Contact details

My research and teaching interests focus on the political history of Spanish America and the wider Spanish world. My work incorporates elements of traditional political history, the history of political culture, institutional and legal history and the history of political thought. I consider it crucial to approach the history of Spanish America from a perspective which takes into account the region’s position and relations with the rest of the Spanish Empire.

Academic profile

• Teaching Fellow in Latin American History, Department of History and School of Comparative American Studies, University of Warwick, 2011-12
• IAS-Santander Early Career Fellow, Institute of Advanced Study, University of Warwick, 2010-11
• PhD in History, University of Warwick, 2011
• MA (by Research) in History, University of Warwick, 2007
• Licenciatura [BA] in Political Science and International Relations, CIDE (Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas), 2004

Undergraduate modules taught

AM101 – Latin America: Themes and Problems – Module convenor (2011-12)

AM209 – Pre-Columbian and Spanish America

AM402 – Imperialism and Independence in Spanish America, 1763-1826

Contributions to AM103 - Comparative History and Literatures of the Americas

Contributions to HI203 – The European World, 1500-1750

Postgraduate modules taught

Contributions to HI923 – Race in the Americas: Themes and Problems

Selected Publications

Peer-reviewed Articles, Research Notes and Book Chapters

• '"Of experience, zeal and selflessness". The appointment of military officers as Spanish American viceroys in the early eighteenth century'. The Americas. (Forthcoming January 2012)
• 'The illusion of disloyalty: rumours, distrust and antagonism and the charges brought against the viceroy of New Spain in the autumn of 1808'. Hispanic Research Journal. XI.1 (February, 2010): 25-36.
• 'Mirando hacia Filadelfia desde Anahuac: la Constitución estadounidense en el congreso constituyente mexicano de 1823-24' ['Looking towards Philadelphia from Anahuac: the Constitution of the United States of America and Mexico's 1823-24 Constituent Congress]. Politica y Gobierno. XVII.1 (1st semester, 2010): 97-125.

Co-Authorships and Collaborations

• Annino, Antonio and Rafael Rojas with collaboration from Francisco A. Eissa-Barroso. La Independencia. Los libros de la patria [Independence. The books of the fatherland]. Mexico City: CIDE / Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2008. (Colección Herramientas para la Historia).

Book Reviews

• 'Rosenmüller, Christoph (2008) Patrons, Partisans, and Palace Intrigues. The Court Society of Colonial Mexico, 1702-1710 University of Calgary Press (Calgary, Alberta) x + 278 pp. £20.99 pbk', Bulletin of Latin American Research. XXIX.3 (July 2010): 403-405.
• 'El Supremo Poder Conservador: ¿poder moderador o tribunal constitucional? Reseña de "El Supremo Poder Conservador" de David Pantoja Morán', istor, num. 23, winter 2005. pp. 160-163.
• 'Felipe Garrido, "Compartir el poder. La lucha por la democracia en México. Una breve historia contada a los jóvenes". México, Océano, 2006, 104 p.', Política y Gobierno, vol. XIV, num. 2, 2nd semester 2007. pp. 565-568.

Public interest and research dissemination

• ‘Expert’ appearance in Mystery Files: Zorro. Dir. Marc Tiley. Parthenon Entertainment, 2011. [Broadcasted internationally on the National Geographic Channel]
• Florescano, Enrique and Francisco Eissa. Atlas histórico de México [Historical Atlas of Mexico]. Mexico City: Aguilar, 2008.

Research

My research has focused on three main areas of the political history of the Spanish world: the presence of foreign influences in early independent Latin American constitutional design; the interaction between global and local tensions during the Spanish imperial crisis of 1808; and imperial governance in the early modern Spanish world, with particular emphasis on the dynamics and institutions of viceregal rule. Throughout my work I understand ‘the political’ in a broad sense and favour an approach that incorporates elements of traditional political history, the history of political culture, institutional and legal history and the history of political thought.

Work carried out in the final stages of my undergraduate studies and immediately afterwards addressed constitutional design in early nineteenth-century Latin America. My undergraduate dissertation ‘El poder moderador en América Latina: el fracaso de una alternativa de diseño constitucional [The idea of a moderating power in Latin America: the failure of an alternative constitutional design]’, which focused on the use of the theory of the moderating power in the Mexican and Brazilian constitutions of 1836 and 1824, the review of David Pantoja Moran’s El Supremo Poder Conservador and ‘Mirando hacia Filadelfia desde Anahuac’, which studies the knowledge of the US constitution possessed by Mexican congressmen in 1823-24, represent the main outputs in this area.

Research undertaken for my MA focused primarily on the Spanish imperial crisis of 1808. My MA thesis ‘Political culture in the Spanish Crisis of 1808: Mexico City’s experience’ revisits the way in which Spain’s political and dynastic crisis was received and dealt with in Mexico City. It highlights the centrality of New Spain in the Spanish Caribbean and the wider Spanish empire, the politics and relations of the city’s elites, and the crisis management mechanisms implemented by colonial authorities, while arguing that the coup of 15-16 September, often identified as the starting point in New Spain’s search for independence was brought about by the unjustified fears of certain colonial officials and the specific interests of the Junta of Seville. ‘The illusion of disloyalty’, is a further outcome of this project.

My doctoral thesis, ‘Politics, political culture and policy making: the reform of viceregal rule in the Spanish world under Philip V (1700-1746)’, explores the evolution of Spanish viceregal rule, both in Europe and the Americas, focusing on institutional reforms, changing personnel and political culture as manifestations of the transition from a judicial to an administrative monarchy. It emphasises the role of court politics, changing ideas about the role of the monarch, and the challenges and opportunities presented by civil and international conflict. ‘“Of Experience, zeal and selflessness”’ is the first published output of this project which I expect to continue with a monograph titled The Spanish Monarchy and the creation of the viceroyalty of New Granada (1717-1739): Politics and Reform in Early Bourbon Spain. A further out come of this research project is the edited volume Early Bourbon Spanish America: Politics and Society in a Forgotten Era (1700-1759), which I prepared together with Dr. Ainara Vázquez Varela, and will be published by Brill Academic Publishers.

My current research, the JISLAC funded project 'Military officers and provincial governance in early eighteenth-century Spanish America', studies the profiles and careers of men appointed to 27 Spanish American captaincies-general and governorships between 1700 and 1746. It follows on from my research into the viceroys appointed during this period and engages with recent historiography on the 'militarisation' of high government offices in early Bourbon Spain. Preliminary conclusions suggest strong parallels between reforms introduced on both sides of the Atlantic which further challenge the image of early Bourbon Spanish America as a period in which reforms introduced were limited and pale by comparison with those introduced after 1763.

My next research project will explore the patterns of appointment and circulation of viceroys across the Spanish world under the Habsburgs.

Latin American History Reading Group.

New Publication:

The Multiple Faces of Republicanism: Democracy, Constitutionalism and Popular Politics in the Hispanic World, 1824-1873.

20 January 2012, at the University of Warwick.

Mexico City in a French engraving from the 17th Century.