Published Articles
- I.M. Silverblatt. ""New Christians and New World Fears in Seventeenth Century Peru"." Comparative Studies in Society and History ( 2000.): 524-546.
Abstract:
The Inquisition articulated cultural blame, and this esssay looks at the relationship between cultural blaming and disputes over who could legitimately claim to be Spanish. The fate of New Christians (women and men, converts to Christianity, of Jewish or Moslem descent) gives purchase on this issue, clarifying the debates over what "Spanishness" entailed. New Christians were suspect, formally discriminated agaisnt, and denied access to religious and secular offices. Most of Peru's Inqisitors, skeptical about New Christian's comitment to Christianity, believed they were seditious Jews at heart. In its practice the tribuanl equated Old Christian with true Spanishness, demonstrating and reenforcing a racialized view of what "Spaniard" was all about.