Conquering History Homosexuality in Colonial Latin America, Research Paper Example

In Colonial Latin America, homosexuality in Mexico is classified according to three hisotrical periods, including the pre-Columbia period, the colonial period, and the post-independence period. Individuals who identified as homosexual during these eras faced rejection from society and persecution on the face of the law. However, sexuality and identity were the common themes that connected all three time periods. In the last two decades, Latin American literature has focused on male homosexuality during modern times (Tejirian, 2000). Consequently, much of the research provided authors on this topic have reported the opinions of others authors and simply regurgitated previous speculative studies. There have been a few authors that concentrated on the male-to-male sexuality complexities during the pre-Columbian or colonial periods (Tejirian, 2000). However, it is important for literary critics and scholars to understand a broad view of homosexuality so they are able to consider the context and implications of this identity with respect to life in Latin America.

The research available on homosexuality in pre-Columbian civilization is lacking because the interpretations of this identity were based on unfounded cultural assumptions (Sigal, 2003). The majority of the research about pre-Columbian people came from the Spanish reports from the Spanish conquerors. These accounts provide only a perception of homosexuality and sodomy, which are essentially false stories of the Spanish victors because these individuals had the opportunity to write history as the victors of war. Thus, these biased accounts acted as propaganda against an act that was condemned by the government. Thus, it is necessary to provide relevant analysis and a better understanding of the history of homosexuality in colonial Latin America. The goal of this paper is to discuss how governmental institutions and society controlled and shaped perceptions of sodomy, homosexuality, and sexuality in colonial Mexico and the Americas. Furthermore, the paper will provide a historical perspective of homosexuality in colonial Latin America.

The Church and the Inquisition controlled and administered the laws suppressing heresy throughout history, which essentially meant that people engaged in homosexual relationships were thought to be in violation of religious values, which were closely tied to Latin American law. The Spanish Inquisition regulated Mexican sexuality by cultivating and promoting dialogue based on marriage, promoting the religious morals of wholesome families in an attempt to reinforce the churches values and beliefs of sexuality (Ryan, 2015). The Spanish Empire gave the Catholic Church the right to admonish all sexual activities, including sodomy, and punished individuals for these crimes accordingly. The Catholic Church enforced sexuality laws to ensure the transition from the old traditions of the natives to the new way of Spanish religion (Szasz & Lerner, 1998). The primary goal was the assimilation of the Spaniards and to keep and deliver social power over the natives.

In Latin American specific communities, such as the Mayan culture, the governments were responsible for designing the acceptable parameters for homosexuality and defining acceptable social relationships regarding the roles of men and women. Homosexual men adapted to the Spanish rule by keeping the nobles and commoners in place to protect traditional and sexuality preferences (Nesvig, 2001, p. 703). This practice insulated the Mayan society as a result of Spanish interference, and allowed the nobles to control the population.  In other incidents, homosexual men were treated with disdain, and they were delegated to lower social positions and often forced to dress and act like women (Sigal, 2002). During this period, a mix of Spanish and indigenous cultural influences occurred, which represented the notion that the Spanish did not approve of homosexuality. This resulted in in horrific deaths and the public humiliation of people that identified as homosexual. The indigenous people considered homosexuality to be a private sexual activity that was beyond the law. However, the Catholic religion taught that homosexuality was an unforgivable sin, which was the basis for punishment in Latin American society.

Colonial Latin America was inhabited by a racially diverse society, including different types of sexual practices and varying levels of social status (Szasz & Lerner, 1998). Colonial Latin Americans lived in a categorized society in which they were expected to defer to their social laws to control the sexual conduct in order to follow the social rankings accordingly. Colonial Latin America changed to a racially stratified society that set the parameters of social standings. The Spanish Inquisition relied on the acceptance of moral obedience and the protection of one’s religious reputation convincing natives to adhere to penal codes and personal honor (Keeley, 2003). The Church doctrines and rules covered by the natural law, canonical Scripture, and divine revelation, guided personal and sexual acceptable conduct for natives. The Catholic Church doctrines taught the natives that marriage can be allowed between a man and a woman, and that same-sex unions of any kind would be opposed.

