-Jewish medical practitioners in the Spanish viceroyalties. Given the social context of limpieza de sangre, or blood purity, which influenced immigration restrictions and university admissions alike, how did crypto-Jewish physicians diffuse their medical knowledge after leaving the Iberian Peninsula? I posit that the kinship and economic contacts that made up the ‘naçao’ protected and preserved this information in the same way that it fostered news of family or business and trade opportunities on both sides of the Atlantic. I argue that crypto-Jewish and converso physicians relied on the familial, economic, kinship, and faith-based networks that made up the ‘nation’ to preserve and transmit medical knowledge. This paper emphasizes a circulation of knowledge production and dissemination from historical actors whose education and profession intersected, at times mortally, with their ethnicity and faith. Finally, this paper also calls into question the religious binaries of Jew and Christian in the seventeenth-century Atlantic world.

Following a history tensions surrounding concubinage in medieval and early modern Spain, the Church sought greater control of religious life, particularly over the sacrament of marriage, via the Holy Office of the Inquisition. The Church exercised its strengthened restrictions and prosecuted these relationships with more frequency, as did civil courts. Still, concubinage [termed 'amancebamiento' within the archive] took place in many forms and with frequency throughout the viceregal period in New Spain. This calls into question whether public perceptions of sex and sexuality reflected those imposed by the Church. Using the lenses of colonialism, gossip, and narrative, this thesis will address the following concerns: Why did these relationships persist at the risk of prosecution? Who engaged in these types of relationships? How did the courts, including the Holy Office, prosecute these offenses? What social implications did amancebados face for their relationships? Did the Church seek to control viceregal sexuality or the propagation of dissident beliefs? Based on archival research conducted at the Archivo General de la Nación in Mexico City, this thesis argues that in spite of attempts to regulate sexuality throughout the viceroyalties, ecclesiastical rhetoric did not sexually suppress the viceregal populace, nor did it prevent lay interpretation of Catholic doctrine.

History of Latin America leading up to and after Spanish and Portuguese conquest. Focus on indigenous American, European and African cultures and religions in contact under colonial government and economic systems. Covers the period from 1400 to 1810.