Africans in Colonial Mexico: Absolutism, Christianity, and Afro-Creole Consciousness, 1570-1640 (Blacks in the Diaspora) Paperback – February 23, 2005

The concept of identity in the Atlantic world is fraught with paradoxical layering, divided sensibilities, and downright compartmentalization. As such, how and in what ways Atlantic folk created identities is an exercise in constant motion. It is never a fixed process, as Rutgers' Herman Bennett argues, but one that is always undergoing redefinition. In early New Spain (colonial Mexico), a highly complex racial society attempted to balance the needs of absolutism with Catholicism's unending devotion and the highly sensitive demands of master and slave. In the process, a very typical Atlantic creolization process blended race and culture thoroughly. And this, Bennett suggests, created a significant population adept at navigating the complex nuances of colonial slave society with a great deal of ease.In plain terms, 'Africans in Colonial Mexico' attempts to demonstrate African and Afro-Creole agency. The fourth and most successful chapter ("Christian Matrimony and the Boundaries of African Self-Fashioning"), for example, rather brilliantly demonstrates the complex kinship ties that Africans and Afro-Creoles used in the matrimonial process. Additionally, and more importantly, the author unpacks the overlapping and often opportunistic identities seized by the African petitioners to complete the formal process of Catholic marriage. Bennett finds, somewhat surprisingly, that they actively sought out other members of their own ethnic (or perceived ethnic) group. Even more, the same said Africans relied on these kinship connections that frequently extended over a significant time period, despite the many obstacles that slavery posed.Those familiar with the pioneering work of Ira Berlin will recognize some of Bennett's terminology as well as an immediate point of contention. For Bennett, colonial Mexico's cultural "need" for slaves qualifies it as a slave society (p. 30). In 'Many Thousands Gone' and again in his 'Generations of Captivity,' Berlin (building, as Bennett does as well, from the work of Frank Tannenbaum) gave a clear definition of the process in which "societies with slaves" became "slave societies". "The transformation generally turned upon the discovery of some commodity...that could command an international market." In addition, as Berlin suggests, the slaveholding class then attained nearly total mastery over the socioeconomic process.The question of colonial Mexico's categorization is, at least in Bennett's somewhat ambiguous presentation of the region, somewhat amiss. Part of the ambiguity results from the author's treatment of colonial Mexico as a unified whole. The urban-rural landscape, for all purposes, seems to blend almost neatly without much distinction. One is left with the distinct impression that all of colonial Mexico functioned in identical manners, regardless of locale. The reliance on the Matrimonios at Mexico City's Archivo General de la Nacion, of course, likely privileged urban applicants over their rural counterparts. Even still, it is not altogether clear from Bennett's evidence what key commodity transformed New Spain's economy and effectively strangled the post-charter generations in a distinctly "slave society".Despite any weaknesses in presentation, 'Africans in Colonial Mexico' is illuminating and powerful for its portrayal of cultural fluidity. In terms of the African Diaspora, it goes a long way in addressing the complicated juggling of multiple identities. Far too often scholarly portrayals take for granted the external modifiers that determined slave identities. This one-sided portrayal does not allow for the ongoing process that an identity undergoes amidst the pull of various cultures and contexts. In other words, it is fixed in time and place. Bennett's real contribution is in understanding identity as a process and that Africans and Afro-Creoles necessarily assumed any number of identities given the peculiarities of his or her context (demonstrates agency). The fluid quality that the identities collectively assumed greatly advances the scholarly portrait of the labyrinth that is the Atlantic world mentality.