Colonial Period  

During the 15^th century, it was unacceptable for people to select their sexual partners without first considering if they belonged to the correct gender. The Inquisitions were created to stop these mass acts of heresy, which the government believed would help minimize the spread of homosexual acts that were perceived to threaten the fabric of the colonies (Keeley, 2003). In conquering sexual identity stigma in Colonia Latin America as colonialism flourished, there were various patterns of male-male intimacy bonding. The religious standpoints of the Church were reinforced by the interpretation of the Inquisition, and Catholic ethics became law with respect to acceptable sexual behavior (Tejirian 2000). The Spanish Inquisition required people to accept the legal rule of the Church and Spanish government, forced people to convert to Catholicism, and take steps that would allow them to fully integrate into Spanish society. As such, the Spanish government expected Latin American natives to reject morally evil homosexual acts. To understand the Spanish Inquisition, and the role institutions played towards homosexuality views in colonial Mexico, it is necessary to consider tha indigenous people were defined according to the religion, politics, sexuality, and philosophy of outsiders (Tortorici 2012). The Spanish Inquisition had to use surveillance, fear, cruelty, and punishment of homosexual transgressors to change the indigenous people’s way of life.

Between 1567 and 1616, the Spanish Inquisition continued to play a significant role in negative formations of views concerning homosexuality along with death sentences for any men charged with homosexuality, sodomy or bestiality (Ryan 2015). The Spanish ecclesiastical and secular court was unforgiving concerning sexuality that was not under the doctrines of the Catholic Church, and their primary goal was to change the social acceptance of homosexuality with severe consequences. In the Spanish Province of Aragon, the judicial system sent a strong message to their society by burning 71 men to death (Tortorici, 2012). These accused men received civil prosecution for sodomy and bestiality, which the Inquisition defined their religious beliefs concerning sexuality with violence and swift punishment (Ryan, 2015).

In 1658, the Catholic Church had concerns about blasphemous sexual acts, which they responded by executing 17 men for the charges of sodomy. Moreover, the Inquisition took control of the colonies views and thoughts concerning sodomy and homosexuality with severe actions to act as a threat and deterrent. In a summary judgment by a Spanish Inquisition degree, the government prosecuted 125 men for the act of sodomy in Puebla and Mexico City. The trend continued within Spanish dominion, in which the Inquisition was responsible for prosecuting and putting 100 men to death over sodomy and 83 men were publicly put to death for homosexuality (Tortorici, 2012).

The Catholic Church and the Inquisition had the colonial power to punish homosexuality mercifully based on Catholicism’s doctrines. The colonies had local laws that controlled the sexuality of the region. However, the conquistadors strictly enforced the laws over the colonial Mexican population. The step to assimilation by the Spanish included promoting religious doctrines concerning religious morals that reinforced the Church’s expectation of conversion (Spurling, 1998). The Spanish Empire considered the Latin Americans to be pagans that needed guidance and instruction about sexuality. The Catholic Church confirmed that the colonial provinces were out of control regarding homosexual sexual activities, including sodomy, and proved that these individuals needed religion to change their culture. The Catholic Church enforced the sexuality laws viciously to persuade the local people and indigenous native leaders to quickly abide by the rules or face the wrath of the new Inquisition unlimited powers over the population. These individuals often had no choice but to abide with the new laws imposed by the Spanish because alternatively, they would be put to death or jailed.

In the 16^th and 17^th century colonial institutions controlled and shaped the views concerning homosexuality in colonial Mexico. The two institutions that had the majority of the power were the Catholic Church and the individuals responsible for the Inquisition. The Spanish Inquisition posed as an assembly of establishments within the government system of the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat the sinners that deviated from the Catholic Church teachings called heresy (Ryan, 2015). The Inquisition controlled the sexuality morality of the people; however, after the Church’s decrease in power, the Spanish movement of indigenous societies formed their political coalitions through the subsequent development unions (Powers 2002). This political union included diverse ethnic groups, including indigenous women, Mesoamericans, Andean people, and homosexuals. According to Powers (2002), they built a well-organized political system that used the rights of sexuality including polygyny. The Mesoamerican cities consolidated their political influence, becoming the first leader in areas of politics and economics. The main reason the political system was organized because the all the political power and major titles frequently went to the ruler’s successor. This tradition keptthe political power and wealth in the hands of the male descendants, which was detrimental for homosexual members of society who were no longer considered to be male (Sigal 2002).

