CHAPTER 5 THE COLONIAL PERIOD IN MESOAMERICA 191Figure 5.3 Indo-Christian art: A native artist painted this portrait of fray Martín de Valencia,
the leader of New Spain’s first official mission of Franciscan friars, in the Franciscan friary at
Tlalmanalco (southeast of Mexico City); it probably dates to the late 1580s. Photo provided by
authors.
missionaries believed that the Spanish “conquest,” despite its attendant evils, was jus-
tified precisely because, and to the extent that, the native people were brought into
the Christian fold.
Many friars supported Spanish rule in principle and condoned the military con-
quest, but they objected to the actual colonization of these territories by large num-
bers of Spaniards. They hoped to insulate the native people from what they saw as
the corrupting influence of Spanish colonists, whom the friars did not consider
model Christians. These friars hoped that New Spain might remain a predominantly
Indian society, but one that was Christianized by the friars and ruled by a viceroy ap-
pointed by the Spanish king. These concerns led the friars often to side with New
Spain’s viceroys against the settler aristocracy and against the secular ecclesiastical hi-
erarchy, which sought to administer New Spain according to the same system of tithes
and parishes that operated in Spain. Many native peoples adhered to the position of
these friars, declaring loyalty to the king—to them a distant but potentially benevo-
lent figure—while objecting to specific policies and to particular abuses perpetrated
by local Spaniards.