Public lives, private secrets
Subtitle: gender, honor, sexuality, and illegitimacy in colonial Spanish America
By: Ann Twinam.
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Stanford, Calif
Language: eng
Number of pages: 447
Subjects: Illegitimacy -- Latin America -- History; Unmarried mothers -- Latin America -- History; Sex customs -- Latin America -- History; Masculinity -- Latin America -- History; Honor -- Latin America -- History; Social classes -- Latin America -- History
Description: Throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, illegitimate offspring of elite families in colonial Spanish America appealed to the Council and Camara of the Indies in Spain to purchase gracias al sacar legitimations. Their applications provided intimate testimony concerning their own lives, accounts of their parents' sexual relationships, and details regarding the impact of illegitimacy within their families and communities.

Bourbon officials in Spain debated which petitions merited approval, and in the process forged policies concerning gender, sexuality, illegitimacy, and the family.

Colonial elites distinguished between a private circle of family, kin, and intimate friends and a public world where status (honor) was negotiated with outside peers. This bifurcation was distinct yet permeable; an individual might "pass" to negotiate a public status different from a private reality. Thus, an unwed mother might enjoy the public reputation that she was a virgin, the bastard son of a priest might be treated as legitimate, and a mulatto could be transformed into someone white.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 417-435) and index.