While King Carlos I of Spain struggled to suppress the Protestant Reformation in the Old World, the Spanish turned to New Spain to promote the Catholic cause, unimpeded by the presence of the false Old World religions. To this end, Osowski writes, the Spanish saw indigenous people as necessary protagonists in the anticipated triumph of the faith. As the conversion of the indigenous people of Mexico proceeded in earnest, Catholic ritual became the medium through which indigenous leaders and Spaniards negotiated colonial hegemony.
Indigenous Miracles is about how the Nahua elite of...