ABSTRACT

Over the course of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, dozens – if not hundreds – of mestizo, or mixed-race, children and adolescents journeyed to and from the Iberian Peninsula from Spain’s American territories. A significant number of them hailed from northern South America. Born from the often-violent encounters between Indigenous and European peoples, mestizo children facilitated the forging of merchant networks both in the service of their Spanish fathers as well as other non-related, legal guardians. These children – and in particular male youths – assisted their stewards during terrestrial and transatlantic travel, and in the process, became familiar with trading practices, kinship networks that spanned vast distances, and the crucial recognition that having access to the monarch’s ear held immeasurable worth. Documents culled from Colombian and Spanish archives, and in particular travel licenses from the Casa de la Contratación in Seville, Spain, provide rich and often harrowing accounts of the multidirectional movements of mestizo children. Pressed into a peripatetic life at the behest of Spanish fathers and the pulse of the Carrera de Indias fleet system, I contend that mestizo children, while perhaps small in physical and legal stature, were crucial, human components in the building of empire.

摘要

在 16 世纪和 17 世纪初期，即使不是数百个，也有数十个混血儿，或混血儿童和青少年从西班牙的美洲领土往返于伊比利亚半岛。其中很大一部分来自南美洲北部。混血儿童出生于土著人民和欧洲人民之间经常发生的暴力冲突，他们促进了商人网络的建立，既为他们的西班牙父亲服务，也为其他不相关的法定监护人服务。这些孩子——尤其是男性青年——在陆地和跨大西洋旅行期间协助他们的管家，并在此过程中熟悉贸易惯例、跨越遥远距离的亲属关系网络，并认识到能够接触君主的耳朵具有不可估量的价值。 . 从哥伦比亚和西班牙档案中搜出的文件，尤其是来自西班牙塞维利亚的Casa de la Contratación对混血儿童的多向运动提供了丰富且常常令人痛心的描述。在西班牙父亲的要求下和Carrera de Indias舰队系统的脉搏下被迫过着漂泊的生活，我认为混血儿虽然在身体和法律地位上可能很小，但在帝国的建设中是至关重要的人类组成部分。