The Spanish Empire was responsible for developing new culture within the colonies. These institutions aimed to improve the quality of life of people living in the new colonial society, while working with the Spanish Crown to maintain order and control. As a religious state, Spain depended on the Church to set moral laws through the use of religion, using the Catholic Church cannons as a vital instrument for overseeing social life in the Spanish Empire (Tortorici, 2012). The Church and Inquisition shaped the public opinions and laws concerning homosexuality and sexuality in colonial Mexico, and the rest of America

In 1691, the Holy Spanish priest, Fray Manuel de Santo Thomas, and the Holy Office of the Inquisition, began decided to imprison a man named Ruiz based on his confession of sins (Tortorici 2012). The priest and the Inquisition initially charged Ruiz with public masturbation. However, they became appalled because Ruiz admitted to sacrilegious fantasies. The role of the Inquisition in this immoral incident was to set laws addressing sexuality, and erotic religious dreams (Tortorici, 2012).  The Spanish priest indicated that Ruiz sought absolution from his sins, and Ruiz used sacrilege prayers to Saint Diego, Jesus Christ, and Virgin Mary. The Inquisition charged Ruiz for speaking dishonestly and erotic words to the holy saints. Therefore, they established religious laws addressing verbal blasphemy, religious fantasies, and indecent and blasphemous fantasies. Ruiz’s sinful incident is one of the earliest moral decisions made by the Inquisition, which lead to Ruiz to be sentenced to three years in prison. The severe punishments were the beginning of the Inquisition defining and classifying homosexuality as a sinful act that could be punished in the colonies.

Unedited

In 1658, The Catholic Church also addressed the male sexuality and religious traditions using the Catholic Church doctrines covering the sins of sodomy, homosexuality, and male sexuality. The Spanish Inquisition attacked the natives with impunity as they oppressed the indigenous people with displacement, brutality, slavery and administrative punishment.

In a study by De Los Reyes (2006) presented a case that accused 123 men of homosexual activities which provided the names, dates, professions and details of the sexual preferences and sexual acts of each man. In the Catholic Church, a new role in Colonial Latin America they implemented and created moral doctrines based on the legal case against the 123 men to show obscene sins of homosexuality (De Los Reyes, 2006). As a result, 14 people were executed for sodomy, harsh criminal punishments and others were labeled as wicked sinners.

In a study by Gruzinki, (1986) (as cited in Tortoric, 2012) found that Colonial Latin America and Mexico have has evidence of homosexuality and sodomy between men in the urban environments. These homosexual men from Mexico City and Puebla practiced and engaged in a wide-range variety of sexual behaviors and created a new gay subculture with their secretive underground practices (Twinam, 1999). The author suggests that this was not isolated incident of nefarious sin, but an expansion of a new unholy subculture with resources, networks, informants and secret codes.

In the Spanish colonies, homosexuality was not new phenomena. However, the Church found that bestiality, religious fantasies, homosexuality and sodomy were destroying the fabric of the sexuality identity of the Spanish gatherings (Sigal, 2002). During this era, religious obedience was expected, and the Inquisition took actions by addressing forbidden homosexual behavior with severe civil and church court punishments with vicious impunity such as public execution (Szasz & Lerner, 1998). Those men that were found to be homosexuals became targets of community and state disdain regardless of their social status. The Inquisition set the tone with punishing everyone regardless of riches, public occupation or education (Sigal, 2002). The Church knew the colonies had men as homosexuals, who violated the Church’s moral laws concerning their practicing of society natural sexual rules. According to Sigal (2002), the Catholic Church and the State controlled and molded the cultures of colonial Mexico by cultivating and elevating the importance of marriage and the family in attempts to strengthen the Christian concepts of gender and sexuality The Spanish Empire depended upon the Catholic Church to legitimize and integrate the natives. (Trexler, 1995). The Catholic Church initiated a more dominant force in the new world, the spiritual conquest using Catholicism and priest to indoctrinate the natives.

