Labor and Love in Guatemala The Eve of Independence [Hardcover]

Labor and Love in Guatemalare-envisions the histories of labor and ethnic formation in Spanish America. Taking cues from gender studies and the new cultural history, the book transforms perspectives on the major social trends that emerged across Spain's American colonies: populations from three continents mingled; native people and Africans became increasingly hispanized; slavery and other forms of labor coercion receded. Komisaruk's analysis shows how these developments were rooted in gendered structures of work, migration, family, and reproduction. The engrossing narrative reconstructs Afro-Guatemalan family histories through slavery and freedom, and tells stories of native working women and men based on their own words. The book takes us into the heart of sweeping historical processes as it depicts the migrations that linked countryside to city, the sweat and filth of domestic labor, the rise of female-headed households, and love as it was actually practicedamidst remarkable permissiveness by both individuals and the state.

Gender is the most intimate and arguably fundamental social division. Scholars of women's history have been asserting this for decades. Recognizing the importance of gender to history, however, is easier than putting it at the center of historical research. This endeavor becomes doubly difficult when the focus of inquiry is plebeian and the society in question is impoverished. Fortunately, none of these challenges prevented Catherine Komisaruk from using gender to plumb questions about demography, ethnicity, labor, and economic activity in late colonial Guatemala, and producing a wonderful monograph in the process . . . [An] impressive and major work of scholarship. Labor and Love in Guatemalabrings a fresh perspective to the decline of forced labourers and the rise of hispanised wageworkers in late colonial Spanish America . . .Labor and Love in Guatemalaprovides a highly accessible and much-needed contributiol£?