The Routledge Hispanic Studies Companion to Colonial Latin America and the Caribbean (1492-1898)

One would have to look hard to find a better and more thorough, yet succinct, review of Colonial Studies in the U.S. than the one the editors of this volume provide. We are presented with a dynamic field full of tensions, contradictions—that is, alive—that have made it crucial for Latin American and Early Modern Studies, among others. From its inception to its recent connections to Latinx Studies, the writers deliver what the editors promise: a view into topics that have been the solid standard of the field, to new and promising areas.

Who is an author under colonial conditions of production? What a theory of the frontiers says about colonialism? What if behind the standard language of the archive one finds Quechua, English and Muisca? To whom does this archive belong then? These pages remind us that even though we know much, we have still much to discover and that perhaps we might never know fully. The contributions to theoretical analysis are also important since, as the contributors show, the colonial field helps elucidate key concepts such as what is licit, what is an archive, extraction, extinction, the environment.

Ivonne Del Valle, Associate Professor, UC Berkeley

Tensed by imperial designs, colonial violence, nationalist teleologies, colonial Latin American and Caribbean Studies is a multifaceted site of cultural and political interpellations and interventions that has made this contentious field one of the most productive intellectual traditions of the Global South, producing a rich array of critical concepts for the decolonization of culture.

Strategically organized in four overarching themes, The Routledge Hispanic Studies Companion to Colonial Latin America and the Caribbean (1492-1898) showcases the most progressive and innovative research in the field and draws the paths for an effective critical engagement with the traces of a colonial past that is far from settled.

Luis Fernando Restrepo, University Professor, University of Arkansas