Essay Sample on Bourbon Reforms and Repressing Social Honor

In colonial Mexico, the ideals of becoming a man were viewed in many ways. However, depending on which hierarchy of economic class a man came from, they had different expectations as adults. There was an honor system that had to be kept up, specifically with elite men to maintain their macho status. Over time, there was a development of machoism, meaning the ideals, behaviors, and economic status to be a “man” within society. Sonya Lipsett-Rivera, author of Origins of Macho: Men and Masculinity in Colonial Mexico explores the development of manhood in the colonial period and the bourbon reforms within all aspects of life. A few key behaviors she highlighted before the reforms were having dignity within and outside of the home, dominance over the “lower” classes, restricting access both at home and out in public, and lastly, having pride in their work. The main fundamentals of machoism within colonial Mexico was having dominance, control and having a high kinship status within society. 

Over time, the bourbon reforms started to be implemented in the eighteenth century, causing a change in the dominant behavior of masculinity. Often being referred to as “New Spain”, this reform was put into place for society to have more economic advantages over the lower classes, furthermore, this created social changes to ideals of macho during this time frame. When looking at the change in masculinity, the bourbon reforms’ goal creates more unrealistic expectations for men when it comes to work-life and social norms, this can be shown through lessons of manhood, repressing behavior, and lastly gender parallelism.

In colonial Mexico, the process of manhood is a multi-step journey with numerous amounts of factors involved. This journey is individualized based on person to person, which can be determined by two major factors. When analyzing the social factors that are involved in determining the future of manhood, Lipsett-Rivera (2019) was looking at the significance of these factors during the New Spain period, which she determined “children were born into different ranks and into families ethnically distinct and experiences in Mexico City contrasted with those in smaller communities”(Lipsett-Rivera, 2019). Before the bourbon reforms, during the early colonial period, these two factors were used to define the future for men within Mexico and were used in these classes to make sure men would stay within their classes. One of the main factors of being macho was demonstrating the skills they have learned from within their class, along with from their fathers and relatives before then.  However, when the bourbon reforms were enforced, they constricted the freedom of allowing men in other classes to express their culture and let the dominant elite class overshadow the other classes’ culture/pride. 

Along with exploring many different traditions with becoming the ideal man, which, the ideal man within colonial society was someone had a lot of dominance over their family, home, territories within town/outside of town and had a good amount of connections. Colonial Mexico created one of the ideas of being macho is the more connections you had, the better off you were and if those connections demonstrated proper behavior. In this case, proper behavior that was expected of elites were to be  On the contrary, when the bourbon reforms took into place, demonstration of proper behavior turned into almost impossible expectations. Lipsett-Rivera (2019) explored the aftermath of the militarized effect of the bourbon reforms, specifically looking at the behavioral shift of macho men and what was deemed acceptable or unacceptable. She summarized the bourbon reforms purpose as “ New Spain was a society with many structures and regulations that channeled people into certain behaviors and promoted conformity…it appeared in the frustration of officials reissuing laws and regulations that no one obeyed…Because knives were such an integrat part of plebeian masculinity”(Lipsett-Rivera, 2019). 

When looking at colonial Mexico and the Bourbon reforms, it’s important to note that there were many critical changes within the ideals of masculinity. However, the three big crucial changes were shifts in honorable social ideals, maintaining ideal behavior, and lastly, economic divisions of power during this period. There are other arguments looking at how much the bourbon reforms affected the changes with masculinity, specifically the gender parallel between men and women in the workforce. Additionally, there are more arguments about how much the bourbon reforms played into the independence and rebellion against Spain.