Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies (ASPHS): Digital Commons
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“An impossible quid pro quo”: Representations of Tomás de Torquemada
No full textThe name Tomás de Torquemada has become synonymous with the Holy Office of the Spanish Inquisition, and a symbol of religious fanaticism, hatred, oppression of minorities, and even sadism. Throughout the centuries since his death, he has been co-opted by writers and artists as a representation of cruelty and persecution. Although contemporaries praised him (albeit somewhat carefully), and he certainly enjoyed the favor of his monarchs, Isabel and Ferdinand, after his death Torquemada quickly gained a nefarious reputation as a fanatical zealot and a torturer, a characterization which lingers today. How did an (admittedly) austere Dominican come to so powerfully embody and personify the Black Legend? This paper will explore the historiography of Tomás de Torquemada, attempting to understand and explicate these cultural representations of the man which continue to thrive
Review of Scott Eastman and Natalia Perea Sobrevilla, eds., The Rise of Constitutional Government in the Iberian Atlantic World: The Impact of the Cadiz Constitution of 1812
No full textNuevas reflexiones sobre “Elena, alias Eleno de Céspedes”, transgénero, redes sociales y libertad en la España del siglo XVI
No full textHasta ahora el personaje de Elena de Céspedes, una esclava que llegó a ser cirujano y a casarse con una mujer, ha sido reconocido por su dualidad sexual, de género o de ocupación. Sin embargo, todos esos factores se interrelacionan en la construcción de su realidad transgenéro. El cross-dressing o travestismo, el género fluido, la androginia y la transexualidad fueron elementos esenciales en la construcción de diferentes tipos de redes sociales que le posibilitaron ascender personal, social y profesionalmente, obteniendo así un amplio margen de libertad en la España de finales del siglo XVI.
Precisamente, el gran valor de Elena de Céspedes reside en haber aprovechado las circunstancias más duras de su vida, como los tres encarcelamientos que vivió, para viajar de un género a otro cuando las circunstancias externas lo exigían. Además desde la fluidez de su género y la forma de verse a sí misma, sirve de ejemplo a todos aquellos que en la actualidad buscan en las experiencias históricas, modelos o parámetros culturales a seguir para las comunidades transgénero. No solo desde una perspectiva de la sexualidad, sino a través de experiencias y circunstancias personales, sociales y culturales que no encajan dentro de la hetero-normatividad impuesta, ni ayer, ni hoy
Review of Silvina Schammah Gesser, Madrid\u27s Forgotten Avant-Garde: Between Essentialism and Modernity
No full textReview of Stanley G. Payne, Nicety Alcala-Zamora: el fracaso de la Republica conservadora
No full textArma nacional , arma patria. La Hispanidad franquista (1936-1943)
No full textLa importancia del concepto e ideas sobre la Hispanidad tuvieron, durante la guerra civil y el primer franquismo, un gran asidero y prontamente se transformaron en un vehículo de legitimación de los sublevados. La Iglesia y la Falange lucharon por la manipulación del concepto de Hispanidad desde vertientes diversas con el objetivos de ocupar espacios de poder y, paralelamente, sacralizar al “caudillo”
Forum: Spanish Online Resources for Spanish and Latin American History
No full textThe mid-2010s are a challenging period to investigate digital collections precisely because they exist as patchwork of emerging collections that are incompletely indexed, and thus it is difficult to appreciate their significance. For diligent researchers who employ a robust digital search methodology, there are substantial opportunities to locate and reveal high-dispersed and fragmentary histories. This researcher proposes six essential approaches to researching electronic collections based on personal expertise in physically researching in almost thirty Spanish private, local, church, provincial, and national archives and libraries, as well as countless digital collections.
The essential online digital collections for Spanish and Latin American history in Spain are the Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (MECD)’s Portal de Archivos Españoles (PARES), the Biblioteca Nacional de España’s Biblioteca Digital Hispánica, and the Biblioteca de la Real Academia de la Historia’s finding aids. Collectively, these three collections as well as a few additional national, provincial, and municipal archives, offer a meaningful access point to the growing body of digital records pertaining to Spanish and Latin American history. While digitized images of all manuscripts, maps, drawings, and art are not fully accessible through these online portals, their finding aids and catalogues are quite robust and provide sufficient guidance to researchers so that they can either electronically request copies or prepare for an efficient, on-site review of documents. Access to these resources on Spanish and Latin American history have largely been funded directly by the collective efforts of Spanish governmental entities and private foundational efforts sponsored by the Spanish telecommunications and banking sectors.
Equally important to locating these digital collections is the researcher’s use of specialized search techniques for each of these online sources. As one might imagine, simple and advanced search tools offered via PARES will not generate accurate or complete listings of available electronic documents. Rather, it is critical that researchers understand how archives such as the Archivo General de Indias have arranged their collections so that they can modify their search techniques to locate more resources.
Additionally, scholars should be aware of newly emergent digital collections that are brought to light via collaborative initiatives, such as the Revealing Cooperation and Conflict Project (RCCP), which involves international scholars and Spanish institutions. For example, the Ayuntamiento de Plasencia, Diócesis de Plasencia, Centro Sefarad Israel (Madrid), MECD, and ten universities are collaborating to generate transcriptions of cathedral and municipal records from the fifteenth though seventeenth centuries for communities such as Plasencia, Spain. This city as well as the province of the Extremadura is particularly important to Iberian history as key royal bureaucratic and church leaders who shaped American policy hailed from the region. Similarly, large numbers of Spanish American conquistador, explorer, and settler families hailed from this region and created a two-way trans-Atlantic bridge of peoples and documents during the colonial era
