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Abstract This article focuses on the visual qualities of Alexander von Humboldt’s statistical tables in his Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain (1808–1811, 2nd ed. 1825–1827) with special attention to how such composites of numbers, alphabetical script, and semiotic elements relate to narrative writing. I argue that Humboldt’s tables/tableaus open up spaces inside his narrative that fragment the reading process, inviting new conversations, connections, and ideas. Resumen Este articulo entretiene con los atributos visuales de las abundantes tablas estadísticas incluyendo en el Essai politique sur le royaume de la Nouvelle Espagne (1808–1811, 2nd ed. 1825–1827) de Alexander de Humboldt, en especial con las relaciones entre las combinaciones de números, escritura y elementos semióticos (que Humboldt llama “tableaux”) y la propia narrativa. Obran estas relaciones una fragmentación del proceso de leer, abriendo dimensiones y espacios en que se podrían manifestar nuevas conexiones, conversaciones e ideas innovadoras. Zusammenfassung Dieser Artikel befasst sich mit den bildhaften Eigenschaften der vielen statistischen Tabellen in Alexander von Humboldts Essai politique sur le royaume de la Nouvelle Espagne (1808–1811, 2nd ed. 1820–1827), wobei meine besondere Aufmerksamkeit den Verhältnissen gilt, die diese aus Zahlen, alphabetischer Schrift und semiotischen Elementen zusammengesetzten Komposita (die Humboldt als Tableaux bezeichnet) mit der beschreibenden Erzählung selbst eingehen: In diesen Verhältnissen offenbaren sich nämlich Dimensionen oder Räumlichkeiten, die durch die visuelle Zerteilung des Textes stets weitere, neue Verbindungen, Gespräche und Ideen zu produzieren suchen

The origin of the Mayan codex known as Tro-cortesiano has been unknown for more than one hundred and fifty years since its appearance in Spain. Several theories have tried to explain the precise place and time in which this codex was elaborated, or the date and circumstances in which it arrived to the Iberian Peninsula. In this article we will review the data that were known in the 19th century about the origin of the codex, to discover what could have been its true origin, its relationship with the Counts of Cancelada and, from there, to complete the knowledge of this exceptional pre-Hispanic document.

In a short space of time, the city of Tenochtitlan became the capital of an empire and one of the largest cities in the world at the time. This created an urban complexity in which supplies played a key role, especially as it was located in the middle of a lagoon. During the Spanish conquest, it suffered much destruction, but rose from the ruins to become the capital of the new Spanish domains and one of the most important cities of its time. To achieve this, it used most of the pre-existing networks and incorporated the relevant innovations to meet the new demands.

This paper presents a synthesis of the political-territorial structure of the pre-Hispanic culture of the central Mesoamerican area commonly known as Aztecs on the eve of the Spanish conquest, in order to study the early colonial society. The Hispanic culture did not settle in a desert territory nor implanted its dominion destroying the indigenous societies, rather it allowed a wide continuity of the preexisting structures, which, with no doubt, constitutes the deep reason of the success of the colonial society. We present a series of sociopolitical terms typical of the Aztec society (altepetl, calpulli, tlatocayotl), as well as the concepts of hegemonic domination and double mistaken identity, which have allowed a deeper understanding of the indigenous society, before and after the Spanish conquest. Finally, we apply our perspective of analysis to the case of Azcapotzalco during the early colonial period.

Law books circulated widely in New Spain; we find evidence of them both in the private libraries of Crown officials and in the institutional libraries of religious orders. The books were either transported from Europe or acquired in New Spanish cities, where they were available due to the commercial networks established by booksellers from the 16th century onwards. These books contributed to the recreation of a Western normative order in American societies and thus played a key role in the emergence of a new legal culture. The identification of the specific editions used by readers in New Spain requires the analysis both of historical documents and of the books themselves, as far as these are extant. However, this evidence cannot help us answer a number of crucial questions regarding the significance and use of these books: which books were fundamental in establishing a normative order in theViceroyalty of New Spain? What was seen as a law book at that time? Indeed, what different kinds and genres of books can be considered legal literature? These questions do not have simple answers, but rather require us to consider also other aspects, such as the contemporary understanding of what constituted typical »jurists’ books« during the Ancien Régime, and whether their presence in the collections of oidores, judges, prosecutors and lawyers actually reflected these officials’ legal practice. In order to approach these questions, this article analyses the earliest extant lists of books from the viceregal period, drawn up between 1585 and 1640. These book lists were prepared in the context of the inquisitorial control over the circulation of books within the Spanish empire and provide us with information on the first wave of books that entered New Spain.

