Christianity and criollismo: Franciscans and the society of the New Spain XVI century

The birth of a Creole's consciousness in America has often been dated to the seventeenth century. However, the study of sixteenth-century Franciscan sources in New Spain may allow us to refine this chronology. A treatise on rhetoric was published in Perugia in 1579 by Diego Valades, a mestizo Franciscan and former procurator of his Order to the Roman Curia. It is a proof that from the beginning of their appearance in the middle of the its bulls, and offered to Creoles like Valades a possibility to legitimate their position vis-a-vis the Crown, in the context of the enforcement of the decisions of the Council of Trent.