Race and Ethnicity in Latin American History

The Spanish and Portuguese empires that existed in America for over three hundred years resulted in the creation of a new world population in which racial and ethnic distinctions were embedded in the discourse of power. Vincent Peloso goes back to the beginning, tracing the development of the Latin American colonies and the gradual build-up of institutional and social barriers of both race and ethnicity, and the implications of this system for the colonial whites, the indigenous people, and the African slaves that were imported as plantation labor. Race and Ethnicity in Latin American History lays the groundwork for students to consider the history of the region and how the legacy of colonial racism has led to the issues and problems of racism in today’s modern Latin American society.