Download or read book Public Lives, Private Secrets written by Ann Twinam and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 447 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout the 18th and early-19th centuries, illegitimate offspring of elite families in colonial Spanish America appealed to the Council and C'mara of the Indies in Spain to purchase gracias al sacar legitimations. Their applications provided intimate testimony concerning their own lives, accounts of their parents sexual relationships, and details regarding the impact of illegitimacy within their families and communities. Bourbon officials in Spain debated which petitions merited approval, and in the process forged policies concerning gender, sexuality, illegitimacy, and the family.