Abstract During his trip to New Spain in 1803, Alexander von Humboldt visited large tracts of New Spanish territory, which includes modern Mexico and part of the United States. This trip provided the data for his geographical Atlas of the region, as well as information about the ancient Mexican cultures that he would later include in the general Atlas and in other major works, such as Vues des Cordillères. Likewise, Humboldt’s Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain displayed a comprehensive physical, natural, economic, and social description of Mexico in the colonial period, which will also be analysed. With these works, Humboldt presented a new geographical and cultural image of New Spain to the European audiences. In addition to this, his work made important contributions to cartographic knowledge. Resumen Alexander von Humboldt en su viaje a Nueva España en 1803 tuvo la oportunidad de viajar por gran parte del territorio novohispano, que incluye Mexico y parte de del actual territorio de Estados Unidos. Este viaje le permitió preparar un Atlas geográfico de la región, además de obtener información sobre las antiguas culturas mexicanas que luego plasmará en el Atlas general del viaje y en algunas de sus principales obras como Vues des Cordillères. Asimismo, Humboldt hizo una excelente descripción física, natural, económica y social de México en la época colonial en su Ensayo político sobre el Reino de la Nueva España que también será analizado. Con estas obras Humboldt logró ofrecer una nueva imagen del territorio novohispano y sus riquezas al mundo europeo, así como un conocimiento cartográfico de gran importancia. Résumé Alexander von Humboldt, lors de son voyage en Nouvelle-Espagne en 1803, a eu l’occasion de parcourir une grande partie du territoire de la Nouvelle-Espagne, qui comprend le Mexique et une partie du territoire actuel des États-Unis. Ce voyage lui a permis de préparer un Atlas géographique de la région, ainsi que d’obtenir des informations sur les anciennes cultures mexicaines qu'il inclura plus tard dans l’Atlas général du voyage et dans certaines de ses œuvres principales comme Vues des Cordillères. Humboldt a également donné une excellente description physique, naturelle, économique et sociale du Mexique à l’époque coloniale dans son Essai Politique sur le Royaume de la Nouvelle Espagne, qui sera également analysé. Avec ces travaux, Humboldt a réussi à offrir au monde européen une nouvelle image du Nouveau territoire espagnol et de ses richesses, de même qu’une connaissance cartographique de grande importance.

Thispaper examines different types of written poetic texts, both manuscript and printed, that circulated in various shapes, formats and media during the 18th century in New Spain. Beyond playscripts themselves, texts are related to the theatre of the time, to poems written by actors and other people in the trade, to showbiz gossip. From these texts emerge some figures and representations that conforms the New Spain social imaginary. RESUMEN: Este artículo presenta diferentes textos poéticos, tanto impresos como manuscritos, que se divulgaron por distintos medios, formatos y soportes (entre los cuales el pliego de cordel) durante el siglo XVIII en la Nueva España. Más allá de los propios textos dramáticos, se trata de textos relacionados al teatro de la época, desde las ideas y concepciones acerca del mismo, hasta poemas escritos por la misma gente de teatro, pasando por chismes de la farándula. De dichos textos emergen algunas de las figuras y las representaciones que conforman el imaginario social que en ese momento rodeaba el teatro.

