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bahareads's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
Blood and Boundaries is set up in three chapters that can be read independently from each other and still make sense to the reader. The three chapters are on Moriscos, Conversos, and Mestizos. Stuart Schwartz does assume the reader is already knowledgeable about the basics so he does not coddle the reader at all. Blood and Boundaries is deceptively simplistic in its information; it's a little book that packs a big punch. Schwartz is covering the structure of race in Latin America, as well as cultural racism and phenom racism. He shows blood purity does not translate to the Americas very well. The structure of the book goes from political and religious exclusion to social and blood exclusion from chapter to chapter. Classification is a main theme throughout the book.
The amount of people in Latin American society changes how the government operates. Law versus practice is a major part of the book. It's hard to enforce. Identity: the public versus private and the bastardization of people is what Schwartz focuses on. He shows the reader that Spain and Portugal had different ways of dealing with Moriscos and Conversos in their respective societies across the Atlantic. It is a great read overall; a good discussion book.
The amount of people in Latin American society changes how the government operates. Law versus practice is a major part of the book. It's hard to enforce. Identity: the public versus private and the bastardization of people is what Schwartz focuses on. He shows the reader that Spain and Portugal had different ways of dealing with Moriscos and Conversos in their respective societies across the Atlantic. It is a great read overall; a good discussion book.
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