{"product_id":"fugitive-freedom-the-improbable-lives-of-two-impostors-in-late-colonial-mexico-paperback","title":"Fugitive Freedom: The Improbable Lives of Two Impostors in Late Colonial Mexico - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eWilliam B. Taylor\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe curious tale of two priest impersonators in late colonial Mexico\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Cut loose from their ancestral communities by wars, natural disasters, and the great systemic changes of an expanding Europe, vagabond strangers and others out of place found their way through the turbulent history of early modern Spain and Spanish America. As shadowy characters inspiring deep suspicion, fascination, and sometimes charity, they prompted a stream of decrees and administrative measures that treated them as nameless threats to good order and public morals. The vagabonds and impostors of colonial Mexico are as elusive in the written record as they were on the ground, and the administrative record offers little more than commonplaces about them. \u003ci\u003eFugitive Freedom\u003c\/i\u003e locates two of these suspect strangers, Joseph Aguayo and Juan Atondo, both priest impersonators and petty villains in central Mexico during the last years of Spanish rule. \u003cp\u003e Displacement brought \u003ci\u003ep?aros\u003c\/i\u003e to the forefront of Spanish literature and popular culture--a protean assortment of low life characters, seen as treacherous but not usually violent, shadowed by poverty, on the move and on the make in selfish, sometimes clever ways as they navigated a hostile, sinful world. What to make of the lives and longings of Aguayo and Atondo, which resemble those of one or another literary p?aro? Did they imagine themselves in literary terms, as heroes of a certain kind of story? Could impostors like these have become fixtures in everyday life with neither a receptive audience nor permissive institutions? With \u003ci\u003eFugitive Freedom\u003c\/i\u003e, William B. Taylor provides a rare opportunity to examine the social histories and inner lives of two individuals at the margins of an unfinished colonial order that was coming apart even as it was coming together. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eBack Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn\u003ci\u003e Fugitive Freedom\u003c\/i\u003e, William B. Taylor--the master of historical writing on colonial Mexico--shows how the charlatan lives of two Mexican men from the social margins unmask much more than a plebeian, \u003ci\u003ep?aro \u003c\/i\u003eunderworld in New Spain. The vagrant hearts, lies, and impersonations of the two tricksters and the punishments they endured show how Spanish rule in the Americas, with its Inquisition, state managers, and widespread inequalities, was failing and flourishing at the same time.--Dav? Carrasco, Neil L. Rudenstine Professor for the Study of Latin America, Harvard Divinity School \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"Precarity bites and misfortune beckons, struggle and imposture are ubiquitous, and only fictions seem true. Taylor's investigation offers a remarkably immersive experience. Broad and penetrating research and a light touch allow two of society's purported ne'er-do-wells to emerge from the fascinating stories they tell.\"--Kenneth Mills, J. Frederick Hoffman Professor of History, University of Michigan \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"Erudite and empathetic in equal measure, \u003ci\u003eFugitive Freedom \u003c\/i\u003echallenges us to rethink our understanding of late colonial Mexico. Taylor's meticulous reconstruction of the hidden worlds of two outcasts--both priest impersonators--reveals not only their fragmented and marginalized lives but also the fractures and chasms in the edifice of the Spanish empire more broadly. It is a stunning work of historical scholarship.\"--Susan Deans-Smith, Associate Professor of History, University of Texas at Austin\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWilliam B. Taylor\u003c\/b\u003e is Muriel McKevitt Sonne Professor of History, Emeritus, at the University of California, Berkeley. His books on Latin American history include \u003ci\u003eTheater of a Thousand Wonders: A History of Miraculous Images and Shrines in New Spain, \u003c\/i\u003eas well as \u003ci\u003eDrinking, Homicide, and Rebellion in Colonial Mexican Villages \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eMagistrates of the Sacred: Priests and Parishioners in Eighteenth-Century Mexico.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 224\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.51 x 8.25 x 5.5 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e December 05, 2023\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51780370104608,"sku":"9780520397668","price":41.31,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/50757b61bd33c089422640684cbdd247.webp?v=1780526886","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/fugitive-freedom-the-improbable-lives-of-two-impostors-in-late-colonial-mexico-paperback","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}