The following is a short excerpt from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences website. The full story, “History Professor Wins Prize for Best Book in Mexican History,” can be found online.
Congratulations to Professor Sonya Lipsett-Rivera (Department of History) for winning the prestigious 2020 María Elena Martínez Prize for best book in Mexican History.
Lipsett-Rivera receives this honour for The Origins of Macho: Men and Masculinity in Colonial Mexico which explores stereotypical misrepresentations of Mexican men as defined by machismo, excessive virility, bravado, and violence. Lipsett-Rivera reveals in her analysis, that, in reality, serenity and equanimity were the social ideals of colonial Mexico.
Using judicial sources, The Origins of Macho addresses this contrast by studying how men interacted with each other and how they adapted the contradictory standards of tranquillity while upholding their honour and social reputation.
“For me, winning this prize is an incredible honour. Every book takes an incredible amount of time to research, think about, and then write—it is a long and arduous process but also one that is quite solitary,” said Lipsett-Rivera.