Spanish Women as Agents for a New Material Culture in Colonial Spanish America

Abstract

Spanish women had an increasing presence in the emigration to the Viceroyalty of Peru in the last decades of the sixteenth century, due to the development of transatlantic family networks. The husband would travel first and once established, would call for his family, sending letters with detailed instructions on how to travel, and the products women should buy in Seville before departure. These Spanish goods, mainly Castilian cloth (ropa de castilla), were crucial in the definition of a new identity that emigrants wanted to create in the colonies, and the expectations of a better life in America. Castilian cloth was also an investment, because of the high prices of European products in Lima. Through the analysis of family correspondence, this chapter will discuss which products were in highest demand by the emigrants, and how women had a crucial role in the creation of the colonial demand for European products, in the context of the colonization process.