Table of Contents

List of Figures; List of Tables; Preface; Acknowledgments; Abbreviations; Introduction: Sovereign Joy; 1. 'With their king and queen': Early Colonial Mexico, the Origins of Festive Black Kings and Queens, and the Birth of the Black Atlantic; 2. 'Rebel Black Kings (and Queens)'?: Race, Colonial Psychosis, and Afro-Mexican Kings and Queens; 3. 'Savage Kings' and Baroque Festival Culture: Afro-Mexicans in the Celebration of the Beatification of Ignatius of Loyola; 4. 'Black and Beautiful': Afro-Mexican Women Performing Creole Identity; Conclusion: Where did the black court go?; Appendix; Bibliography; Index.

Promotional Information

An exploration of how Afro-Mexicans affirmed their culture, subjectivities and colonial condition through festive culture and performance.

About the Author

Miguel A. Valerio is Assistant Professor of Spanish at Washington University in St. Louis. His research focuses on the African Diaspora in the literatures and cultures of the Iberian world. This is his first book.

Reviews

'Insightful and provocative, Sovereign Joy amplifies the sonorous and accentuates the performative so that sound and play consume every page as they surely did Black and Colonial life. Valerio's nuanced reading engages but also disrupts the analytically staid field of Afro-Mexican Studies with its focus on structure, institutional expressions, and ideology. Truly rewarding.' Herman Bennett, author of African Kings and Black Slaves: Sovereignty and Dispossession in the Early Modern Atlantic

'Sovereign Joy ushers in a vibrant era of scholarship on Afro-Mexican communal organizations. Emphasizing participant subjectivities, Valerio's elegant prose guides readers through these royally inflected spectacles. Readers will breathe in the sights, smells, and sounds of these joyful Baroque events.' Nicole von Germeten, author of The Enlightened Patrolman: Early Law Enforcement in Mexico City

'Sovereign Joy demonstrates the ways Afro-Mexicans plotted within colonial structures to form and perform their festive culture as a powerful act of collective agency and defiance.' Mariselle Meléndez, author of Deviant and Useful Citizens: The Cultural Production of the Female Body in Eighteenth-Century Peru

'Valerio's Sovereign Joy is an extraordinary book—meticulously researched, brilliantly argued, and beautifully illustrated. The histories of Afro-Mexican presence and of the festivities that sustained Black joy and survival have too long been obscured. Valerio's timely intervention changes that. Essential reading for Black and performance studies.' Diana Taylor, author of ¡Presente! The Politics of Presence

'A phenomenal book of scholarly detective work that painstakingly reconstructs Afro-Mexican cultural practices and legacies that have been long-lost, misinterpreted, and obscured over time. Sovereign Joy is a rich testament to how expanding our interpretive toolset can lead us to recover the very sounds, emotions, feel, and texture of colonial life that have long been considered ephemeral and fleeting. An absolutely amazing work.' Ben Vinson III, author of Before Mestizaje: The Frontiers of Race and Caste in Colonial Mexico

'[This book] is important, but I hope that it is moreover a sign of things to come, both from Valerio and from those sure to be inspired by his work. I hope, too, that Latin Americanists, Africanists, and Atlanticists take ample note of just how innovative this book is.' Joseph M. H. Clark, Hispanic American Historical Review

'A powerful and compelling contribution to the study of the African diaspora in Mexico and the Black Atlantic.' John C. Marquez, William and Mary Quarterly