In the Colonial era, the arrival of the colonizers in Spanish America, a plethora of male sexuality lifestyles and patterns of sexual behavior began to evolve (Tejirian, 2000). The colonial period was a natural occurrence based on the early conquers or discoverers amazement of the uninhibited nature of the hot indigenous men and women (Socolow, 2000). The sexual behavior was encouraged by outsiders creating a combination of sexual appetites during the colonial period. In a historical perspective, colonial Latin America based on a sexually and racially diverse civilization.

The colonial period found the homosexual behavior as immoral, which they received punishment and reprimand in the civil and church courts.  In many occasions, those found to be guilty of homosexuality ended with their lives taken by execution. The men found to be homosexual often faced public ridicule and their position in the community received opposition due to the gay status.   The Church and the State regulated and supervised the growing cultural communications of colonial Mexico by developing and promoting religious obedience based on marriage and the family in attempts to reinforce the Christian conception of gender and sexuality.

In Latin American homosexuality leads the social norm for the roles of the women and men. The homosexual men reformed to the Spanish rule using the traditional noble leaders to pass on the old traditional sexuality codes.  Mayan society continued to use the underground sexuality activities while the Spanish agreed to let the nobles to control the population.  However, the Spanish Inquisition quickly found that the homosexual men found other ways to avoid persecution. They developed private places that were secret to only the members to practice the homosexuality acts outside the public eye.  Furthermore, the newly developed network allowed the homosexuality population to gain more power with confidentiality. The Spanish Inquisition legal punishment for homosexuality was so harsh that homosexual found other platforms such as arts and theater and cultural activities (Choe, 2007).

Maya Homosexuality-16^th to 18 Century

The Maya of Yucata civilization during the period of the 16^th to 18^th century coincides with the homosexual and sexual epochs. The Mayan civilization was in located near the south-eastern Mexico encompassing the Yucatan peninsula. This rich culture flourished agriculturally before the Mayan civilization succumbed to the Spaniards conquest. The Maya late century period coincides with the pederasty and alleged homosexuality practices. This is not to say that Mayans were neutral concerning homosexuality which they tolerated as part of the culture but sodomy was considered an unforgivable offense. The Mayans did not agree with homosexuality and any citizen that violated the sodomy code; they would be burned at the stakes (Sigal, 1997). The Maya way of life during this era includes the practices of same-sex eroticism, untraditional sexuality, pederasty practices, premarital heterosexual sex and homosexual relationships. The Mayan people sexual culture endured the colonialism and Spanish rules impact to culture groups included politics, religion and acceptable sexual behaviors (Scott, 1988). The Spanish redefine the acceptable sexual behavior by introducing religious teachings of the Church (Sigal 1997).  The transition to the Spaniards religious, sexual, political and social control of the Maya people met with defiance. The Mayan people assimilation to the Spaniard’s way of life created a social resistance that defended the Maya heritage and traditions.

The conquest of the Maya people historically set a strong sociopolitical foundation in Latin America, concerning the newly defined relationships of colonialism to homosexual and pederasty aspirations. Colonial Latin America sexuality adapted to the Spanish domination, which slowly changed the sexual landscape and culture that developed into a hybrid climate. The social and sexual change combined the Mayan and Spanish traditions, while the Mayan society continued to practice homosexuality mostly among younger men. The transition from Spaniard rule to the acclimation of Maya population included complex factors such as Maya excellent and commoner control of tradition among the Maya people. Secondly, the Mayan political system that encompassed the tradition of pederasty rituals as a birthright, based on the stratification of social person continued to exist. The third complexity of the Spaniard changes in sexuality, homosexuality, and pederasty require the nobles to ensure that the Chilam Balam traditional survived.

The Books of Chilam Balam are the holy religious scriptures of the Maya of Yucatan. The scriptures were named after their greatest prophet Chilam. The title of Chilam represents he was the interpreter of the words of God. The second word” Balam” represents Jaguar, which is a common family name in Yucatan (Sacred Text, 2011).

