ABSTRACT
This chapter will define some of the most important concepts in the process of identity formation among the criollo groups in colonial Spanish America, and particularly in Peru, in order to understand their peculiarity. The criollos were the descendants of Spanish settlers, born in the New World, allegedly from both a Spanish father and a Spanish mother. Over time, however, the criollos would descend from criollo ancestors and become one of the most important social groups in the conglomerate of races and ethnicities within Spain’s New World possessions. By historicizing the concepts of race, ethnicity and nationhood, this chapter demonstrates how identity formation in this peripheral, early modern context was closely linked to the perception of one’s individual lineage and blood. At the same time, being criollo was not solely a function of race; the creole identity in the Spanish-American context also assumed a series of cultural values, both European and American in origin, that would eventually become embodied in the modern forms of internal colonialism within the Spanish-American republics. Therefore, I will also address the concept of colonialism and nationhood in the construction of a modern criollo definition.
