Indigenous Writings from the Convent: Negotiating Ethnic Autonomy in Colonial Mexico (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Indigenous Writings from the Convent: Negotiating Ethnic Autonomy in Colonial Mexico Stacey Schlau Díaz, Mónica. Indigenous Writings from the Convent: Negotiating Ethnic Autonomy in Colonial Mexico. Tucson: U of Arizona P, 2010. ii + 223 pp. In this study, Mónica Díaz seeks to demonstrate how elite indigenous women in New Spain utilized “knowledge they acquired from the colonial order to create spaces in which they could reinvent themselves and survive” (2). The first convent for indigenous women was established in 1724 (Corpus Christi, in Mexico City); its native inhabitants struggled to define and maintain that space, and those that followed, as specifically indigenous. Primarily, Indigenous Writings “seeks to explore the hybrid place within the colonial order where these nuns maneuvered” (11). To accomplish this goal, she examines a wide range of texts regarding establishing indigenous convents, authored by nuns, priests, and other colonial personalities. They reveal, she argues, a series of discursive manipulations with differing purposes, depending on the writer’s philosophical framework and purposes. In order to carry out the analysis, Díaz draws on a range of current trends in colonial literary studies, including feminist, interdisciplinary, multicultural, and postcolonial approaches. The introductory chapter reviews the historical mechanisms through which indigenous convents were established; colonial configurations of indigenous populations, especially regarding ideologies of ethnicity and race; constructions of gender and identity in the period; and the methodology employed to write this book. The focus on gender and genre has led, Díaz declares, to the study of not just [End Page 331] works authored by indigenous writers, but “a series of discourses, including sermons, letters, and official documents” (18). She labels these discourses “constructed textualities,” since they used “the processes of representation and language imposed by the colonial system” (18). Chapter 1 argues that indigenous nuns rejected the ethnic identity imposed by the casta system, and instead asserted themselves as both indigenous and noble, even when they internalized colonial Spanish norms. Advocating for the expulsion of their peninsular Sisters from the cloister they inhabited, they defined themselves as clearly different from the Spanish nuns, claiming ethnic autonomy. At the same time that the church defined Indians as an inferior Other, some ecclesiastic officials argued for native women’s ability to successfully participate in conventual life. Chapter 2 outlines the complex debates on this topic—mostly between Franciscans (for) and Jesuits (against). After framing these documents as judicial defenses, Díaz details prevailing objections to establishing an indigenous convent, which, she suggests, rested on the perceived lack of intellectual ability and emotional readiness of the candidates, despite the fact that they had been Christians for generations. While most of the records were written by clergymen, two opinions by nuns are extant; one, written by Sor Petra de San Francisco, a Spaniard who later became the founding abbess of Corpus Christi, denied that Indian women were inconstant and asserted that they were well suited to religious life. For Díaz, the question of indigenous women’s sexuality (adaptability to chastity) was central to all discussions (57). The chapter ends with a brief overview of the two vidas of indigenous women included in Sigüenza y Góngora’s Paraiso occidental, which Díaz sees as an early defense of indigenous women. Ultimately, she insists, the cultural construction of gendered ethnicity created a conflictive discourse that extended through the eighteenth century. Chapters 2 through 6 offer a close study of the texts involved. Díaz uncovers a series of arguments with differing philosophical frameworks and purposes. The letters from Indian convent writers, for instance, reflect native women’s assertions of entitlement to their own space. In letters and other documents, they advocate for their own spiritual capacity and the right to govern themselves within convent walls. Many documents outline the difficulties and conflicts that arose from indigenous and Creole women living together in the same designated indigenous space. The Vidas of Spanish nuns such as Sor Petra de San Francisco and Sor Sebastiana Josefa de la Santísima Trinidad reveal much about those battles. No matter the perspective, however, all writers availed themselves of a colonialist discourse that reinforced the established order (84). Occasioned by the prelates...