Dr. Ann Twinam, an award-winning author and historian, will speak at the first lecture of The University of Alabama’s new Latin American, Caribbean and Latino studies major, according to a press release. The lecture will take place Oct. 1 at 7 p.m. in Gorgas 205.

The lecture is entitled “Purchasing Whiteness: Pardos, Mulattoes, & the Quest for Social Mobility in the Spanish Indies.”

In Twinam’s lecture, she will be discussing the Spanish-American colonial hierarchal system of race, also known as the “gracias al sacar” system in which “castas”, or mixed-race groups, could receive white status and be absolved of tax and tribute requirements. 

Twinam is a history professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and she is the author of several books including “Miners, Merchants, and Farmers in Colonial Columbia.”

Twinam’s other works include “Public Lives, Private Secrets: Gender, Honor, Sexuality and Illegitimacy in Colonial Spanish America,” for which she won the Thomas F. McGann Prize and was runner-up for the Bolton Prize.

The new Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies minor was created by an increasing demand among students and by a growing market in the job field. There are 24 full-time faculty members involved with the new Arts & Sciences minor, and there are classes ranging in everything from gender and race studies to political science.

The lecture is free to the public. A reception will follow. For more information on tonight’s lecture and the new minor, visit http://lacls.as.ua.edu.