The aim of this work is to delve into the history of Mexico’s colonial silk industry and of its workers in order to demonstrate, from a microsocial analysis, the existence of long-standing gender-exclusion processes and of integration mechanisms, displayed in the framework of institutional modernization, that were implied by the Bourbon Reforms on both sides of the Atlantic. To this end, an analysis of the bibliography on the subject has been made. The viceroyalty policies created to revive the industry have been briefly reconstructed and it has been possible, within this contextualization, to understand the circumstances in which the process was carried out. Multiple sources from the General Archives of the Nation of Mexico have been used to look into an episode of the social history of New Spain. In the course of the research, it has been found that women in the silk industry were not limited to spinning mills, and that they could have greater aspirations. Gertrudis Gutiérrez Estrada’s opposition to the silk spinning guild of Mexico City in 1795, and her triumph in the dispute, showed a circumvention of the restrictions imposed within the silk industry to a particular sex and the implementation of resistance mechanisms that were institutionally —by the Bourbon legislation— and socially —by her family— constructed. It was a paradigmatic case that served to modify, in 1806, all the guild ordinances of the time and it is, at the same time, one of many examples that must be traced in the archives in order to rethink the role of women in the colonial industry.

In 1536, fifteen years after the Spanish conquest of Mexico, the Imperial College of Santa Cruz was founded in Santiago Tlatelolco, an Indian enclave to the north of Mexico City. The students at the college, who were drawn from native elites, received an advanced education in Latin from Franciscan missionaries. The present discussion will explain why such a training was provided to those indigenous youths, and clarify the nature of their accomplishments (1). A discussion of the translations of biblical texts into Nahuatl made at the College of Santa Cruz (2) will be followed by a survey of original religious texts produced there in the Mexican language, many of which had identifiable Latin precedents (3). The concluding section then offers some tentative general reflections on the part played by Latin Christian humanism in shaping early Nahuatl literature, arguing that it bears some comparison to the way Latin had already underscored the development of vernacular literature in early modern Europe (4).

The main aim of this article is to introduce and analyse the specific – and in the discourse of history of science hitherto largely neglected – subject of historia naturalis as it is found in letters sent in the 17th and 18th century by Jesuits of the Province of Bohemia, such as Simón de Castro (Šimon Boruhradský), José Neumann (Josef Neumann), Adán Kall (Adam Kall), Jan Steinhöfer (Juan Esteyneffer), Wenceslao Eymer (Václav Eymer), Juan Tilpe (Jan Tilpe), and others, from New Spain to Central Europe. Special attention is paid to analysis of the theoretical context (epistemic setting) within which Czech Jesuits acquired knowledge about the nature of New Spain. Discussed are also the particular techniques and practices through which they acquired knowledge of the new nature in situ. And last but not least, the article investigates the process of ‘translating’ the newly acquired knowledge of nature of New Spain for Central European environment. Taken into account are also some parts of the network that linked New Spain with the heart of Europe, a network within which circulated people, information, and objects (both naturalia and artificialia) which represents one of the spaces within which new, globalised science was forming.

This essay offers an analysis of the mode of participation of the Peruvian economy at the beginning of so-called early globalization. It starts from the fact that between 1580 and 1640 the Peruvian economy was self-sufficient, expansive and with a remarkable production of silver allowing the monetization of China’s and Europe’s markets. We note that the self-sufficiency and the mining and non-mining surpluses that come out of its internal economy abroad generated two opposite effects: the contraction of the official Panama-Portobelo-Seville transatlantic axis and the promotion of the informal mercantile economy of the new Mexican Pacific and the Philippine islands, next to the Asian global pole with its epicenter in China. We are in the presence of a game of oceanic forces, where we see that the mobilization of agents, goods and capital across the Pacific came to exert a gravitational force on the universe of the Hispanic-European Atlantic economy.

The paper is based on the hypothesis that the Philippines was a territory colonized from New Spain and served as experience, accumulation, memory and practice for other spaces colonized from New Spain, mainly the North of Mexico and California. Although the Jesuits hegemonized the missionary-colonizing voice in those territories (the Philippines first, then the North), there were precedent ways of writing the natural history that the Jesuits knew, learned and, finally, appropriated and adapted. The paper presents one of the first attempts of writing the natural history of the Philippines, Antonio de Morga's Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas – published in Mexico, in 1609, but written between 1595 and 1603 – to compare it with the first natural history of the Philippines produced by a Jesuit, Pedro Chirino, published in Rome, in 1604.

During the Early Modern Period, the crime of bigamy was considered as a terrible sin, in peninsular and American societies alike. For this very reason, each trial and investigation led by the Inquisition were the focus of a strong interest, especially when it was necessary to establish with certainty the accused’s identity. Such a detailed-oriented attention is a wonderful opportunity for the historian who seek to understand the dynamics of identities and categories in the Spanish colonial society. Indeed, the trials we examined follow a common organization. First, we can read the informer’s declaration, and the precise identification of the person suspected of the crime of bigamy. This is followed by the suspect’s declaration in which they identify themselves and relate their personal history. Finally, each witness adds another description and identification of the suspect. Therefore, these documents are ideal supports when one wants to focus on social categories and their elaboration. Not only can we study the way the bigamists tend to exploit racial categories and use them as tools in the reinvention of their identity, but also the great ambiguity of those categories in the people’s minds when they need to mobilize them and describe the suspect.

The aim of this paper is to analyze different possible ways to approach the code of love in the hagiographical biography of New Spain’s nun María de Jesús Tomellín, who lived in the 16th century in Puebla de los Ángeles. Firstly, it focuses on the relation between the understanding of love in the so called nuptial mysticism and the profane amorous code, especially courtly love. After that we study possible parallels between the secular and sacred amorous realm in the hagiographical text.

This text examines the problem of the legitimacy of the Spanish Monarchy in a rural parish in central New Spain, at the end of 18th century. Local judges (subdelegados) who violated the local justice culture lost their legitimacy. This culture, distant from official practices, was used by Officers of the Royal Court to convey the people’s expectations in conflict with their immediate authorities in terms of official justice. Forgiveness between the parties set an end to the crisis. It was in that coming and going from custom to law and doctrine and back to local values that the engagement between Crown and subjects laid.

The paper analyses some landmarks of Bourbon fiscal reform in New Spain. It begins by outlining the economic and social sectors affected by the reform measures, then goes on to identify the mechanisms and levels of pressure and tax disobedience at certain key junctures, the aim being to show the working of the «reform-negotiation» pattern.

The reform processes in the Spanish Monarchy can and need to be considered in terms of institutional political, economic and fiscal effects, and of its manifold jurisdictions: councils, provinces and kingdoms. This paper analyses the fiscal and institutional effects of a project for the reform of local finances in New Spain. The analysis focuses on the dialogue between the agents of reform and their interlocutors and how reform offered local authorities the means of reinforcing their tax collection powers, for instance through arbitrios.

The change of bishops was a common event in New Spain where it was the prerogative of the fount of honour (Patronato Regio). However, the case of bishop friar Ángel Maldonado is special because he opposed the king's mandate for him to abandon the diocese of Antequera (Oaxaca) and occupy the one in Orihuela (Spain). Maldonado retained his position in Oaxaca until his death, despite all the opposing factors. The following lines present this case study, explaining the causes behind Maldonado’s reassignment and the resources used by the bishop to maintain the episcopal polity.

During the period 1764-1821, 196 men served as intendants in the viceroyalty of New Spain. Among these men, one hundred were appointed provisionaly. This important presence of temporary intendants isn’t a specific fact in the intendancy because we find this phenomenon in others bodies of the administration. However very few works are dedicaded to them while this temporary intendants some times stayed in charge longer than the full intendants. Guarantors of the continuity of the institutions of monarchy, the temporary intendants deserve that we grant them more attention. This is the purpose of this article. By adopting a prosopografical approach, we will first try who are these men and to describe the family and social environment in which they join before studying some career path.