The Chilam Balam is handwritten historical religious books that preserved the traditions of the indigenous Mayan people. The Spaniards encountered barriers within Mayan culture, they were so ingrained, which resulted in the Spaniards and Maya emerging in social, political and sexuality customs. In the Books of Chilam, the ritualistic text describes the combination of the sexual markings on the body and the acceptance of pederasty practices as the truth that was handed down to the noble youth. The Maya political power structure ensured that the pederasty practices made sure to survive during the Spanish adaptation and assimilation period.

In a study by Sigal (1997) suggested that the Mayas power structure of religions, politics, and sexuality worked as three elements that controlled the lives of the Maya people (Weeks,1977). The Mayan leaders fought to keep control of their homosexuality lifestyles using their positions to reinforce male to male relationships. This phenomenon directly influences the entire Yucatan region they accepting the different hybrid models of sexuality and sexual desires. For the pre-conquest Maya, homosexuality was a part of the daily sexual routines, and all homosexual sex acts were supported by the Maya powerful nobles that controlled Mayan society. In the historical conquest of the colonial rule, the Mayan people adapted to life under colonial rule. However, they never abandoned the homosexual views altogether. They adopted the formulation of sexuality prescribed by Spanish Catholicism. Nevertheless, they maintained their hybrid sexuality lifestyles (Sigal, 1997). Sigal (2004) emphasizes that by the later colonial era Maya sexual identity, fantasies, and fears had changed significantly. The adaptations which took place were the results of a colonialism conquered by the force of hybridity instead of submitting to a complete oppression of the Maya sexual culture (Sigal, 2003, 14). This hybridity permitted for the realization that long-established culture survived and remained intact in the face of persecution and death.

Pre-Columbian Period

The pre-Columbian period during a time when the Spanish and French missionaries visited the region. The Jesuit priest reported the moral acts and lewdness of the natives and the quickly spreading of homosexuality during the pre-Columbian era. They would carry out orgies in public or in private, but limitations towards sodomy (in public) which was intolerable to the Mayans and would result in death in a fiery furnace. It was preferable to the premarital heterosexuality hence, some of the nobles got sexual slaves for their children. The priest said that the men were openly feminine and not ashamed to wear women’s clothing which became the norm for the people (Socolow, 2000).

The religious missionaries brought religion to the population some of whom refused to relinquish obscene sexual behaviors. The natives justified their homosexual behaviors as acceptable because it was from their spiritual foundation and doctrines that accept their choice of homosexual conduct (Guerra, 1971).  In a study by Guerra, the homosexuality among the Mayans dominated the region with young boys recruited for sodomy acts as young as six years old. The Mexican men continued to practice the teachings of the Aztec gods Xochipil, who represented homosexuality and male prostitution. During the period, before the conquest, the Mayans practiced human sacrifice and cannibalism, which coincided with any other religious influence outside of the Aztec’s sexual gods (Guerra, 1971).

In the Pre-Columbian homosexual discourse in resisting the Spanish colonial sexuality restructuring both cultures, Mexican and Spanish had different interpretations of power, fear, sodomy, and sexuality (Nesvig, 2001, 699).  This historical interplay of the interaction of sexuality in Latin America developed a third sexual preference in both the Pre-Columbian and the Spanish colonial era (Roscoe, 1998). The separate cultures accepted different desires and lived to adapt to Church doctrines on sexuality.  The two distinct sexual ideologies and categorizations accommodated most of both population, but the Spanish religious rules and the Pre-Columbian sexual traditions did not fit very well (Nesvig, 2001, 699). The Spanish were against any sodomy and homosexuality and did not want any incorporations within their religious customs.

Many of the indigenous sexual practices during the Pre-Columbian period consisted of human sacrifice, sexual deviant, homosexuality, hermaphrodites, sodomy, and cannibalism. The practice of homosexuality was considered immoral act by the Spaniards and the Maya people. The Maya culture became tolerant of homosexuality, which included at the time homosexual orgies. However, sodomy acts were commonly punished and condemned to a fiery death. The pre-Columbian period is notably known for the sexuality of hermaphrodites, which they called berdache. In indigenous people communities, berdache describes men that had feminine mannerisms and behaviors. They were labeled as deviants because they were considered neither men nor women by their pre-Columbian societies. The consensus by the indigenous people believed the berdache’s a third category of homosexual gender. However, they did not escape the brutal treatment and sometimes death (Trexler, 1995).

