"Free of the Four Major Vices of Human Fragility": The Trope of Indian Innocence in Colonial Mexico

Scholars of colonial Spanish America have chronicled how those of Spanish ancestry born in the New World expressed complex, often contradictory attitudes toward America’s native peoples.  While they often defended their indigenous compatriots against the scornful appraisals of European observers, they were just as likely to repeat and reinforce such disdain in other contexts.  This ambivalence reflects the unique position of Creoles within the Spanish Empire – seeking, as a colonial elite, both to distinguish themselves from “peninsular” Spaniards by associating themselves with America’s land and history, while also to justify and preserve the colonial hierarchies that privileged them vis á vis the Indians.

Focusing on thinkers from colonial Mexico, my paper will address one important aspect of this feature of Creole thought – specifically, the recurring notion that America’s native peoples were inherently purer and more spiritually “innocent” than mestizos, castas, Spaniards, and others.  By identifying the rhetorical usefulness of such an assertion, I will explore its role in the development of Creole identity.