This text is an extract of the second part of my thesis The intendants of the viceroyalty of New Spain (1764-1821): origins, careers y colonial integration. Prosopographical test. The recruitment plan wanted by the Bourbon reformers for its agents sent to the Indias of Castile was only partially followed. The Monarchy never really succeeded in imposing its recruitment policy namely appoint Peninsular for the key positions of its Empire. In the end, it wast able nothing against colonial society and reality. At first sight, the geographical origin of the recruitment may seem to be in conformity with the reforming policy of the monarchy. Indeed, the intendants named from 1764 to 1824 in the viceroyalty of New Spain are mainly peninsular and half of them came from regions traditionnaly serving servants of the high administration of the crown such as Andalusia and both Castile. But this predominance of peninsular recruitment did not exclude for all that Creoles’ presence at the head of the institution.

This paper shows the results from an experiment in which we structure the information obtained from 8 documents from New Spain in the second half of the XVIIth Century. All the documents discuss the nature of the comets. The data extraction focused on the bibliographical information from the original texts, and the references and quotes in them. We apply a graph structure to the data to obtain the visualizations of the knowledge network in which the main discussion is based: the nature of the comets. We believe our final results shows interesting precisions on how the network is organize and the place of each text in it. At the same time, the results allow us to make new hypothesis on discussion and its sources.

The ecclesistical authorities decided to use indigenous languages for the New Spain Indians’ religious evanglization and management. Therefore the priests conceived several devices to help them with their catechesis (textbooks, sermons, catechisms). However, it’s quite difficult to determine up to what point priests used native languages. The survey ordered by the authorities from Madrid, and which was done by friar Alonso de Montúfar, Mexico’s bishop, on october 20 1569, to find out about the priests’ and vicars’ pastoral practices in his diocese, actually shows the distribution of doctrine books. Nevertheless, what it reveals about their knowledge of native languages, suggests the limits of the Indians’ religious management.

To study the urban popular classes is an uphill task. Sources are largely silent, making it difficult to identify them, or even to make more than a passing mention of them. The case of the mulatto Ambrosio de Silva is especially interesting in this respect. Not only does his name come up on several occasions in judicial and notarial sources in the mid-18th century, but the traces he left make it possible to follow step by step the investments—sometimes risky but always bold—of a man who was essentially excluded from the economic workings of the mines but who knew how to take advantage of difficult times to realise a miner’s dream. This very well-documented example allows us to gain an idea of the individual opportunities afforded to the urban popular classes by the particular conditions prevailing in the Zacatecas region in the first half of the 18th century. Paradoxically, these very crisis conditions provided the chance for some adventurers to dream, albeit such dreams were often doomed to failure.

The Conquest and the Colony in the Codex Azcatitlan. The Codex Azcatitlan is a pictographic document from Central Mexico that contains three historical sections. While the first two, which concern the history of the Mexica before the arrival of the Spanish, have been the object of relatively many studies, the last part, which deals with the conquest and colonization period, has not received similar attention. However, the register of events by indigenous people in this time of profound changes indicates that the same attention was given to Spaniards matters as to those of themselves. Furthermore, no particular insistence can be perceived to represent the suffering which we associate today with this period.

Indigenous women in the Central Highlands used a variety of herbalists resources to solve their illnesses. Some of these resources were recorded in the books on medicine, surgery and materia médica to be printed during the last decades of the sixteenth century and early seventeenth century in New Spain. My aim in this article is to explore the spaces of intersection and ruptures between medical cultures that were registered there, one from the indigenous world and the other from the European world. To achieve this objective I made use of two texts that are today considered part of the Hernandinos material: Medicina verdadera, cirugía, y la astrología (real medicine, surgery, and astrology) (1607) and Cuatro Libros de la Naturaleza (1615), which are characterized among other things, to incorporate a considerable number of indigenous medicinal plants. I used as a guiding principle, the galenic, concept of emenagogo, as it allowed narrow my universe of study. It let me focus only on the therapeutic resources that were considered in the registration process by having one or more characteristics associated with menstruation. And also recognize the limits imposed by the very definition of the concept when classifying indigenous medicinal plants.

