Juan José Ponce-Vázquez
Ph.D. Candidate (ABD)
jponce@sas.upenn.edu
Education
B.A., Universidad de Sevilla, Spain (2002); M.A., University of Pennsylvania (2006)
Fields
Colonial Latin American History; Plantation Economies in North America and the Caribbean; Early Modern Spain
Research Interests
Caribbean societies in the 17th century, Atlantic history, contraband, slavery
Dissertation Committee
Personal Statement
Born and raised in the city of Seville (Spain), a city known in the sixteenth and seventeenth century as “the gateway to the Indies”, I was lucky enough to spend my childhood surrounded by constant reminders of the rich history of Latin America and the Caribbean.
My recently defended dissertation is called “Social and Political Survival at the Edge of Empire: Spanish Local Elites in Hispaniola, 1580-1697.” It focuses on the challenges that the local elites in the Spanish colony of Hispaniola faced during the seventeenth century (1580s-1690s). I examine the economic foundations of these elites, their social and political networks, their integration in the local government of the city of Santo Domingo, and their relationship with Madrid as well as the peninsular authorities of the island. By framing my study in this long period, I seek to highlight how this community adapted to the transformation of both the Spanish empire and the Caribbean world during the seventeenth century. Particularly, I pay close attention to factors such as the island's progressive alienation from Iberian commercial connections, the creation of alternative regional (and regularly illicit) networks of trade, the local effects of the internationalization of the Caribbean waters, and the long (and eventually unsuccessful) struggle of the colonial authorities to preserve the territorial integrity of the island against French encroachment.
My work on Hispaniola elites has been featured in the December 2009 issue of the John Carter Brown Library Journal, “I Found it at the JCB.”
I am currently a full time instructor in the Department of Latino and Hispanic Caribbean Studies at Rutgers University.
When I am not working on my dissertation, I enjoy gardening, riding my motorcycle, and cheering for the Phillies.
