ABSTRACT
Despite these obstacles, small groups of early modern religious women left the relative comfort of their cloistered convents to establish new nunneries all over the Iberian empire. This chapter provides a broad panoramic view of the religious women who voyaged from Spain to the Americas while at the same time putting pen to paper. The hierarchical structure of religious communities was already set in place before the groups of nuns left Spain. The impetus for the establishment of new convents was varied and many of the factors were inextricably entwined. Convents either selected their candidates through a vote, or the future abbess in consultation with ecclesiastical authorities appointed them. Founding nuns did not travel alone. Friars and male servants would accompany the women as their escorts. Male religious orders, mainly the Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, and later the Jesuits, had already established a strong presence in the New World.