El artículo analiza la introducción de la contribución directa general y extraordinaria en Nueva España en 1813, como muestra de una de las tantas iniciativas que adoptó el régimen virreinal en aras de allegarse recursos para combatir a la insurgencia. El trabajo expone los orígenes, evolución y ulterior fracaso de una reforma fiscal que representó la irrupción del impuesto sobre la renta, bajo parámetros modernos, en el marco de la transición del antiguo régimen al liberalismo.The article discusses the introduction of a general and extraordinary direct tax in New Spain in 1813 as a demonstration of one of the many initiatives taken by the colonial regime in order to obtain resources to fight the insurgency. The paper shows the origins, evolution and subsequent failure of a tax reform that represented the advent of income tax under modern standards, in the context the transition from the Ancient Regime to Liberalism.

This article aims to disclose five texts published between 1790 and 1797 in Mexico, Madrid and Guatemala cities, about the establishment of natural history cabinets formed in the Viceroyalty of New Spain by the Spanish expeditionary Jose Longinos Martinez. The texts, which appear here in chronological order, narrate the various events that affected the opening of the New Spain and Guatemala cabinets, and account for contingencies occurred in either event. Its importance lies in that, by highlighting the work of Martinez as a naturalist, collector and precursor in the formation of cabinets of natural history in America, the literature shows how the European practice of collecting nature was popularized in New Spain after the arrival members of the Botanical Expedition and the execution of one of its missions: to collect and remit useful natural specimens to the Royal Cabinet of Natural History in Madrid. To display this story, the source analysis is done by observing the Longinus Martinez facet as a collector or, as the protagonist of important events in the history of American collecting. While his work as a naturalist and expedition is inherent to the above mentioned, it is placed in a secondary position in the debate raised here.

The birth of a Creole’s consciousness in America has often been dated to the seventeenth century. However, the study of sixteenth-century Franciscan sources in New Spain may allow us to refine this chronology. A treatise on rhetoric was published in Perugia in 1579 by Diego Valadés, a mestizo Franciscan and former procurator of his Order to the Roman Curia. It is a proof that from the beginning of their appearance in the middle of the intense social crisis of the 1570’s, the Creole circles sought the support of the Holy See, outside the Castilian monarchy. This was an opportunity for Rome to recapture the American Churches that had escaped its power since the 1493 bulls, and offered to Creoles like Valadés a possibility to legitimate their position vis-à-vis the Crown, in the context of the enforcement of the decisions of the Council of Trent.

This article presents an analysis of a number of reports written in 1784 by twenty priests in the diocese of Oaxaca. Written at the request of bishop José Gregorio Alonso de Ortigoza, these reports contain highly detailed accounts of corporal punishment –whipping– meted out by ecclesiastical personnel to Indians from village communities. An examination of these accounts reveals that ecclesiastical justice in those communities was not confined to defending the faith but also intervened in social affairs, to an extent that is not yet clear. This ambivalence suggests that this kind of punishment existed in a local situation, where in some cases there was tension between the different jurisdictions represented by Alcaldes mayores or by Indian authorities (Justicias de indios)

Brotherhoods and guilds are types of voluntary associations hardly distinguishable from one another. Guilds and brotherhoods emerged as necessary craftsmen’s associations, merchants and professionals looking for the defense of their trading interests in the face of encroachment by aliens and unqualified individuals. Their emergence during the High Middle Ages and the Low Middle Ages explain their tight loyalty to religious commitments, since the social life of those materialistic scenarios was totally influenced by religion. In this article we raise as a working hypothesis the study of the symbiotic relationship between both and we propose the concept of brotherhood-guild to design them. The five stages in their development are studied, some of their features, and later we portray their emergence in Spain, finally dealing with the question corresponding to the San Cosme and San Damian brotherhood, where physicians, surgeons, barbers, phlebotomists and pharmacists were joined together just as a brotherhood without the elements of the guild. In the final part I make a comparative study of features assumed by this type of voluntary association in New Spain, and pinpoint the survival of brotherhoods in some cities, specially the one of San Cosme and San Damian, aswell as the devotion to these two saints.

