Design in a Colonial Periphery: Guilds, Artisans, and Non-Artisans in 18th-Century Sonsonate, El Salvador

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

One of the more important contributions of this article is its questioning and potential redefining of the accepted ideas surrounding design and craft in relation to industrialization and mass production. The Spanish colonial centers themselves need more work so this study focused on colonial peripheries is welcome. In Spanish Colonial Art History and Visual Culture Studies there is very little work done on colonial Central America, making this research of great interest, since it points the way to fertile new territory for scholarly investigation. As a colonial scholar, I am familiar with this period; however, keeping readers in mind who may not be as familiar with colonial Central America/El Salvador and/or with the subject of colonial design and craft, I think the article could be strengthened by three things: first, perhaps in the introduction, provide some background on the overall geo-political organization of the Spanish American territories to further contextualize Central America as a periphery. Next, I would then set the stage for the discussion by more clearly describing the political, economic, cultural, etc. circumstances in El Salvador. The discussion could then proceed but when the author starts looking at the statistics more closely, it would help if they inserted some examples of the kinds of design/crafts/artworks they reference throughout the essay. If one is going to discuss visual and material cultural production, there should be illustrations of those items or objects. If these minor changes could be made, I feel the article would be ready for publication. The rest of the discussion of secondary sources and the examination of the situation in El Salvador is strong and will be of great interest to colonial scholars across various disciplines.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

The article, although well written, seems to be written by someone for whom English is not a primary language or perhaps it was translated into English. There are some errors in grammar, word usage, and various typos throughout the article that could use copy editing to correct. It's not a major problem but some careful copy editing would help.

Author Response

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen:

I am sending you the article "Design in a Colonial Periphery: Guilds, artisans, and non-artisans. Sonsonate, XVIII century" with the suggested corrections and some others that I considered relevant.

First of all, I would like to thank the two reviewers for their assertive observations.

The corrections are as follows:

1. I have made minor corrections to the abstract, specifying details. 2.
2. I made corrections to the introduction, stating the purpose of the article from the beginning, describing the region and time and its social and economic situation, both local and regional, and moving paragraphs that I was instructed to move to this part. I hope that the aims of the article will be clearer and the reading will be smoother.
3. I have included an image of the document on which the article is mainly based (Figure 2). I have also included (at the recommendation of the reviewers) an image illustrating the work of the Guatemalan pateros (Figure 6).
4. I have replaced figures 4 and 5 with others that are more appropriate to the text and have better resolution.
5. I corrected captions and images, and revised author credits.
6. Citations have been grouped in parentheses for ease of reading.
7. Quotations have been reduced to the most important words, giving more emphasis to the author's own comments. The use of parenthetical references has also been reduced.
8. Very long sentences are shortened.
9. The passive voice has been avoided.
10. The English version has been checked by English-speaking colleagues.

Exact corrections made by both reviewers are marked in yellow.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Comments on the Quality of English Language

English is fine. The attached pdf contains suggestions for improving clarity. 

Author Response

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen:

I am sending you the article "Design in a Colonial Periphery: Guilds, artisans, and non-artisans. Sonsonate, XVIII century" with the suggested corrections and some others that I considered relevant.

First of all, I would like to thank the two reviewers for their assertive observations.

The corrections are as follows:

1. I have made minor corrections to the abstract, specifying details. 2.
2. I made corrections to the introduction, stating the purpose of the article from the beginning, describing the region and time and its social and economic situation, both local and regional, and moving paragraphs that I was instructed to move to this part. I hope that the aims of the article will be clearer and the reading will be smoother.
3. I have included an image of the document on which the article is mainly based (Figure 2). I have also included (at the recommendation of the reviewers) an image illustrating the work of the Guatemalan pateros (Figure 6).
4. I have replaced figures 4 and 5 with others that are more appropriate to the text and have better resolution.
5. I corrected captions and images, and revised author credits.
6. Citations have been grouped in parentheses for ease of reading.
7. Quotations have been reduced to the most important words, giving more emphasis to the author's own comments. The use of parenthetical references has also been reduced.
8. Very long sentences are shortened.
9. The passive voice has been avoided.
10. The English version has been checked by English-speaking colleagues.

Exact corrections made by both reviewers are marked in yellow.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf