Revisiting Indigenous Identities in Colonial Spanish America: Agency and Accommodation

Recent scholarly contributions on indigenous peoples during the colonial period has allowed for a more nuanced appreciation of the wide range of identities that natives embodied during this time. In this roundtable we will be presenting five case studies of diverse indigenous identities and the ways in which natives’ actions shaped colonial society and politics. We contend that in their ever changing colonial world, indigenous peoples found accommodation and exercise agency in new ways, developing new identities that allowed them to not only survive but prevail. This roundtable will give us the opportunity to reflect and establish a dialogue about the fluid possibilities of colonial indigenous identities.