Atlas of Hispanic-American History

church owned a great deal of property—
with lands in which the missionaries
worked intensively to Christianize the
Native American population becoming
known as mission fields—and had con-
siderable political influence and social
status, staffed as it was mostly by people
of entirely Spanish descent.
Although priests often supported the
interests of America’s Spanish rulers, they
were at times the only authority standing
in the way of those rulers’ rapacity, urg-
ing decent treatment of Native
Americans and establishing hospitals and
schools that served them. Bartolomé de
Las Casas, already mentioned, was an
example. Many of those who tended to
the spiritual and temporal needs of
Native Americans were members of
Catholic religious orders, with the
Franciscans predominating in Mexico
and the Dominicans in Peru;
Augustinians and Jesuits were also pres-
ent. To instruct the Native Americans in
the faith, these missionaries learned
Native American languages, studied their
cultures, and created new forms of
organization, including the doctrina, a
religious school or center, and the reduc-
cion or congregación, a Native American
community formed to facilitate preach-
ing, such as the Jesuit-led Guaraní reduc-
ciones of Paraguay.

The culture of Spanish colonies was

modeled on that of Spain, but some artists

and writers began to innovate in ways that

suggested the birth of a new Hispanic-

American culture. The Mexican nun Sister

Juana Inés de la Cruz (1651–1695) was

Spanish America’s first major poet, besides

being a scholar and early advocate of equal

education for women. Native American

artists learned to carve and paint saints in

European ways, but they added stylistic

touches characteristic of pre-Columbian

culture. Music blended Spanish instru-

ments with Native American rhythms—a

blend still audible in, for example, the

huayno, a traditional Peruvian social

dance. African culture was often added to

the mix, especially in the Caribbean.

FLORIDA AND THE

SPANISH CARIBBEAN

Besides colonizing much of what is now

called Latin America, the Spanish were

the first European colonizers of what is

now the United States. Forty-two years

before the English would found

Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607, England’s

first permanent settlement in the

Americas, the Spanish founded one in St.

Augustine, Florida.

SPAIN IN THE AMERICAS 45

This colonial Dutch map, dating from about 1639, shows the coasts of North America
and South America from Virginia through the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico to Guyana in
South America highlighting Cuba, the island of Hispaniola and the West Indies. (Library
of Congress)

Juan Ponce de León (Library of

Congress)