Discussion Response to classmate

reply to a classmate and draw on Sousa to discuss the gendered and household dimensions of this anxiety. How might the practices and concepts that Sousa discusses concern the Spaniards, and why?

For example, a classmate might post about the persistence of pre-Hispanic religious practices, and you might reply by posting about why this was a "problem" for the Crown, based on Sousa's description of nahualism.

Classmate #1 post 

One of the sources of Spanish anxiety was the increasing dilution of “purity,” or what was known as the “limpieza de sangre,” the cleanliness of one’s blood. The “purest” of these bloodlines was the Spanish, and this “purity” enabled them to hold office and possess greater educational and economic opportunities in society. Throughout Chapter 6, Martínez discusses the Crown's growing fear of Spaniards having children with Afrodecendants, because these children would have access to more opportunities offered to those of Spanish blood (Martínez, 2008, 158). To illustrate, she mentions that use of the term “casta” demonstrated how important both reproduction and sexuality were to maintain the colonial order, and that unions between different social groups brought increasing anxieties about being able to control societal order (Martínez, 2008, 162). I think preserving the “purity” of blood concerned the Spanish Crown because this construction of purity was what maintained their power over the colonial social hierarchy. Eventually, without the cleanliness of blood, the high positions and opportunities for Spaniards would be compromised because it would prove difficult to define someone’s role in society. In short, without this “limpieza de sangre,” the Spanish political and social system would begin to fall apart.