David Galindo

Assistant Professor
Assistant Professor
David Galindo
  • Colonial Latin America, Colonial Mexico, Spanish Empire, Religion, Borderlands, Indigenous Labor

I was born in Madrid, Spain. I have had a peripatetic life, living in Chile, Germany, Mexico, Spain, and the United States. My eclectic and international training shows my diversity of interests. I received my Ph.D. in History at Southern Methodist University in 2010, where I also taught in the Departments of History and World Languages and Cultures. I hold an M.A. in North American Studies from the Franklin Institute at the University of Alcalá de Henares, Spain; a Diploma de Estudios Avanzados in Early Modern Spanish History from the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid; and an Industrial/Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Valladolid, Spain. I worked as an engineer in Germany and Spain before I committed my life to my passion: History.

My research focuses on imperial frontiers in the Hispanic world, religion as a tool of Spanish imperialism, and, more recently, Indigenous labor and exploitation in the early modern Spanish empire. My first monograph, To Sin No More: Franciscans and Conversion in the Hispanic World, 1683-1830 (2018), analyzed the Franciscan colleges of propaganda fide, their missionaries, and their multifaceted, sweeping missionary programs in early modern Spain and the Americas. I have also co-edited La Frontera en el Mundo Hispano (2014) and The Franciscans in Colonial Mexico (2022). I am currently working on two book projects. One focuses on southern California Indigenous peoples, the Franciscan missionary Fray Jerónimo Boscana, and their contributions to California ethnology. A second project analyzes various normative systems developed to extract indigenous labor and tribute in New Spain's northern frontier territories from the 16th through the early 19th century.

I teach courses on colonial Latin America, colonial Mexico, frontiers/borderlands in the Americas, and Indigenous slaveries in the Iberian worlds.

Books:

Thomas Cohen, Jay Harrison, and David Rex Galindo (eds.) The Franciscans in Colonial Mexico, The University of Oklahoma Press and the Academy of American Franciscan History, 2022.

David Rex Galindo, To Sin no More: Franciscans and Conversion in the Hispanic World, 1683-1830, Stanford University Press and the Academy of American Franciscan History, 2018.

Porfirio Sanz Camañes, David Rex Galindo (eds.), La frontera en el mundo hispánico, Abya Yala, 2014.

Recent articles and book chapters:

David Rex Galindo, Editor, "Studying Indigenous Labor and Coercion on the Frontiers of the Spanish Empire." Rechtsgeschichte-Legal History Journal 31, Focus Dossier, 2023.

David Rex Galindo, "Forms of Indigenous Labor on New Spain's Northern Frontiers: The Cases of New Mexico and California (17th-18th Centuries)." Rechtsgeschichte-Legal History Journal 31, 2023.

David Rex Galindo, "Doctor Navarro in the Americas: The Circulation and Use of Martín de Azpilcueta's Work in Early-Modern Mexico." Legal Books and Beyond in the Iberian Worlds. Normative Knowledge Production in the Age of Printing Press. Ed. Manuela Bragagnolo. Leiden: Brill, 2023.

David Rex Galindo, "Don José de Garro, un militar guipuzcoano en el gobierno de la frontera meridional americana durante el reinado de Carlos II." La nobleza titulada castellana en la conservación del imperio español en tiempos de Carlos II. Ed. Porfirio Sanz Camañes. Madrid: Editorial Silex, 2023, 171-189.

Cristián Leal, David Rex Galindo, "Women and the Economic Administration in the Franciscan Missions of Valdivia, Chile: The Syndic Clara de Eslava y Lope." Catholic Historical Review 108, 2022, 101-124.

David Rex Galindo, "Un Científico Ilustrado y Liberal: Fray Jerónimo Boscana, su "Relacion historica" y la antropología de California." De viejas y nuevas fronteras en América y Europa. Ed. Macarena Sánchez. Santiago, Chile: Editorial Universidad Finis Terrae, 2022, 281-303.

David Rex Galindo, Jay Harrison, and Thomas Cohen, "The Franciscans in Colonial Mexico: An Introduction." The Franciscans in Colonial Mexico. Norman: The University of Oklahoma Press, 2022, 1-16.

David Rex Galindo, "Imperio desde los márgenes: Un estudio de la obra de fray Pedro González de Agüeros y sus planes reformistas de las fronteras del sur de la América meridional a finales del siglo XVIII." Jahrbuch für Geschichte Lateinamerikas 57, 2020, 153-189.

David Rex Galindo, "Shaping Colonial Behaviors: Franciscan Missionary Literature and the Implementation of Religious Normative Knowledge in colonial Mexico, 1530s-1640s." Knowledge of the Pragmatici: Legal and Moral Theological Literature and the Formation of Early Modern Ibero-America. Eds. Thomas Duve and Otto Danwerth. Leiden: Brill, 2020, 296-327.

Selected Fellowships, Awards, and Recognitions:

Huntington Library, Pasadena, California, Long-Term Fellowship, 2022-2023.

Max Planck Partner Group, UAI-MPIRR, 2019-2023.

Conference on Latin American History, Lewis Hanke Post-Doctoral Award, 2011.

Harvard University, Short-Term Research Grant in Atlantic History, 2011.

Academy of American Franciscan History, Berkeley, Dissertation Fellowship, 2007-2008.