The introduction of the intendant system in New Spain and its ordinance of 1786 (Real ordenanza para el establecimiento é instruccion de intendentes de exército y provincial en el reino de Nueva-España) have already made the object of numerous studies. Too rare still are however the authors to pay their attention on the intendants themselves. Nevertheless, the latter can be considered as the keystone of the Bourbon’s reforms in the territories of spanish America. Unmistakably, the study of men turns out more than necessity to understand the functioning of the institution. This article proposes, on one hand, through a prosopografic study, to raise the portrait typifies of intendant of Mexico city, capital of viceroyalty of New Spain ; and, on the other hand, tent to reconstitute partially the relational networks of this importants oficials before their apointment. Because it’s doubtless that they benefited from supports to reach this responsibility, considered as one of the most important of Cursus honorum of modern Spain.

The article discusses the initiatives of Spanish priests to convert the indigenous peoples of Mexico to Catholicism by teaching them catechisms in their own languages. Specific interest is given to the extent to which Spanish clergymen in the colony of New Spain practiced indigenous languages. The article discusses the October 20, 1569 investigation by the Mexican archbishop Alonso de Montúfar of the practices of priests and curates in the colony and provides insight into clergymen's knowledge of these languages, specifically the Nahuatl, Otomi, and Mazahua languages, as well as the limitations to religious control over the Mexican indians.

This paper provides an analysis of the argumentative mechanisms put forward in the Letters from Mexico(Cartas de Relación) written by Hernán Cortés to Charles V in order to legitimize the territorial conquest of what would become the New Spain and, in doing so, of the New World. It seeks particularly to show the use of the rhetorical concept of inventio in the transition from a conceptual appropriation of the New World (through the elaboration of the very concept of “New World”) to its territorial control (with the foundation of Veracruz and the creation of the New Spain).

The Catholic Monarchy is the short-lived dynastic union (1580-1640) between the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal. By returning on the legal, political and pragmatic foundations of this empire which cannot be called Empire (because this name belongs to the Holy Roman Empire of the cousins of Vienna), the article tries to seize better the internal functioning of this heterogeneous political set, by adopting two points of view: that of America (how the notion of Catholic Monarchy is understood in the reynos, far from Madrid and Lisbon) and that of Rome (how Holy See reaches - or not - to exist in the heart of this space). It emerges from it that the pope and the Catholic King are natural allies (around the Roman Christianity) but not objectives (their purposes do not match), and that Rome and Mexico as well picture themselves not as margins of the Catholic Monarchy, but as real centers.

This article discusses a religious movement occurred in the second half of the eighteenth century (1769) in a marginal region of New Spain, known as Sierra de Tutotepec (current state of Hidalgo). This was led by an old Otomi Indian who preached the imminent end of the world, and the advent of a new world in which the Indians would be the lords and masters, while the Spanish would be their servants. It examines, first, the context in which this religious movement emerged, emphasizing the political and economic conditions that prevailed in these villages, which led the Indians to embrace the message of salvation and social justice contained in the prophecies of their leader. It also analyzes the rebellious character of the prophecies, which show a profound ethnic antagonism and a rejection of the social position occupied by the Indians in the colonial order, and the desire of the Indians to appropriate the symbols of power and status of the Spanish, elements that can be clearly seen in the features that would have the new world that the Indians expected.

My current doctoral research is about the mining societies in Northern and Central New Spain during the 18th century, and especially the region of Zacatecas, Fresnillo and Sombrerete. Within this particular context, I centred my study on the lower classes, a rather heterogeneous social group composed of castas, ladinos and poor Spaniards. This definition leads the reflection towards the analysis of the social stratification from a socio-economical perspective. However, the case of the poor Spaniards, their behaviour and the way they tend to reject the mestizos and other castas (as potential spouses for instance), stressing on their ties to the more powerful group of the Creoles in the process, indicates that the socio-racial component of the social stratification should not be ignored, at least as far as individual and collective mentalities are concerned. This point of view orientates a questioning about the formation of the colonial society and introduces the notion of the perception of one another as well. The confrontation between the colonial reality and the lower classes’ perception can be a way of answering this interrogation. The result of this work is the depiction of an extremely complex and fluid society in which several levels of stratification (real / perceived) add up to produce a social mosaic.