The Illegitimacy and the Exposure of Children: Historiographic Connections (Latin America, 18th-19th Centuries)

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the phenomenon of child abandonment in the Iberian world and its colonies exerting a dialogue with works that deal with the phenomenon both in Portuguese and in Spanish space space. In this sense the family's history in the Latin American context has pointed out that the high rates of illegitimacy present in the Spanish colonies in line with the social vulnerability of women may have been the main factors that led women abandoning their offspring. Still, we know that Portugal potentiated a care network children exposed through the mercies. Spain in turn, had delayed initiatives, but soon followed the same path of enlightened monarchies seeking to save these helpless people and makes them loyal vassals of the Crown. So, bring a picture of how the Iberian crowns dealt with the issue of child abandonment. The larger aim is to connect this Latin American historiography on display in the Iberian America as well as the unanswered questions on the subject.