Diego Javier Luis – The Conversation

Part of ‘The Baptism of Ixtlilxóchitl of Texcoco,’ painted by José Vivar y Valderrama in the 18th century. Museo Nacional de Historia via Wikimedia Commons

October 2, 2024

Accept our king, our god − or else: The senseless ‘requirement’ Spanish colonizers used to justify their bloodshed in the Americas

Diego Javier Luis, Johns Hopkins University

The Requerimiento, a 16th-century document, sheds light on the deeper ideas and laws that the Spanish used to take over the New World.

Ceremonia de castigo por herejía, llamada “auto de fe”, en el pueblo de San Bartolomé Otzolotepec, en el actual México. Museo Nacional de Arte/Wikimedia Commons

February 2, 2024

El período colonial de América Latina fue mucho menos católico de lo que parece, a pesar de los intentos de la Inquisición de controlar la religión

Diego Javier Luis, Johns Hopkins University

La América Latina colonial albergaba muchas tradiciones espirituales diferentes de culturas indígenas, africanas y asiáticas.

A ceremony to punish people for heresy, called an ‘auto da fe,’ in the town of San Bartolome Otzolotepec, in present-day Mexico. Museo Nacional de Arte/Wikimedia Commons

January 19, 2024

Latin America’s colonial period was far less Catholic than it might seem − despite the Inquisition’s attempts to police religion

Diego Javier Luis, Tufts University

Conversion was often a violent affair, but that doesn’t mean it was 100% successful. Colonial Latin America was home to many different spiritual traditions from Indigenous, African and Asian cultures.

Catarina was revered in Puebla, Mexico – but devotion to her attracted Catholic authorities’ disapproval after her death. Image from the collections of the Biblioteca Nacional de España

March 1, 2025

From South Asia to Mexico, from slave to spiritual icon, this woman’s life is a snapshot of Spain’s colonization – and the Pacific slave trade history that books often leave out

Diego Javier Luis, Johns Hopkins University

Accounts of Asian American history often stop at the US border, but Asians were living in Latin America for centuries before the Declaration of Independence.

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