Anxieties and Identity Formation among People of African Descent in the Province of Caracas by the End of the Eighteenth Century

In the year of 1781, Narciso Arévalo, member of the pardo militia in Caracas, went to court and stated that he did not wanted to marry María Félix Ponte, because he considered that María’s family belonged to a lower social “quality,” than his. Ten years later, on November 14^th and 15^th 1791 a free mulatta named María Tomasa Churión introduced a petition at the civil court, and another at the ecclesiastic tribunal requesting their authorization and assistance to coerce free mulatto Matías Bolcan, to fulfill his marriage promises.  Matías’ father was opposing the marriage, and apparently Matías had also changed his mind about his union with María Tomasa. Interestingly all these four individuals were people of African descent. They were two or three generations away from their Africans ancestors, who had arrived enslaved to the region, partnered with whites and indigenous ancestors, and created ‘castas’ of enslaved and free AfroCreole people.

In 1778, the Spanish crown extended to the American Provinces and the Philippines the Pragmatic Sanction about marriages.  In the province of Caracas, this edict complicated even more the already existing tensions about honor, reputation, and prestige, unleashing a series of self-identifying negotiations, and debates among people of African descent.  This paper looks at the processes of identity formation and intra group self-segregation that took place in the region, with the goal of disentangle and better understand the category of “Afrodescendants,” as it was applied in the region by the end of the 18^th century.

Keywords: Pardo, Castas, Quality, Afrodescendants, AfroCreoles.