Parental control and Marriage Choice in Colonial Mexico | Mexican History

Hello fellow historians. In this video, we explore the history of marriage and conflicts over choice of marriage in early modern colonial Mexico. Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoy the video.
For more information about marriage and parental rights in colonial Mexico see:
Patricia Seed, To Love, Honor and Obey in Colonial Mexico (1988)
Robert McCaa, "Calidad, Clase, and Marriage in Colonial Mexico: The Case of Parral, 1788-90": read.dukeupress.edu/hahr/arti...

[@causewaykayak]

Have we just learned of something less pleasant about a modern talisman of liberal democracy ?
So, the separation of church and state had a serious downside in the loss of freedom of individuals to chose marriage partners .
Now who would have thought it ??

[@SomasAcademy]

That makes it sound like an inherent result of separation of church and state instead of something specific to this historical context lol

[@storiesinhistory]

Thanks for the comment @causewaykayak. You make an interesting point. The erosion of marital choice started much sooner. Arguably protestantism can be seen to have started the separation of church and state to a basic degree. For early protestantism, they separated church from civil law but not religion from civil law. Many protestant faiths like Calvanism and Lutherans advocated for a separation of "God's kingdom in heaven" (essentially the power of the church) and "God's kingdom on earth" (essentially civil authority). Civil authority was a reflection of God's kingdom in heaven and therefore the church could not directly intervene in civil matters though laws would reflect protestant values.
Liberal democracies would take separation of church and state farther. However, the erosion of marital choice was not a product of liberal ideas necessarily as @SomasAcademy points out. It had more to do with historical and cultural beliefs about parental authority. Ultimately, liberal democracies opened the way for greater freedom in marriage. The idea of the pursuit of happiness and rights of individual would imply that people should have the right to marry for love even against parental wishes.
In New Spain, the enlightenment worked different. Bourbon monarchs mostly wanted to curtail shared power with the Catholic church, which meant removing priests from authority over civil matters.

[@MrMeanstreek]

Your son should be able to marry whoever he wants. And a father should be able to disown his son. Sounds fair

[@markgarrett2946]

'Promo SM' 🤪