article

The lessons of slavery: discourses of slavery, mestizaje, and blanqueamiento in an elementary school in Puerto Rico

American ethnologist • 35 (1) • Published In 2008 • Pages: 115-135

By: Godreau, Isar P., Reyes Cruz, Mariolga, Franco Ortiz, Mariluz, Cuadrado, Sherry.

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document

The ethnographic research for this article was conducted primarily with a third grade class at the Luisa Rodriguez Elementary School in Cayey, Puerto Rico (school name is a pseudonym). School history texts were examined in their coverage of slavery issues and it was found that in general they tended to trivialize and simplify the history of slavery in Puerto Rico. These maneuvers resulted in the creation of a certain degree of distance between the concept of "blackness" and Puerto Rican identity and silence racism while upholding racial democracy and [n]blanqueamiento[/n] (whiteness) as a social value.

SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF

Racial identification

Slavery

Ethnic stratification

Ethnosociology

Cultural identity and pride

Elementary education

Teachers

Publishing

cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)

Puerto Ricans (Island)

HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document

2012

RegionThe area the document pertains to

Middle America and the Caribbean

Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region

Caribbean

Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs

article

Evaluation

Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.

Ethnologist

Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.

5: Excellent Primary Data

AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection

John Beierle; 2012

Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document

2005-2006

Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to

not specified

Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)

Cayey, Puerto Rico

NotesAdditional notes

Isar P. Godreau, Mariolga Reyes Cruz, Mariluz Franco Ortiz, Sherry Cuadrado

Includes bibliographical references (p. 132-135)

LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number

74644326

LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings

Puerto Ricans