Author

Javiera Jaque

Release Date

2025

Summary

Border Identities. Colonial Encounters on the Margins of the Spanish Empire in Chile analyzes from an interdisciplinary perspective the processes of identity formation that took place between Mapuche communities and Jesuit missionaries in the border contexts of Araucanía and Santiago de Chile in the 17th century. Through the analysis of letters, wills, notarial documents, engravings, reports and chronicles, the author proposes that the textual, religious and cultural practices that border encounters fostered represent instances of negotiation, adaptation and resistance, shaped by local devotional identities that transgressed religious and racial hierarchies. This book expands the understanding that exists in the field of Latin American colonial studies of the marginal spaces of imperial administration and demonstrates how these contexts facilitate unique instances for the processes of identity formation and resistance to colonial domination.