Critical Essay on Perilous Speech by Villa-Flores

Introduction

Perilous Speech is a book written by Villa-Flores, and its publication was done in the year 2007. It focuses on focuses on the social history of blasphemy in colonial Mexico which was considered as a sin by the Spanish colonizers.

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The book pinpoints various groups in the society ranging from speech and swearing, religious and African diaspora students. In general, the book is of importance for those who specialize in colonial Latin America. The above groups will benefit from the book because each of them will find it valuable to their fields of study and also provide some insights on their interpretive frameworks. It also answers various questions including why the Afro-Mexicans were for the inquisition records.

The chapters of the book are written chronologically with a detailed content for each section. There are five chapters in the book and each chapter addressing a specific historical and expansive context of the blasphemous speech phenomenon. The Catholic faith was the one responsible for the legitimization of the colonial project and also maintaining the colonial rule. Also, some chapters explain in detail the women resistance against gender discrimination during the colonial government. During the colonial period, there were slaves, and they escaped the wrath of the colonizer through the utilization of blasphemy. This was a way of avoiding the corporal punishments by the Spanish masters in the name of protecting the Holy office(Silva).

The style employed in writing this book is clear and straight to the point. It does not require an individual to have thorough knowledge in the historical background of the Spanish colonial history. In addition to that, it does not need the Spanish expertise to recognize the whole concept of the book and comprehend all the facts behind the blasphemous speech and its consequences to the society as a whole. Villa-Flores centers his interest on his historical interpretations within the limits of a comprehensive, analytical and theoretical framework.

Blasphemy is a sin since it disregards the work done by God; such an act may bring punishment to the victims because it is disrespectful to look down on God. That is why Flores focuses on many social and work groups while giving out his explanations in the various chapters of the book. Focusing on different social groups by the author it is because social groups were practicing such a practice of blasphemous speech social groups were practicing such an exercise of blasphemous speech.

(Andrews) Such groups include men and women especially the soldiers, muleteers and African slaves to mention but a few. The author also extrapolates more on heterosexual masculinity; a common and frequent topic of interest scrutinized in most of the studies during the colonial period. Therefore, the book enables the reader to have some more insights in the New Spain on both homosexual and heterosexual practices. In addition to that, it allows the reader to have an interpretive picture in the mind of the above two methods.

The author also focuses on the Mexican Holy office which was used for inquisition during the colonial period in Mexico. Villa-Flores does a thorough analysis on the files of the Holy office to give the reader limelight on how various groups in the colonial time treated blasphemy amongst them and also its address in New Spain during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The primary research challenge articulated in the book of the Dangerous Speech by the author to realize the discursive socio-political and socio-juridical roles of disrespect in that a given historical period. The author covers such involvedness by expounding the broader historical and full context of the facts.

The reader may sometimes view the content of the book to be comprehensive to understand with wide-ranging theoretical research. However, the author's chronological arrangement of its content gives the reader the morale to get more out of the book.

At some point, the audience might criticize the author regarding his analysis on the book, but on my point of view, it is just a positive critique since the book gives all the historical events in a systematic order. Villa is excellent on elucidation hence enabling the users to recognize the degree of complexity and also that of sophistication to give us limelight on the New Spain religion. Villa also focuses on various social groups as seen earlier to provide a broader scope of practices that range from catharsis plus gender self-fashioning to those rejecting religious and passionate resistance.

To sum it all, l support Villa's argument on blasphemy since it is a sin to God. The various social group was performing such practice in the ancient times during the colonial period in Mexico. It forced even the slaves who were mainly the Africans to pretend in embracing blasphemy as a means of survival. The corporal masters were too harsh for the slaves because failure to follow their rules it could lead to death or thorough punishment.

(Villa-Flores) Also, nothing goes like that without a negative critique; Villas could have just included a comprehensive and discursive methodological appendix and also an inclusion of tables to help in understanding all the files of the Holy Office. Such annex and schedules of the records of the Holy office will assist the readers to have an evaluation of the integrity and the persuasiveness of the author's conclusions.

Conclusion

Conclusively, the Dangerous of speech book which focuses on Mexico colonial period by the Spanish masters is a comprehensive book with detailed historical events. It is written in a simple, clear and extrapolative way which gives the reader more insight and detailed analysis of the blasphemous speech of the colonial Mexico history. Therefore, the work of Villa has reasons why it needs an appreciation because of its strong facts on history as briefed above.

References

Villa-Flores, Javier. Dangerous Speech: A Social History of Blasphemy in Colonial Mexico. University of Arizona Press, 2006.

Silva, Pablo Miguel Sierra. Urban Slavery in Colonial Mexico. Vol. 109. Cambridge University Press, 2018.

Andrews, George Reid. "Colonial Blackness: A History Of Afro-Mexico." Slavery & Abolition, vol 31, no. 4, 2010, pp. 556-558. Informa UK Limited, doi:10.1080/0144039x.2010.521349.