Benemeritos, aristocratas y empresarios: Identidades y estructuras sociales de las capas altas urbanas en America hispanica (review)

Since the late 1960s, numerous historians have devoted attention to the upper social strata of colonial Spanish American cities. In December 1998, an international group of scholars gathered for a symposium in Cologne dedicated primarily to assessing the state of historiography related to this important topic. The work being reviewed presents the results.

In introducing the volume, Christian Büschges outlines the editors' interest in the methodologies previously employed in studying the upper strata and in the application of a comparative approach that would enrich such investigation. He identifies a three-stage evolution of the relevant historiography. The first, associated with Richard Konetzke, drew upon legal and institutional definitions that created a social hierarchy based on race or ethnicity. The second, following D. A. Brading, used social-economic criteria for identifying often imprecisely defined colonial "elites." The third and most recent, variously called "history of mentality," "historical anthropology," and the "new cultural history," emphasizes qualitative rather than quantitative evidence. Büschges underscores the limitations of collective biography, a form of analysis that, as its practitioners also recognize, examines only a part rather than the whole of a specific urban "elite." He correctly stresses the centrality of family and groups of families within the upper strata.

Besides Büschges's introduction, this fine compilation of papers offers four thematic sections containing fifteen chapters as well as jointly written final thoughts by the editors. Sections one, two, and four focus on the creation and development of the upper strata in the old colonial centers of New Spain and Peru, in selected frontier and peripheral regions (Parral, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Santiago de Chile, Maracaibo, and the province of Caracas), and in three smaller locations (Asunción, Jujuy, and Zacatecas). Section three provides two more longitudinal examinations for Havana and Quito.

The fifteen chapters provide new information, in some cases drawn from archival research, as well as synthesis. The contribution of Michel Bertrand is particularly valuable both as a tantalizing glimpse of his now published major study of the treasury officials of New Spain and for its emphasis on the importance of family and its centrality within social networks. While he employs collective biography as a definitional core, he moves beyond most prosopographical studies by delving deeper into dynamic family, occupational, and business linkages.

The editors' conclusion analyzes the central contributions made by the fifteen authors. In regard to terminology, Schröter and Büschges prefer the neutral expression "upper social strata" (capa social alta) to class, estate, oligarchy, aristocracy, and elite, terms employed by one or more of the authors. They rightly emphasize the centrality of the economic, political, and cultural dimensions of society in understanding the "upper social strata." They note that the strata developed in three phases: origin and formation, organization and reproduction, and transformation, the latter primarily associated with the second half of the eighteenth century. In examining the structure of the upper strata, they outline three perspectives: a vertical comparison of the same strata over time; a horizontal comparison of the strata in different regions at the same time; a combination of vertical and horizontal comparisons that considers the upper strata in different regions and times. They also note the importance of cultural identities based upon: economic activities and their perceived social status; social titles, rank, positions, and their symbolic value; ethnicity; and regional or geographic location and its distinctive characteristics. The editors conclude that the comparative approach offers significant benefits for understanding the origins and development of the "upper social strata," but that much research remains to be done.

A thoughtful and informative collection devoted to the upper reaches of society in a variety of settings in colonial Spanish America, this volume contributes to a nuanced appreciation of both commonalities...