Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Why Women?
- 1 Iberian Women in the Old World and the New
- 2 Before Columbus: Women in Indigenous America and Africa
- 3 Conquest and Colonization
- 4 The Arrival of Iberian Women
- 5 Women, Marriage, and Family
- 6 Elite Women
- 7 The Brides of Christ and Other Religious Women
- 8 Women and Work
- 9 Women and Slavery
- 10 Women and Social Deviance: Crime, Witchcraft, and Rebellion
- 11 Women and Enlightenment Reform
- Conclusion
- Documents
- Suggested Further Reading
- Index
- Plate section
4 - The Arrival of Iberian Women
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Why Women?
- 1 Iberian Women in the Old World and the New
- 2 Before Columbus: Women in Indigenous America and Africa
- 3 Conquest and Colonization
- 4 The Arrival of Iberian Women
- 5 Women, Marriage, and Family
- 6 Elite Women
- 7 The Brides of Christ and Other Religious Women
- 8 Women and Work
- 9 Women and Slavery
- 10 Women and Social Deviance: Crime, Witchcraft, and Rebellion
- 11 Women and Enlightenment Reform
- Conclusion
- Documents
- Suggested Further Reading
- Index
- Plate section
Summary
You write to me that … you have a married daughter and four others to marry off as well as a son. It seems to me that these are many children to have to find positions for with the nobles of Spain. I know something about this, for I had to serve them, and seeing how little future there was in this made me come here. … we decided to come to Mexico City where God has been very gracious to us. The only thing we haven't been lucky in has been children, because the one that came here with us died, and I have had no others. Thus, because you have so many children … I would be most pleased if you were disposed to come here with my niece. We will take care of all family members who come here. And if you have any money left over that you don't need for passage, give it to your married daughter. … If you can manage it, come as soon as possible, for I am old, and as I can no longer go back to Spain, I would love to see my niece and her children before I die. … Please tell my niece not to invent any excuses; I am also a woman, and no stronger than any other, but God graciously brought me here and helped me, and thus will He do for her.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Women of Colonial Latin America , pp. 52 - 59Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000