Mudejarismo in its colonial context: Iberian cultural display, viceregal luxury consumption, and the negotiation of identities in sixteenth-century New Spain

This dissertation examines the uses and meanings of the so-called Mudéjar aesthetic in sixteenth century New Spain (colonial Mexico). Its focus on the luxury arts, especially on cloth, clothing, and ceramics, offers a shift from the traditional focus on architectural history to a wider lens that incorporates the study of material culture. Throughout the sixteenth century, when the consolidation of the Hapsburg state and its rise as a world power saw a converse decline of Andalusi culture, Mudéjar objects were employed in distinct ways by members of Iberian society. In the colonial context, Mudéjar goods were both visible signifiers of Iberian-ness and common tools in the acculturating process of the local population, which began immediately after the conquest. This trend suggests that the currency of the Mudéjar aesthetic during such an embattled period, and especially in the viceregal environment, indicates a radical disconnection from anything traditionally considered Islamic. It also highlights Mudejarismo as a wholly Iberian aesthetic choice, unambiguously laden with Iberian cultural value. In this work, I offer a new approach to the study of Mudejarismo in the early colonial period; one that acknowledges the uniqueness of the colonial situation as a fertile ground for the production of new meanings out of old forms, but that also brings together Iberian and viceregal histories of the sixteenth century. I employ a cross-disciplinary ethnohistoric approach that combines the interpretation of historical documentation, literary sources, and visual culture through a comparative lens that keeps Spain and New Spain, the imperial and the colonial, in perspective. This method emphasizes the objects\u27 cultural value in New Spain during the sixteenth century. It also incorporates the American Mudéjar in a discussion of colonial power relations and cultural formation. In doing so, the Mudéjar emerges not as a popular expression of Iberian art, but rather as a visual tool employed at all social levels and in multiple geographies