Aztecs and Homosexuality

The early Aztecs time before the Spanish Conquest the Aztec Empire included indigenous people practicing homosexuality, which is the act of dressing in a manner linked with the opposite sex. Later on, the Spanish Inquisition disapproved of what they considered immoral homosexual acts as proof that indigenous people needed oversight, which justified the soften pointing to same-sex behavior as evidence of the fallen nature of the aboriginal peoples and therefore as a justification for conquest and slaughter (Keeley,2003). The Aztec dominant cultural attitude towards homosexuality was harsh; this opinion did not change after the Spanish Conquest of the Aztec empire. The Aztecs culture brutally maimed or killed men, who practiced anal sex and the Aztec communities reserved the cruelest punishment of burning those found guilty of such act. The Aztec did not accept cross-dressing berdaches, and unlike their counterpart, they were executed.

The Aztec disregard for men with feminine characteristics represented the overall attitude of the Aztec people’s attitudes toward gender. Traditionally, Aztec culture rewarded and respected machism, which coincided with the Spanish culture, male dominance. The Aztec built a warrior race teaching the boys in an all-male school to be leaders and dominant aggressors over enemies. The Aztec mocked their enemies in battle, telling their enemies that Aztec warriors were real men and they were the feminine foes (Trexler, 1995).

The urban Aztecs lived in the politically dominated areas of Tlateloco, Texcoco, and Tenochiltan (Kimball, 1994). The Aztecs traditional beliefs surround acceptable slaves and practice the rituals of sacrificial victims.  The Aztecs participated in public sexuality to create an erotic experience. However, Spanish rule came with a firm price. The bond of the Aztec people worshiped a deity Xochiquetzal, who was the religious goddess of sexuality of both female and female (Kimball, 1994)

In Latin America sexuality conversions to the Church often changed the conquered and easily colonized. However, the Aztecs easily combined religions and sexuality. In other words, the Aztec vehemently denied the religious teachings of the Spanish accepting certain sentencing death. Consequently, a third reason the Spanish had difficulty changing the Aztec sexuality culture that was based on their willingness to be conquered but maintain their sexual customs. The Aztecs worshiped another god named Xochipili, who was the deity that gave them the personal right to engage in male homosexuality, sodomy, and sexual perversions. The Spanish Inquisition understood the premium the Aztec people held on the perception of mainly machism. The Spanish Inquisition imposed harsh penalties for public and private male homosexuality along with traditional punishment (Twinam, 1999). The Aztecs that were indicted for sodomy had a bad end of life by hanging and the active/ passive homosexual acts resulted in impalement which was a method of execution. Impalement is the cruel penetration of the entire body on a stake from the anus to the head. Aztec women that engaged in lesbian sexual acts encountered a gruesome death by strangulation.

 Post-Independence

Mexican independence from Spain brought an end to the Spanish Inquisition and colonial homosexual persecution. The Spanish penal code applied to the entire region changed the landscape of homosexuality. The homosexuals could no longer face execution imposed by the state regarding their choice of homosexual lifestyle. This change indicated that the sexual conduct in private quarters between two consenting adults regardless of gender did not get prosecuted in judicial courts.  In the social scheme of things concerning homosexuality, Mexican government laws supported the right of individual choice without privacy rights. Furthermore, the person was free to use their moral conscience.

The new independence ushered in the civil rights of individuals, which protected their right to choose whatever sexual acts including sexual freedom without censorship. The logic during this period aimed to bring back moral responsibility, personal security, and protection of the law.  In the new social-political era, it was almost expected of people be better human beings; they have the choice to be free thinkers to make ethical decisions concerning the betterment of society. This era developed and put into practice human and civil rights which allowed people to make the best moral and ethical decisions for their community.  However, this did not give the people the freedom to disobey public decency laws and practice homosexuality openly. The laws set the parameters for the newly independent Mexico laws against sexual solicitation and any public behavior that was deemed sociality deviant public sodomy or homosexuality was repressive and harsh.

