Center for the Study of the Early Modern World

Héctor is a socio-cultural historian of Early Modern Iberia with a major in Early Modern Global History and minors in Race and Ethnicity and Latin American History. His research explores the intersections of nobility, race, religion, and globalism in the early modern Iberian world, in particular, the role of Indigenous, Asian, and African descendants in Iberian aristocratic institutions. His dissertation explores how racially diverse vassals of the Spanish King engaged with Castilian juridical and institutional culture to be appointed in prestigious governmental offices, to achieve noble status, and to receive honors and patrimonies from the Spanish monarch. He analyzes these cases across the vast geography of Iberian empires, from Portugal to the Philippines. His interdisciplinary approach employs literature, theater, art, and architecture to address—and embrace—the silences of the archive.