Imágenes caninas hispanoamericanas del período de conquista y colonización: textos y contextos.

In recent years animals have gained increasing popularity in humanistic studies and have become a bountiful subject of interdisciplinary studies. It has been noted that through them it is possible to carry out the de-codification of the culture of several civilizations and that literary texts are a powerful medium for this purpose. The analysis of animals is of interest to us as a mirror of the habits and customs of human beings, as a projection of human virtues and defects, as a symbol. Based on this premise, we will attempt to analyze a series of textual and iconographic Hispanic American sources focused on a particular animal, the dog, in order to arrive at fixed and variable features in the context of Hispanic America during the Conquest and Colonization, and the meaning they entail. Our readings reveal two canine groups, namely: the companion dog and the monstrous-soldier dog, linked with the dog of the Hispanic American man and with the dog of the Conqueror, respectively. We note that both canine types reinforce the imaginary established for each of the mentioned human groups during the periods analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]