Friar Juan de Sotomayor and modern Britain
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Friar Juan de Sotomayor's accusation against Catalina de Ibiza shows a deep nervousness about the 'limpieza de sangre', the concept we discussed a few classes ago that carried over from Spain. This prioritised European ancestry and Catholic orthodoxy over those with Jewish, Muslim, or Indigenous heritage. Sotomayor viewed the 'public nature' of their difference as disruptive and 'dissonant' to his own traditions in Mass, highlighting the cultural anxieties around maintaining the colonial social order in New Spain (Cook, 90). The idea of 'good customs' being 'corrupted' emphasises these fears of destabilising hegemony; we see this concept as recurrent throughout history, with the oppressor attempting to white-wash any semblance of difference in society, often through mechanisms of forced assimilation, cultural erasure, or legal and social discrimination (Cook, 90). This effort to homogenise the population is seen as necessary to protect not only the religious and racial purity of the colony but also its political stability. Throughout history, there have been similar patterns in imperial and colonial projects, where the dominant power systematically suppresses cultural diversity, forcing minority groups to abandon their practices in favour of a monolithic colonial identity. This process serves to neutralise potential threats to the status quo by erasing any visible or 'loud' differences that could challenge the supremacy of the coloniser (Cook, 89).
The immediate connection I made to this accusation from Sotomayor to Catalina de Ibiza was to modern Britain. The way that integration and tolerance are emphasised in England, and most European countries, has vastly similar implications to those in New Spain. For instance, the concept of 'international days of celebration' in the West has heavy overtones of this suppression, where cultural diversity is acknowledged but often within narrow, controlled parameters that serve to depoliticise difference. These celebrations, while ostensibly promoting inclusion, reduce racialised identities and histories to palatable, commodified displays of 'exotic' traditions, which are framed as harmless or entertaining for white people.
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I like this example of learning from the past to analyse the present. Thanks, @alice_maitlis.