Good Places and Non-Places in Colonial Mexico: The Figure of Vasco de Quiroga (1470D1565)

by Fernando Gómez

Overview

High state official and judge of the Supreme Court or the Segunda Audiencia, and later first bishop of the state of Michoacan, Vasco de Quiroga is still celebrated for the alternative community models he established for the Purepecha Indians in the Northwestern state of Michoacan in Mexico. This study offers the most complete approach to date to the writings directly attributed to this state official of the Spanish Empire and also to the scholarship about him. This work provides critical readings of Quiroga's texts including the Rules and Regulations for the Government of the Hospitals of Santa Fe de Mexico and Michoacan, Información en Derecho, De Debellandis Indis and the Juicio de Residencia, and relates them to more widely know figures such as Ginés de Sepúlveda, Bartolomé de las Casas, Bernal Díaz del Castillo and Francisco de Vitoria among others. This book will be of interest to all those engaged in the history of literature, legal studies, utopianism, Hispanic/Spanish studies of the Early Modern Period, Colonial Latin American Studies and Golden Age Studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761819240
Publisher:	University Press of America
Publication date:	05/09/2001
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.04(w) x 9.28(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Fernando Gómez is Assistant Professor of Transatlantic Literature at Stanford University.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Abbreviations Chapter 2 Preface Chapter 3 Acknowledgments Chapter 4 The No-Good Place of Early Modern (Latin) American Utopias in a World Which Often Gets Called Western Chapter 5 The Utopian Desire for a Regulated Society in a Colonial World: Quiroga's Ordenazas and Last Will Chapter 6 The Legal Reformation of Colonial Subjectivities: Quiroga's Información en Derecho (1535) Chapter 7 The Early Modern Literature of Spanish Rule in the Americas: De Debellandis Indis (1552) and the Juicio de Residencia (1536) Chapter 8 Notes Chapter 9 Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

A great success of Goméz's book is its proclamation and demonstration of the fact that the utopian adjective given to Quiroga's works, as well as its growing sanctity conditions, have damaged rather than helped the published studies regarding this person and his works.

Utopian Studies - Miguel Ángel Fernández-Delgado

A great success of Goméz's book is its proclamation and demonstration of the fact that the utopian adjective given to Quiroga's works, as well as its growing sanctity conditions, have damaged rather than helped the published studies regarding this person and his works.

Utopian Studies - Miguel Ángel Fernández-Delgado

A great success of Goméz's book is its proclamation and demonstration of the fact that the utopian adjective given to Quiroga's works, as well as its growing sanctity conditions, have damaged rather than helped the published studies regarding this person and his works.
— Miguel Ángel Fernández-Delgado, El Colegio de México

Utopian Studies

In his doctoral thesis for Duke University, G<'o>mez discusses the life and work of Vasco de Quiroga, who was one of the judges of the Supreme Court in the Americas from 1530-1535 and the first bishop of Michoac<'a>n. He contends that Quiroga "represents the historical efforts for the betterment of the American Indian polity under Spanish coloniality" (from the preface). Coverage includes early modern Latin American utopias, the utopian desire for a regulated society in a colonial world, the legal reformation of colonial subjectivities, and the early modern literature of Spanish rule in the Americas. The volume is not indexed. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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