Office: TMH-221
Email: jr59@txstate.edu
Phone: 512.245.2063

Assistant Professor
Native Americans, Ethnohistory, Spanish Borderlands

Curriculum Vitae

Personal Statement:

I was born in Oviedo, province of Asturias, Spain, and grew up in the nearby town of Gijón. I began my undergraduate studies at the Unviersidad de Oviedo.  I concluded my Licenciatura (B.A. degree) in Geography and History, with a major in Ancient History, at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. I obtained my M.A and my Ph.D. degrees in Socio-cultural Anthropology at UCLA. My primary area of specialization is the ethnohistory of the indigenous peoples of the southern Plains and the so-called Spanish Borderlands. During the 2007-2008 academic year I was a postdoctoral fellow at the Clements Center for Southwest Studies at SMU, where I started writing a book-length manuscript, provisionally entitled Captivity, Slavery, and Adoption among the Comanche Indians, 1700-1875. In this work, based on archival sources, ethnographic data, native oral traditions, linguistic evidence, and information obtained through personal interviews with contemporary Comanches, I trace the evolution of Comanche patterns of captivity and adoption throughout the pre-reservation period (1700-1875) through quantitative analyses of a sample of more than 1,400 captives. I discuss Comanche motivations for seizing, enslaving, and assimilating outsiders, the personal characteristics of Comanche captives and their captors, the ways in which captives could be integrated into Comanche kinship and social networks, and the roles and statuses accessible to them. I also explain the overall importance of captives, slaves, and adoptees in pre-reservation Comanche society and political economy, as well as their relevance in the rise and fall of the Comanche Indians as the hegemonic power on the southern Plains.

Research Interests

Ethnohistory. Plains Indians. Spanish Borderlands. Comparative Indigenous Studies. Culture Contact. Political Economy. Identity. Violence and Warfare. Spain. Colonial Latin America. US West.

Courses Taught

HIST 4371
American Indian History, is a survey course that emphasizes the roles played by the indigenous peoples of North America in the historical evolution of the continent, with an emphasis on the aboriginal inhabitants of the territories that presently integrate the USA, and their descendents. It explores how Amerindian societies changed through time since the initial migrations of the so-called Paleo-Indians, their cultural development, the impact of European and Euro-American expansionism, and the assimilation, acculturation, and adaptation processes that it spurred, as well as conflicts, US removal and assimilation policies, reservation life, recent adjustments, and current issues

HIST 3329
Spanish Borderlands, is a survey course that seeks to promote an understanding of the roles played by people of Hispanic background in North America between the 16th and the early 19th centuries. It covers: (1) the exploration of large regions of North America; (2) the conquest and colonization of Florida and the northern provinces of New Spain (present-day California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and northern Mexico), and the development of a number of distinctly Hispanic communities in those regions, as well as Spanish Louisiana; (3) the impact of Spanish expansionism on the indigenous peoples of North America

HIST 4318O
History of Modern Spain, is a survey course covering the history of Spain since the times of the Catholic Monarchs, emphasizing the most salient processes and events within the context of world history, analyzing their economic, social, cultural, and political dimensions. Particular attention is dedicated to the rise and fall of Spain as a hegemonic nation-state in Early Modern Europe, the Spanish expansion overseas, the role of Spain in the history of the Americas, the decades prior to the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39, and the transition to democracy after Franco’s dictatorial regime

HIST 5309D
Early Modern Spain, is a graduate seminar that covers the historiography on Spain (and, to a lesser extent, other territories under Spanish rule) between the late 15th and the early 18th centuries in the context of European and World History. Particular attention is given to the evolution of Spanish society during those centuries, the rise of Spain as a modern nation-state, Spanish expansion overseas, the European policies of the Habsburgs, and the role of Spain in the Counterreformation movement. It also deals with issues such as religion, gender, economy, and culture.

SPAN 3371
Spanish American Civilization, is a survey of the history and cultures of the Spanish-speaking regions of the Americas, from Prehispanic times to the present. It deals with the aboriginal civilizations, the Spanish colonial period, the independence of Latin American countries, and the national period, as well as contemporary issues in Latin American cultures and societies, including the role of the US in the region, and emphasizing the cultural legacy left by the different civilizations.