A Tale of Two Granadas - Custom, Community, and Citizenship in the Spanish Empire, 1568–1668

In 1570's New Kingdom of Granada (modern Colombia), a new generation of mestizo (half-Spanish, half-indigenous) men sought positions of increasing power in the colony's two largest cities. In response, Spanish nativist factions zealously attacked them as unequal and unqualified, unleashing an intense political battle that lasted almost two decades. At stake was whether membership in the small colonial community and thus access to its most lucrative professions should depend on limpieza de sangre (blood purity) or values-based integration (Christian citizenship). A Tale of Two Granadas examines the vast, trans-Atlantic transformation of political ideas about subjecthood that ultimately allowed some colonial mestizos and indios ladinos (acculturated natives) to establish urban citizenship alongside Spaniards in colonial Santafé de Bogotá and Tunja. In a spirit of comparison, it illustrates how some of the descendants of Spain's last Muslims appealed to the same new conceptions of citizenship to avoid disenfranchisement in the face of growing prejudice.

List of contents

List of figures; List of tables; Acknowledgments; Introduction; 1. Iberian antecedents; 2. Politics, reform, and the emergence of Christian citizenship; 3. Moriscos, Arabic Old Christians, and Spanish jurisprudence (1492-1614); 4. Cultivating the Christian republic: the New Kingdom of Granada and the Archbishop Zapata de Cárdenas; 5. Life in the city: the casa poblada and urban citizenship; 6. The roots of the mestizo controversy in the New Kingdom of Granada; 7. The mestizo priesthood; 8. Mestizo officials in the Christian republic; 9. Urban Indians in Santafé and Tunja, 1568-1668; Epilogue; Bibliography; Index.

About the author

Max Deardorff is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Florida. He is a former Fulbright Scholar and fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory. He is the recipient of the Association for Spanish & Portuguese Historical Studies (ASPHS) prize for best early career article.

Product details

• Authors: Max Deardorff
• Publisher: Cambridge Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 27.11.2025
• EAN: 9781009335430
• ISBN: 978-1-009-33543-0
• Weight: 637 g
• Illustrations: Worked examples or Exercises
• Series: Cambridge Latin American Studies
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Regional and national histories; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Colombia, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Colonialism & Post-Colonialism, HISTORY / Social History, Social & cultural history, HISTORY / Latin America / South America, Colonialism & imperialism, 17th century, c 1600 to c 1699, Social and cultural history, Empires & historical states, Colonialism and imperialism, Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700, History of the Americas, 16th century, c 1500 to c 1599, c 1500 to c 1600, C 1600 To C 1700, Spanish Empire