José Antonio Serrano Ortega
Michoacán
Host: Silke Hensel
Historisches Institut
Forschungsprojekt
Economy and political culture of the indigenous population in Mexico during the transition from colony to independent nation-state, 1750-1850. A neo-institutional perspective
The project aims to analyze the relationship between economic performance and practices on the one hand and cultural influences on the other hand in order to better understand the role of the indigenous population in economic processes in Latin America, i.e. Mexico and the impact of colonialism on their behaviour within the colonial and national society. We use the neo-institutional approach that views culture as an informal institution that constrains and guides the choices of economic agents, and explains Latin American underdevelopment by referring to a supposedly stable and homogenous “Hispanic culture”, as a starting point. Parting from this approach we intend firstly to complicate the issue by combining it with discussions on transculturation in order to show the complexity and heterogeneity of colonial culture in Spanish America and secondly to integrate colonialism’s impact on the indigenous population in the analysis. Furthermore, we are interested in the appropriations and cultural transformations of political concepts that influenced the agency of indigenous groups in different socioeconomic settings. Thereby, we hope to contribute to recent research emphasizing the agency of the indigenous population and their contributions to economic and political developments in a central phase of Latin American history.
José Antonio Serrano Ortega
Vita
José Antonio Serrano Ortega is Professor-Researcher at the Centro de Estudios Históricos, El Colegio de Michoacán. He holds a B.A. in History from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and a Ph.D. in History from El Colegio de México. Professor Serrano Ortega has focused on understanding one of the most important changes in the political, economic, and social trajectory of Mexico’s past, the period from 1750 to 1850; spanning the epoch of the implementation of the so-called Bourbon reforms, through the wars of independence, to culminate with the outbreak of the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848. That process marked the transformation of the ancien régime of New Spain to the establishment of a new political order in 19th-century Mexico. Professor Serrano Ortega has received several academic distinctions: the Francisco Javier Clavijero Award (Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, INAH, 1991), the Research Award for the Area of Humanities (Academia Mexicana de Ciencias, 2005), the Award for the Best Article, 20th century (Comité Mexicano de Ciencias Históricas, 2010), and the Vito Alessio Robles Award for Merit in Regional History (Government of the State of Coahuila, 2012). In 2018, he was elected as a Numerary Member of the Academia Mexicana de la Historia. President of El Colegio de Michoacán, 2015-2021.
Forschungsschwerpunkt
- The military structure and fiscal system. New Spain and Mexico, 1750 and 1850.
- How the struggle between royalists and insurgents transformed the tax system and military organization of New Spain, and how those changes impacted the country’s political and social history after 1821.
- Discussions related to the federal or confederal character of the Mexican political system.
- The influence of Gaditano liberalism on independent Mexico
- The social and political history of indigenous peoples during the intendencia and its aftermath in the state of Guanajuato.
Publikationen (Auswahl)
Books
El contingente de sangre. El reclutamiento del ejército permanente mexicano, 1824-1846, México City, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia 1993.
Jerarquía territorial y transición política, Guanajuato, 1790-1836, México City, El Colegio de Michoacán, Instituto Mora 2002.
Un impuesto liberal en una guerra contrainsurgente. Las contribuciones directas en la Nueva España, 1810-1820, Guanajuato, Archivo General del Estado de Guanajuato 2003.
Igualdad, uniformidad, proporcionalidad. Contribuciones directas y reformas fiscales en México, 1810-1846, México City, Instituto Mora, El Colegio de Michoacán 2007.
Alfredo Ávila, Juan Ortiz Escamilla, José Antonio Serrano Ortega (coautores), Enrique Florescano (coordinador): Actores y escenarios de la Independencia. Guerra, independencia e instituciones en México, 1808-1825, México City, Fondo de Cultura Económica, Museo Soumaya 2010.
José Antonio Serrano Ortega, Manuel Chust: ¡A las armas¡ Milicia cívica, revolución liberal y federalismo en México, 1812-1846, Madrid, Marcial Pons, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo 2018.
José Antonio Serrano Ortega, Manuel Chust: Tras la Guerra, la Tempestad. Reformismo borbónico, liberalismo doceañista y Federalismo Revolucionario en México, 1780-1835, Madrid, Marcial Pons, Instituto Universitario en Estudios Latinoamericanos, Universidad de Alcalá 2019.
Book editor (Selection)
José Antonio Serrano Ortega, Marta Terán (editores): Las guerras de independencia en la América española, Zamora, El Colegio de Michoacán, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Universidad Michoacana 2002.
José Antonio Serrano Ortega, Manuel Chust Calero (editores): Debates sobre las independencias iberoamericanas, Frankfurt-Madrid, Iberoamericana Vervuert 2007 (Colección de Historia Latinoamericana, Cuadernos de AHILA).
Josefina Zoraida Vázquez, José Antonio Serrano Ortega (coordinadores): Práctica y fracaso del primer federalismo mexicano, 1824-1835, México City, El Colegio de México 2012.
Auerbach Lecture
From Subjects of the King to Citizens of the Republic. The Political Culture of Indigenous Peoples and the Fiscal System in New Spain-Mexico, 1750-1850
Kontakt
Prof. Dr. José Antonio Serrano Ortega
History
Centro de Estudios Históricos
El Colegio de Michoacán
Martínez de Navarrete, 505, Col. La Luneta
Zamora, Michoacán, CP 59690
México
Erich Auerbach Institute for Advanced Studies
Aufenthalt: 01.11.-31.12.2023
E-Mail: jserrano(at)colmich.edu(dot)mx