LLS130 DB

Historical Framing

Over the past weeks, weve looked at la mquina from a high altitudehow it expanded across the Americas, replicated itself in every colony, and even reached the islands of the Pacific. That was the 20,000foot view: the system as a whole, its flows, its rhythms, its astonishing speed.

Now I want us to descend.

To land in the Caribbean.

The case youre about to readset inside the walls of the Santa Catalina Palace in the 1670sis more than a scandal. It is a window into how the colonial system functioned: how power circulated, how hierarchies were enforced, how silence and complicity shaped everyday life.

And heres the key connection to Bentez Rojo:

He warned us that la mquina did not only discipline Indigenous peoples and enslaved Africans. Over time, it began to turn inwardagainst the criollos, the locally born Spaniards, and even against the peninsular soldiers who were supposed to uphold the colonial order. The very system they helped build could suddenly turn against them.

This case is exactly that.

A moment when the machine devoured its own.

This is la mquina at ground level.

INSTRUCTIONS: Your special project is to create a 700word newspaper article based on Mara del Carmen Baergas investigation, Sodomites at Santa Catalinas Palace. Think of yourself as an early chronicler or journalist from the late 1600s, and focus strictly on reporting the facts of the case. Your article should address: Where the palace is located. What happened (the key events). Who was involved (names, ages, social status, race/ethnicity, positions, etc.)

Creative part: You are responsible for designing the newspaper itself. I recommend using Canva, a free and simple online design tool. For inspiration on the look and feel of a 17thcentury newspapercolor, font, tonesearch for examples of The London Gazette. You must also include images: You may find visuals of Santa Catalinas Palace online (search: La Fortaleza, 1600s, Palacio Santa Catalina). For the individuals in the story, there are no historical portraits, so you may either draw them or choose images that reasonably represent them based on the descriptions in the reading.