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Some Observations on Mission Methods and Native Reactions in Sixteenth-Century New Spain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Stafford Poole C.M.
Stafford Poole C.M.*
Affiliation:
Los Angeles, California
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Extract

The purpose of this article is to examine some aspects of the evangelization of New Spain in the sixteenth century and the natives’ responses to it. This is a subject of tortuous complexity and one that cannot be adequately treated in a brief essay. Rather, this will be an attempt to highlight some of the more important and interesting aspects of this phenomenon. In doing so I will use some of my own researches into the Virgin of Guadalupe of Mexico to illustrate it and to show some of the pitfalls inherent in the topic.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 50 , Issue 3 , January 1994 , pp. 337 - 349
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1994

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References

1 The original version of this paper was given at the Conference on Latin American History in New York, 28 December 1990.

2 Ricard, Robert, The Spiritual Conquest of Mexico: An Essay on the Apostolate and the Evangelizing Methods of the Mendicant Orders in New Spain, 1523–1572, Simpson, Leslie Byrd, trans. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966).Google Scholar

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8 For some examples of this and the problems involved, see Burkhart, , The Slippery Earth, pp. 49,Google Scholar 52–54.

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13 This refers to the assertion made in 1556 by the Franciscan Provincial, Francisco de Bustamante, that the picture was painted by a native artist, whom he identified as Marcos.

14 Robelo, Cecilio, Diccionario de Aztequismos (Mexico City, n.d.), p. 256 Google Scholar n.7.

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17 Ibid.

18 Información que mandó practicar con motivo de un sermon que en la fiesta de la Natividad de Nuestra Señora (8 de Septiembre de 1556) predico en la capilla de San José de los Naturales del Convento de San Francisco de Méjico, el Provincial Fray Franciso de Bustamante acerca de la devoción y culto de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (2nd ed.; Mexico, 1891), passim.

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23 Christian, William A. Jr., Apparitions in Late Medieval and Renaissance Spain (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981)Google Scholar; idem, Local Religion in Sixteenth Century Spain (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981).

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25 For an intriguing survey of this question, see Sweeney, Ernest S., SJ, “The Nature and Power of Religion in Latin America: Some Aspects of Popular Beliefs and Practices,” Thought, 59:233 (June 1984), 149–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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27 Florencia, , Estrella del norte, pp. 521–24.Google Scholar

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32 Poole, Stafford, “The Last Years of Archbishop Pedro Moya de Contreras, 1586–1591,” The Americas (July 1990), 31–33;Google Scholar idem, Pedro Moya de Contreras: Catholic Reform and Royal Power in New Spain, 1571–1591 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986), pp. 123–24.