A trope of colonial obliteration?: a critical note on ‘Colonial Latin America’ and related conversations

What does ‘ Colonial Latin America ’ entail? How does the concept shape studies of pre-1800 cultures and histories? To what extent is the notion entangled with the liberal Criollo ideological assumption that ‘ colonialism ’ ended with the formation of nation-states? These questions shed critical light on the disjunction between ‘ Colonial Latin America ’ as a pre-nineteenth-century category and the way it is understood in histori-cally engaged Indigenous conversations linked to current anti-colonial struggles. For the latter, ‘ Colonial Latin America ’ is a continuum, with ruptures and in fl ections, from 1492 to the present