The Effects of Ethnicity and Class on Women

Vivian Nguyen

History 8A

Professor Terraciano

Juan Pablo Morales Garza

17 November 2016

What were some of the social and cultural constraints and prejudices that women experienced in

colonial Latin America? Were women of all classes and ethnicities subjected to the same types of

constraints? How did women contest, confront, or attempt to overcome these challenges?

During the colonial period in Latin America, three major factors dictated the quality of

life that one would live: ethnicity, class, and gender. Focusing on the gender aspect in particular,
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women of different races with different social statuses encountered different constraints. In

regards to ethnicity, there was a scale of how much constraint each racial group faced, with the

general tendency of native women experiencing little to no inequality, Iberian women

confronting some injustices, and African women taking the full brunt of oppression. Within these

ethnic groups, there were also degrees of constraint that were placed on each class, so that

women of higher social status experienced less restrictions than those of lower statuses.

Of the three aforementioned ethnic groups of women, indigenous and Iberian women

faced somewhat similar degrees of constraint, whereas African women faced a kind of

oppression that was on a completely other level. Indigenous women were the most independent

and influential, politically and economically, because many Mesoamerican societies were

centered on the equality of men and women. For example, Mixtec customs of hereditary rule

recognized women’s abilities to rule alongside men. Female lords shared the same amount of

power with male lords, and both kept their estates and heirs separate. This reveals that women

were able to own and bequeath property independently. Not only were high-ranked women such

as female Mixtec lords able to participate in property inheritance, but women in lower classes

were able to as well. For instance, Nahuatl women like Ana Juana were treated with much

respect when it came to their “earthly property”, and their demands regarding bequeathment

were taken seriously, as seen in their testaments. (MV, 138) Not only did indigenous women

demonstrate the equality of their authority by holding, inheriting, and bequeathing land and

property, they exercised significant power as producers and vendors in the market system, too.

Common native women often produced cloth through the practice of weaving. This production

of cloth was a very important enterprise, essential for running the economy, marketplace, and

tribute system of the community. A Mixtec woman by the name of Lucía Hernández Ñuquihui

held a considerable amount of cloth and money in her inventory, revealing the great power and
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wealth she had obtained through the weaving enterprise, something that most men had no

experience in. Because native women held many of the same rights and privileges as men, they

were seen as equally important, and thus had little constraints and prejudices against them.

Iberian women were involved in fairly similar experiences to that of indigenous women;

however, they faced more injustices. In Iberian society, there was no true equality of men and

women because a sense of patriarchy or male dominance existed. So, although women had rights

and could own property, they were considered to be of a secondary status inferior to men. Iberian

society also separated public and private spheres, so women were restricted to perform private,

domestic tasks, while men were entitled to public careers. Due to these limitations, Iberian

women tried their best to marry early into wealthier, higher-ranking families, since women in

higher class did not have as many constraints as those in lower class. These marriages were

strategic methods for women to improve their social status and get them closer to becoming a

high-class noblewoman, who shared more benefits and advantages with men than common

women did. Some women who were unable to achieve beneficial marriages turned to education

instead as an alternate way to overcome prejudices against them. For example, Sor Juana Inés de

la Cruz devoted her life to the church as a nun in order to receive an education, which shows that

not all Iberian women of all classes had the opportunity to be educated. Only those in the church,

who were usually higher-ranking, had this privilege. Although Sor Juana was a nun, she fought

against the church’s system of silent contemplation and spoke out in representation of women,

stating there should be no problem with “a woman writing verses” in her famous letter to the

supposed sor Filotea de la Cruz. (RR, 174) Despite the constraints that Iberian women faced,

some of these women were able to contest them through institutions of marriage and education.

On the other end of the spectrum, African women in Brazil were often forced into cruel,

demeaning practices. Their constraints were extremely harsher than those of native and Iberian
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women because they were not even treated as people. Even free African women who were in a

higher class than enslaved African women experienced far more oppression than women of other

ethnicities. Enslaved African women were not only treated as property and stripped of all human

rights, like their male counterparts, but also ordered to become prostitutes and wet nurses.

Brazilian slave prostitution degraded these women, robbed them of “the most personal and pure

feeling”, and endangered their health. (CGF, 132) Because they were slaves, they had no say in

whether or not they wanted to participate in such lewd acts and thus could not even attempt to

contest this oppression. Another common practice that African enslaved women were forced into

was the purchasing or renting of women to serve as wet nurses. Blunt advertisements describing

these women as objects and tools for sale showed how much harsher the constraints were on

African women than on indigenous or Iberian women. Fortunately, some of these women were

able to overcome this constraint by becoming attached to the families whom they served in hopes

of getting freed later in life as a “thank you” from their masters. African women suffered from

brutal repressions that were often inescapable, for they were considered property, not people.

In colonial Latin America, most women felt the pressure of social and cultural constraint.

However, the degree of their constraints was dependent on their ethnicity and class. Therefore,

women of higher rank experienced less prejudice than those of lower rank, and women of

indigenous and Iberian descent were subjected to less injustice than those of African descent.