Black Belizeans and Fugitive Mayas: Interracial Encounters on the Edge of Empire, 1750–1803

Abstract

and Testimonio del Expediente del comun del Peten, AGI, Estado 49, No. 74, Cuad. 2, 1800, fols. 4v-5. Since Peten's priests, including don Santiago Xavier Rebolledo of San Andres, officiated at the marriages of bozales (African-born blacks) and Maya women, ecclesiastical complaints were more muted than those of the commander and the cacique.4. San Jose and San Jose de los Negros, although in close proximity, were distinct pueblos.

Afro-Latin America:A Special Teaching and Research Collection ofThe Americas

“…32 Similarly, studies that examine people of African descent making use of colonial institutions to pursue ecclesiastical protection, achieve social mobility and status, or attain financial benefits show how subjects of color appropriated traditional Spanish notions relating to religion and blood purity and pushed the boundaries of belonging toward a more inclusive definition. 33 Familial practices have also been under the scope, no longer perceived as only resistance, but also as strategies of social advancement. 34 Still others have expanded the examination of race and its relation to wider social and cultural phenomena into the nineteenth-century.…”