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Lecture and Seminar: Prof. Dr. Marcel Velázquez Castro

Slavery in Lima (1780-1854): unfree work, resistance and social imaginary

 

Course description:

In Peru, crimes of trafficking humans for unfree labour and sexual exploitation have a long historical tradition that has been ruled by race and gender criteria. Afro-descendants and Indian and mainly their women have been victims of these social practices since early Colonial times.

This paper studies the various forms of participation in the labor sphere Lima slaves in the period (1780-1854), how they transformed slavery and its rules in a field of action to assert their subjectivity and their interests. In addition, we study the imaginary (political and literary representations) of the slave as a mechanism to legitimize social domination and preserve racial inequality.

The presentation includes large and variety graphics and artworks of the Peru nineteenth century slavery such as (oil paintings, watercolor, press advertisement, drawings, etc.). These images give us a reconstruction of private life and social relations of nineteenth century, but they question the problems of the present.

 

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