ABSTRACT
The Iberian conquerors that arrived on the southern coasts of the New World were faced with an enormous quantity of populations of distinct ethnic origins distributed across the subcontinent. Languages and religions, mores and practices were legion. As if that were not enough, they brought to their new colonies millions of black slaves from Africa, also of different religious, linguistic, and ethnic origins. A highly heterogeneous social fabric resulted from this mix. Class, ethnic, and “racial” stratifi cation converged.1 Exploitation was tough. As a political body, the state of Iberian monarchies had a mission to fulfi ll, namely, civilize and integrate within a Christian political community the newfound peoples of the subcontinent; the church, as a mystical body, should carry out their evangelization. This perspective stemmed directly from the neo-Thomist view espoused by the main Iberian theologians at the time.2 The fi nal period of colonial life already witnessed changes, but it was with the independences that modernity set in. Continuities can, however, be discerned in the midst of ruptures.
