Escogidas Plantas: Nuns and Beatas in Mexico City, 1531-1601

With this book, Jacqueline Holler demonstrates how early members of religious orders in Mexico were conceived of as an extension of the process of conversion and spiritual conquest. Over time, however, the creation of convents became a means of reaffirming the European nature of the colony, at least for its upper classes. Holler's work is based on archival research in both Mexico and Spain. It integrates much of the existing historiography while effectively telling individual stories and allowing the personalities, strengths, and foibles of some of the women involved to carry the history forward. This book is an important contribution to the growing literature on women in colonial Latin America