Abstract

VICTORIA OJEDA, Jorge  and  SANCHEZ, Aurelio. Interethnicity and Spaces of Coexistence: Spaniards, Indigenous People and Africans in Novohispanic Merida, 1542-1620. Secuencia [online]. 2015, n.92, pp.7-36. ISSN 2395-8464.

In this article the authors, basing themselves principally on archive materials from the Sanctuary of Mérida city and various other historical and bibliographical sources, seek to disprove earlier ideas regarding the occupation of the center of Merida in the 16th century and the early 17th century, exclusively by Spaniards and their descendants. They also suggest that the notion that the Maya village of Santa Lucía served as a neighborhood for Africans and their castes does not correspond to their interpretation of the historical texts of the Sanctuary. Lastly, they depict the coexistence of ethnic groups in the center of the city -Spaniards, Maya and Africans-, as much more dynamic than has been described to date, and propose that some members of these groups lived alongside many of their Spanish neighbors.

Keywords : interethnicity; Merida; Africans; 16th century; Maya.