Michoacán and Eden: Vasco de Quiroga and the Evangelization of Western Mexico / Edition 1

by Bernardino Verástique

Overview

Don Vasco de Quiroga (1470-1565) was the first bishop of Michoacán in Western Mexico. Driven by the desire to convert the native Purhépecha-Chichimec peoples to a purified form of Christianity, free of the corruptions of European Catholicism, he sought to establish New World Edens in Michoacán by congregating the people into pueblo-hospital communities, where mendicant friars could more easily teach them the fundamental beliefs of Christianity and the values of Spanish culture.

In this broadly synthetic study, Bernardino Verástique explores Vasco de Quiroga's evangelizing project in its full cultural and historical context. He begins by recreating the complex and not wholly incompatible worldviews of the Purhépecha and the Spaniards at the time of their first encounter in 1521. With Quiroga as a focal point, Verástique then traces the uneasy process of assimilation and resistance that occurred on both sides as the Spaniards established political and religious dominance in Michoacán. He describes the syncretisms, or fusions, between Christianity and indigenous beliefs and practices that arose among the Purhépecha and relates these to similar developments in other regions of Mexico.

Written especially for students and general readers, this book demonstrates how cultural and geographical environments influence religious experience, while it adds to our understanding of the process of indigenous appropriation of Christian theological concepts in the New World.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780292787384
Publisher:	University of Texas Press
Publication date:	04/01/2000
Edition description:	1 ED
Pages:	214
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

The late Bernardino Verástique was Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio.

Table of Contents

• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• One: The Purhépecha-Chichimec of Michoacán
• Two: The Purhépecha Religious Worldview
• Three: The Historical Landscape of Spain
• Four: Religion in Spain on the Eve of the Conquest
• Five: The Conquest of Michoacán and the Appointment of Vasco de Quiroga
• Six: The Christianization of the Purhépecha
• Seven: Información en derecho: Quiroga's Report to the Royal Council of the Indies
• Eight: The Utopian Experiment: Santa Fe de la Laguna
• Epilogue
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• Introduction