The movement for independence introduced changes to the political, social and sexual way of life; it inspired liberal revolutions with the voices of Mexican constituents bellowing regarding public choices. The powerful and educated elite of Mexico considered the impact of the social restructuring a disgrace since it allowed homosexuality freedom within the confines of their own private havens. The changes in the social and political structure accompanied by the new Spanish reforms resulted in severe economic crisis.  As a result, Spain responded to the financial crisis by isolating themselves from the native people. The moral code reinforced by the Mexico and the local people developed into a paradigm shift in sexuality and the views concerning homosexual relationships. The rules changed the sexuality platform for the new Independence region. However, the gay underworld remained in the colonial areas.

The Spanish penal code evolved to bring about a new social order and expectation of obedience of the new sexuality laws including the act of sodomy, which ceased being a criminal offense. However, soon the Spanish introduced a new Penal Code proposed that question the rights that allowed natives to monitor their morality and local customs. Also, discussions concerning the vague concept of allowing the local police and judges to interpret the moral and sexuality laws. The Independence ushered in a new-found freedom. However, the power shifted to the police and judges because they choose how the laws would apply to sodomy acts and homosexuality. The homosexual’s  behavior became acceptable as long as practice privately escaped any civil and legal retaliation and the new Independence laws forbid any executions for homosexuality.  The men that practiced homosexuals created a political and power shift because the wealthy included many of the homosexuals that made legal, societal and social policy decisions.

The evolution of the gender and homosexual categories that no great face persecution positioned homosexuality became the new power in colonial Latin America. The social climate changed drastically creating a new gay subculture that combines political power with existing groups in Mexico City.  Mexico achieved independence from Spain and started a new period of sexuality. According to Ben (2015), the Independence changes emphasized the cultural practices, such as moral decisions for the best solutions, homosexuality in private and application of Penal laws. In the post-Independence era, the homosexual practices had to remain secret for high-ranking officials because of the morality clauses imposed in the Penal codes. However, the secrecy came at a high political price in the post-Independence regions because many of the political powers in Mexico used this power as leverage. The best example of the shift in the authority a well-known general Emiliano Zapata encounters watchful eyes based on rumors of sexual preferences. The pollical system controls his vote until his death which his sexual preference never revealed.

Conclusion

The post-Independence era, homosexuality was allowed as a moral choice, as long the individual privately engaged in immoral actions. They were able to escape civil punishment, and legal retaliation and the new Independence laws made it illegal to execute a man or women for their sexual choice (Prieur, 1998).  The people that sought to live a gay way of life enjoyed a new power shift. The wealthy participants used their political clout to make critical changes to sexuality and social policies. One the myths uncovered from previous research found that the Aztecs accepted homosexuality as a lifestyle. However, the natives abide by the Spanish rule preventing any public homosexual acts or mannerism. The Spanish conquistadors had problems implanting the Church morals and doctrines because the Aztecs worshiped Xochiquétzal and Xochipilli that lead the people in sexual and homosexual lifestyles based on religious beliefs.

The Jesuit priest attempted to sway the natives from homosexuality during the pre-Columbian era. The priest reported that the men were proud of their feminine ways with no shame to be considered a woman.   The research found that the Aztec contempt for men with feminine features embodied the overall outlook of the Aztec people’s positions concerning the male gender. The Aztec culture traditionally reflected machism that matched the Spanish culture of male domination. The Aztec constructed a soldier race coaching the boys in an all-male school to be frontrunners and dominate adversaries. The Aztec belittled their nemeses in conflict; while they ranted that Aztec men will make their foes women (Trexler, 1995). The bond of the Aztec people worshiped a deity Xochiquetzal, who was the divine goddess of sexuality of both female and female.

The research found that in Latin America sexuality transformations to the Church regularly altered the philosophy of the native people. However, the Aztec’s religious convictions were difficult to overcome. The Aztec vigorously fought against the religious transition while accepting a cruel fate. The Spanish had struggle changing the Aztec sexuality culture based on their eagerness to overpower nevertheless retain their sexual traditions. The Spanish conquers understood the price the Aztecs were willing to pay to hold on to machoism.  Colonial Latin Americans were expected to abide by the Spanish social laws and transition to the Catholicism.   The Spanish Inquisition believed that strict punishment was the correct strategy for driving the acceptance and approval of the religious doctrines.

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