Black Skin, White Soul:: The Ambivalence of Blackness in the Vida prodigiosa of Fray Martín de Porras (1663)

The intersection of discourse on Christian universality and discourse on the specific corporality, morality, and spirituality of blacks produced different kinds of subjects of African descent in colonial Spanish American texts. The hagiography of Fray Martín de Porras, written in Lima in 1663 by Dom...

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Autor principal: Brewer-García, Larissa
Formato: Artículo revista
Lenguaje:Español
Publicado: Centro Interdisciplinario de Literatura Hispanoamericana (CILHA) 2012
Materias:
Hagiografía colonial
La negrura en Latinoamérica colonial
San Martín de Porras
Colonial hagiography
Blackness in colonial Latin America
Saint Martin of Porras
Acceso en línea:https://revistas.uncu.edu.ar/ojs3/index.php/cilha/article/view/4106
Aporte de:
Cuadernos del CILHA de Universidad Nacional de Cuyo
id I11-R112article-4106
record_format ojs
institution Universidad Nacional de Cuyo
institution_str I-11
repository_str R-112
container_title_str Cuadernos del CILHA
language Español
format Artículo revista
topic Hagiografía colonial
La negrura en Latinoamérica colonial
San Martín de Porras
Colonial hagiography
Blackness in colonial Latin America
Saint Martin of Porras
spellingShingle Hagiografía colonial
La negrura en Latinoamérica colonial
San Martín de Porras
Colonial hagiography
Blackness in colonial Latin America
Saint Martin of Porras
Brewer-García, Larissa
Black Skin, White Soul:: The Ambivalence of Blackness in the Vida prodigiosa of Fray Martín de Porras (1663)
topic_facet Hagiografía colonial
La negrura en Latinoamérica colonial
San Martín de Porras
Colonial hagiography
Blackness in colonial Latin America
Saint Martin of Porras
author Brewer-García, Larissa
author_facet Brewer-García, Larissa
author_sort Brewer-García, Larissa
title Black Skin, White Soul:: The Ambivalence of Blackness in the Vida prodigiosa of Fray Martín de Porras (1663)
title_short Black Skin, White Soul:: The Ambivalence of Blackness in the Vida prodigiosa of Fray Martín de Porras (1663)
title_full Black Skin, White Soul:: The Ambivalence of Blackness in the Vida prodigiosa of Fray Martín de Porras (1663)
title_fullStr Black Skin, White Soul:: The Ambivalence of Blackness in the Vida prodigiosa of Fray Martín de Porras (1663)
title_full_unstemmed Black Skin, White Soul:: The Ambivalence of Blackness in the Vida prodigiosa of Fray Martín de Porras (1663)
title_sort black skin, white soul:: the ambivalence of blackness in the vida prodigiosa of fray martín de porras (1663)
description The intersection of discourse on Christian universality and discourse on the specific corporality, morality, and spirituality of blacks produced different kinds of subjects of African descent in colonial Spanish American texts. The hagiography of Fray Martín de Porras, written in Lima in 1663 by Dominican Bernardo de Medina, represents Porras’s blackness ambivalently: it negotiates the negative symbolic values attributed to the population of African descent in colonial Lima while celebrating Porras as an autochthonous exemplary figure for the viceroyalty of Peru and the Dominican order in general. In this negotiation, Medina represents Porras through an eclectic assortment of characteristics "”some associated with the humble classes of Lima’s colonial society and others with the elite"”. This article shows that in Medina’s text Porras is an ambivalent, not hybrid figure: Porras’s soul is white and associated with the "white" Spanish/criollo elite class, while his body is dark and associated with the "darker" lower classes. In the text, the ambivalent description of Porras does not threaten the colonial power, but rather supports its hierarchies. By analyzing the dynamics of power at play in the construction of Porras’s ambivalent subject, we can reflect on the notions of blackness, hybridity, and ambivalence, and their relation to the growing interest in Afro-colonial topics in the field of colonial Latin American studies.
publisher Centro Interdisciplinario de Literatura Hispanoamericana (CILHA)
publishDate 2012
url https://revistas.uncu.edu.ar/ojs3/index.php/cilha/article/view/4106
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first_indexed 2022-06-20T13:45:33Z
last_indexed 2022-06-20T13:45:33Z
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