Bad Christians, New Spains: Muslims, Catholics, and Native Americans in a Mediterratlantic World

This book centers on two inquisitorial investigations, both of which began in the 1540s. One involved the relations of Europeans and Native Americans in an Oaxacan town (in New Spain, today’s Mexico). The other involved relations of Moriscos (recent Muslim converts to Catholicism) and Old Christians (people with deep Catholic ancestries) in the Mediterranean kingdom of Valencia (in the "old" Spain).

Although separated by an ocean, the social worlds preserved in the inquisitorial files share ...