Description
Book SynopsisWhat happened to indigenous life after contact with the Spanish? In the complex interaction of cultures, how and to what degree did traditional ways persist? What role did religion play?
Sustaining the Divine in Mexico Tenochtitlan addresses these and other questions by focusing on Mexico City in the colonial era.
Trade ReviewThis exploration of indigenous Catholicism in early colonial Mexico City has long been needed. With great sensitivity to gender, class, and ethnic interactions, Jonathan Truitt examines the material and spiritual development of an urban indigenous Catholicism. I strongly recommend
Sustaining the Divine."" - Susan Kellogg, author of
Weaving the Past: A History of Latin America's Indigenous Women from the Prehispanic Period to the Present""Sustaining the Divine makes an important contribution to the study of the effort to Christianize natives in Mexico City - Tenochtitlan in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Most previous work has focused on evangelization in the countryside of the missionary frontier, but no work has focused so tightly on the urban environment."" - John F. Schwaller, author of
The History of the Catholic Church in Latin America""Jonathan Truitt's essential and deeply researched study of the relationship between the Church and its indigenous subjects in Mexico City breaks new ground.
Sustaining the Divine moves the field beyond traditional paradigms that highlight destruction, fear, and coercion. Truitt illustrates how within the trauma of conquest the need for religion persisted among native peoples, continuing to be at the heart of indigenous social organization."" - Dana Velasco Murillo, author of
Urban Indians in a Silver City: Zacatecas, Mexico, 1546 - 1810""Writing clearly and without jargon, Truitt builds meticulously on earlier research while introducing the reader to a wide range of individual Nahua actors whose names and actions enliven the narrative."" -
Hispanic American Historical Review
