Privilege without Purity? Family Ties across Time, Region, and Race in the Global Spanish Empire

Genealogical constructs like blood purity figured prominently in petitions for colonial privileges throughout the Spanish empire, from elite families of Indians and Spaniards alike. Some eighteenth-century families, however, claimed to be descended from prominent early-colonial figures, although the family did not possess a pure genealogy. This paper explores the meanings of familial connections that spanned hundreds of years and encapsulated the limits of genealogical possibility in the eighteenth century. Centuries after the encounters and alliances that entitled them to tax exemptions or pensions, the families examined in this paper kept alive memories of their forebears, even as these connections became increasingly tenuous or did not conform to notions of purity. Some contended that the husbands of women descended from the rajas of the Philippines should also enjoy familial privileges, others that a family of Afromexicans could claim direct descent from a Spanish conquistador. While bureaucrats frequently cast these cases as unfounded or confusing, a few dogged petitioners struggled to assert privileges using a variety of justifications. Families examined in this paper memorialized an illustrious ancestor, in the process crossing boundaries of religion, color, and geography. These cases tell us about family choices to articulate privileges using a distant, glorious past and an ancestor who no longer shared the family’s caste or faith.