HIS 465 Week 5

After going over a few of the readings this week I got a good insight of what it was like for the Spanish during the 1700’s, in the form of males and females.  It was very interesting to me that some of the Spanish women had the right to own land.  This is something that I was not expecting to learn, after learning how some of the women in Latin America were treated and for them not having too many rights.  I guess this is one example of how some of the Spaniards viewed the Indians from Latin America.  I understand that Spanish women did not have as many rights and the Spanish men, but I think it is impressive for that time period.  Another interesting thing I have leaned from the readings this week was how many females in Spain were treated in the courts.  For the most part it was very difficult to get a divorce in Spain, due to the fact that the Catholic Church has many rules for divorce, but the women seemed to be more believable than the males at that time, in others words they favored the women over the man.  The women also could clam rape when they cheated on their husbands, which I know did not always work, but the fact she could get away with it, is surprising.  I liked how Spain at that time was a mix of different cultures and had a major influence on the Spanish government. Which seems to be why many Spanish women had more rights than other countries at that time.  It kind of reminds me of the U.S., a mixture of different cultures coming together and creating a good government.  You can argue that we have a bad government but we are far better off than most.  Some other interesting reads from this week was how the Spanish viewed masculine men.  Martinez pointed out that to be a masculine male you needed a deep voice, strong, bold, ect.  Which does not seem to be so different in America today, but the part that caught me off guard was now they would castrate some boys to get the “perfect voice.”  This seems to contradict what they say a man is, because that is overall what a man really is.  It is also very interesting to see that for the most part what it is to be a masculine male has not changed much in time and seems to be the same all over the world.  This point may also explain that most men from where ever they are from and what time period they lived in, they can have natural acts and drives that they are born with, and instilled in their minds.