Latin american history

Solution Preview

Discuss institutions that the colonial period and its Iberian heritage, having ended in the early decades of the 19th Century, established that are still in place today in Latin America. ( institutions such as the church, agro economics, Land tenure etc not buildings)what is the most significant of the influences in contemporary Latin America dating to the colonial era ? cite sources please.
Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Congonhas
(20.48 S 43.85 W) -- satellite image
This is a religious complex with small cahpels and the much larger Church of Bom Jesus de Matosinhos, built in 1757. The church is renowned for its rococo interior with 89 offerings covering the walls of "The House of Miracles".
· Congonhas
Historic Centre of Sao Luis
(2.57 S 44.27 W) -- satellite image
Sao Luis is an example of an Iberian colonial town
Historic Town of Ouro Preto
(20.38 S 43.50 W) -- satellite image
Ouro Preto is Portuguese for "Black Gold". The city grew out of a gold mining town which developed in the early 18th century. In 1711 the city was named Vila Rica, and many houses used the old entrances to mine shafts as their cellars. The prosperity of the city based on gold led to splendid architecture and some of the buildings are among the most beautiful examples of baroque art in the world.
Rock-Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula
The late prehistoric rock-art sites of the Mediterranean seaboard of the Iberian peninsula form an exceptionally large group. Here the way of life during a critical phase of human development is vividly and graphically depicted in paintings whose style and subject matter are unique.
University and Historic Precinct of Alcalà¡ de Henares (C ii, iv, vi/ 1998)
Founded by Cardinal Jiménez de Cisneros in the early 16th century, Alcalà¡ de Henares was the world's first planned university city. It was the original model for the Civitas Dei (City of God), the ideal urban community which Spanish missionaries brought to the Americas. It also served as a model for universities in Europe and elsewhere.
Probably the biggest myth that survives about colonial race relations is that of the total collapse of the Indian world after 1492. "Indian" as a racial category is a Spanish invention, resulting from what the conquerors saw as the overthrow of the indigenous people through demographic collapse, land grabs for the formation of haciendas (great estates), enforcement of the labor tribute system of encomienda, subjugation of national and regional political institutions, eradication of indigenous religions, and the gradual replacement of Indian languages. But although the conquest did reorder Indian society at the highest levels of economics, politics, and culture, it did not eradicate Indian ways. Recognition and use of native elites was a vital necessity for the Spaniards to exploit indigenous labor. The Indian nobility in Mexico and Peru acquired Spanish honorific titles of Don and Doà±a, won the right to intermarry with the conquistadores, and kept a portion of the tribute labor. Indian commoners maintained their way of life intact after the conquest by consciously maneuvering through the interstices of the Spanish state, church, and society. Precolonial provincial and subprovincial political units served as the basis for the encomienda, town, and parish districts, allowing Indian mayors and town councils to function under Spanish direction. The indigenous people were also active in the world of the church. Indian political leaders often allied themselves to the secular and regular clergy against Crown officials, while others held minor but symbolic church offices.2
The great contradiction confronting Africans in the New World was that, although by phenotype they were the ethnic group most removed from Europeans, they were much closer to their masters than the Indians in the practices of everyday life. Legally Africans were chattel slaves, but soon they assumed the role of intermediaries between Europeans and the indigenous population. Africans in Spanish America served as soldiers, supervised Indian workers on the hacienda, and managed domestic servants in the town house. The shortage of labor in urban areas eventually led to the creation of a class of skilled black craftsmen who could purchase their own freedom.
The social life of slaves in Brazil is especially instructive in illuminating the survival of African ways in the Americas. On the plantation, godparenthood and coparenthood, both common to the peoples of Africa, substituted for the shattered extended family. In the large cities the innandades (lay brotherhoods; cotradias in Spanish America) sponsored by the Catholic Church granted slaves, free blacks, and mulattos a degree of autonomy by permitting them to assemble on holidays, gather funds for the less fortunate, and elect a leadership to observe the rituals of their particular saint. African languages mixed with Portuguese provided a lingua franca that kept African practices alive, particularly through the religious ceremonies of ...