Beaterios of Guanajuato

Chichimeca Nations

The following is an account of the Beaterios of Guanajuato, one of the Dominican missions mentioned the book Preaching with their Lives edited by Jeff Burns and Margaret McGuiness and soon to be published by Fordham University Press.  A number of the primary and secondary sources are in Spanish and the bibliography appears after the last post in this series.  The area of Guanajuato and the surrounding states was originally home to the Chichimeca Nations, mostly Otomi and Nahua with a smaller constituent of Mazahua, Huasteca and Purépecha. [1]  When the Spanish arrived to evangelize and colonize the area in the early part of 16th century, the word Chichimeca took on a negative connotation similar to the word savages.  Compared to the Aztecs and Maya the Chichimeca did not live in fixed dwellings, but subsisted primarily by hunting and gathering.  They traveled freely throughout the region and fiercely resisted foreign intrusion into their territory.  Because the area was rich in silver deposits, the Spanish had a special interest in subduing the native population, whom they believed to be inferior, in order to exploit their natural resources.[1]
Mexico even today is the world's largest producer of silver. 

[1]  (Mexico: Instituto Nacional para el Federalismo y e Desarrollo Municipal, 2011)
[2] (Gradie 1994), pp. 67-68