I have read the many posts of the last couple weeks with much interest. I believe that many of you "opened up" and were most sincere in your personal moments/stories. Secret baptisms, padres no conocidos, loss of inheritences, hijos naturales, hijos de Dios and the modern day "pain" we incurred from speaking Spanish or not being able to speak Spanish, etc. I believe these are the times when we are the most human and I relate to so much of what has been said.  Bravo! to those of you who made these posts. I believe we learn more  from these platicas than from the dry statistics of names and dates (however, also very important).
I  very seldom post here on Nuestros, therefore, I am somewhat hesitant to make  the following recommendation, but here goes; many years ago I read the book "Early Latin America; A History of Colonial Spanish America. It was and in my opinion continues to be the best written/documented evolution of the social &culturual history of the states we all talk about. I think knowing the  facts and circumstances of the time period is very enlightening and gives much insight in to many of the topics/threads we read here on Nuestros. We have to know from whence we came in order to know who we are. I hope I do not offend anyone here by making such a basic recommendation. For anyone interested simply go to: books.google.com and then search for; Early Latin America Lockhart (the author) You can preview a large volume of the book this way and they have used copies for $1.99.