Incorporating recent findings by leading Southwest scholars as well as original research, this book takes a fresh new look at the history of Spanish missions in northern Mexico/the American Southwest during the 17th and 18th centuries. Far from a record of heroic missionaries, steadfast soldiers, and colonial administrators, it examines the experiences of the natives brought to live on the missions, and the ways in which the mission program attempted to change just about every aspect of indigenous life. Emphasizing the effect of the missions on native populations, demographic patterns,...

Incorporating recent findings by leading Southwest scholars as well as original research, this book takes a fresh new look at the history of Spanish missions in northern Mexico/the American Southwest during the 17th and 18th centuries. Far from a record of heroic missionaries, steadfast soldiers, and colonial administrators, it examines the experiences of the natives brought to live on the missions, and the ways in which the mission program attempted to change just about every aspect of indigenous life. Emphasizing the effect of the missions on native populations, demographic patterns,...

Bordering all but two of South America s other nations and by far Latin America s largest country, Brazil differs linguistically, historically, and culturally from Spanish America. Its indigenous peoples share the country with descendants of Portuguese conquerors and the Africans they imported to work as slaves, along with more recent immigrants from southern Europe, Japan, the Middle East, and elsewhere. Capturing the scope of this country s rich diversity and distinction as no other book has done with more than a hundred entries from a wealth of perspectives "The Brazil Reader" offers a...