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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.

Se editan en este artículo varios documentos relativos a Catalina de Malcaida, la primera mujer de Hernán Cortés; la herencia de Hernán López de Ávila y una noticia de Diego Valadés.