Missionaries: From Alaska to Patagonia · Episode 5 of 10 · 34 min
The Spiritual Conquest of Mexico: Friars, the Inquisition, and Our Lady of Guadalupe
After Cortés destroyed the Aztec empire in 1521, twelve Franciscan friars set out to convert millions quickly, tearing down temples and building churches from the same stones. The brutality forced Spain to debate whether Indigenous people were human at Valladolid. The episode also covers Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Inquisition, and Nahua accounts of the conquest.
Who's who
- Hernán Cortés+1 more episodeConqueror of Tenochtitlan in 1521
- Bartolomé de las CasasDominican advocate for Indigenous humanity
- Juan Ginés de SepúlvedaHumanist who argued Indigenous people were natural slaves
- Antonio de MontesinosDominican whose 1511 sermon opened the moral argument
- Juan de ZumárragaFirst bishop and inquisitor of Mexico
- Don Carlos OmetochtzinAztec noble burned by the Inquisition in 1539
- Juan DiegoNahua man of the Guadalupe tradition, canonized 2002
- Bernardino de SahagúnFriar who compiled the Florentine Codex with Nahua collaborators
Where it happens
- Tenochtitlan, Mexico+2 more episodesAztec capital overthrown in 1521
- Tepeyac, MexicoHill of Tonantzin and the Guadalupe tradition
- Valladolid, SpainSite of the 1550-51 debate
- Mexico City+2 more episodesSeat of the Inquisition tribunal from 1571
Timeline
- 1521Cortés and allies overthrow Tenochtitlan
- 1524Twelve Franciscan friars arrive; mass baptism begins
- 1539Don Carlos burned by the Inquisition
- 1550-1551Valladolid debate between Las Casas and Sepúlveda
- 1571Inquisition tribunal established; Native people exempted as legal minors
- 2002Juan Diego canonized
Still debated
Devotion to Guadalupe is documented from the 1570s but the full apparition narrative appears only in 1649, and skeptics question Juan Diego's historicity while defenders cite other texts. Las Casas is both heroic advocate and early proponent of African slavery he later renounced, and the Inquisition exemption may be read as mercy or paternalism.
← PreviousBlack Robes and Praying Towns: Two Ways to Convert a People Who Outnumbered YouNext →Andean Resistance and the War on "Idolatry": Missions in the Inca World
