190 UNIT 2 COLONIAL MESOAMERICA
Figure 5.2 Indian textile workers in an obraje.This illustration by a native artist is from the
Codex Osuna,a set of documents prepared in 1565 as a report on the Spanish and native
governments of Mexico City. Códice Osuna.Mexico City, Mexico: Instituto Indigenista
Interamericano, 1947, p. 258.in Spain by Jiménez de Cisneros had filled the religious orders with well-educated men
who took their vows and duties seriously. They enjoyed the favor of a king who was de-
termined to prevent a repetition of the disastrous colonization of the Caribbean. And,
for the most part, these men found themselves welcome among the native people. A
few friars, who dreamed of being martyred by savages, were actually disappointed by
the graciousness and generosity with which they were received (Figure 5.3).
Were these missionaries mere tools of Spanish colonialism, helping to transform
Mesoamericans into compliant colonial subjects, or did they sincerely believe that the
native people would benefit from their preaching of the Christian gospel? Just as we
cannot fully separate the Spanish conqueror’s lust for gold from his desire to glorify
his God, we must understand that, even though these distinctions may be meaning-
ful to us, people of the sixteenth century did not think in these terms. Most of the