Tulane University

Please join us for a work-in-progress talk by Eugenia López Velázquez, LAL Greenleaf Fellow 2014-2015.
The talk will be in Spanish. Refreshments will follow.

Pueblos de indios, de ladinos y mulatos, en una época de transición (1765-1830)/Indian, Ladino and Mulatto Towns/Communities in an Age of Transition.

Talk abstract:
Se trata de un estudio dentro del territorio salvadoreño y del contexto centroamericano. Es una investigación que tiene por objeto estudiar las transformaciones ocurridas en los pueblos de indios, de mulato y de ladinos, dentro del período de transición, que va de los años de la aplicación de las reformas borbónicas de Carlos III, de la crisis monárquica e independencia, a los primeros años de vida independiente, en el período de la República Federal de Centro América. Se trata de una investigación en la que la vertiente central serán las prácticas de poder en el plano local, provincial y central para penetrar en dos realidades: en la política-administrativa y en lo socioeconómico. Dentro de esto se busca delinear las transformaciones de la vida de los pueblos, particularmente los cambios y continuidades en torno a la autonomía, los recursos, las corporaciones comunes y a la posesión de las tierras comunales y ejidales.

This project focuses on the territory of El Salvador, within a Central American context. The purpose is to study transformations in Indian, Ladino and Mulatto communities during the period of transition stretching from the Bourbon Reforms of Charles III through the crisis of the monarchy and political independence, to the initial years of independent life during the period of the Federal Republic of Central America. The project centers on the practices of power in local, provincial, and central spheres with a focus on political, administrative and socio-economic factors. The goal is to trace transformations in the life of these communities, especially changes and continuities surrounding autonomy, resources, communal corporations and the possession of communal lands and ejidos.

María Eugenia López Velásquez teaches history at Universidad de El Salvador in San Salvador. She holds a Licenciatura in History at Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia in Mexico, and an M.A. in Modern and contemporary history from Instituto Mora in Mexico City. Her thesis on on the role of Salvadoran elites during the period of annexation to Mexico (1821-1823) was published as a monograph in 2000 by CONCULTURA. María Eugenia López has also received archival training, and from 1998 to 2005 she was Director of the National Archives of El Salvador. She is the author of numerous articles on Salvadoran history, particularly the colonial and early Independence periods; she has written as well on oral histories and archives in her country. She is currently a doctoral candidate in the School of Social Sciences at Colegio de Michoacán in Mexico working on a dissertation on Pueblos de indios, de ladinos y mulatos en una época de transición (1765-1830).