Jonathan Truitt, in this book, Sustaining the Divine in Mexico Tenochtitlan, engages how Nahuas and other indigenous peoples in Mexico Tenochtitlan came to support and use Catholicism and the institutions of the Catholic Church under colonialism. Truitt begins his fifth chapter with a clear and direct statement of the book’s argument—he wrote that although Spaniards introduced Catholicism, “it was the Mesoamericans themselves who proved crucial to fostering the faith” (191). Placed in the context of a chapter that discusses the native artisanal production, Truitt reveals the eloquence and significance of his argument—Nahuas and other Mesoamerican peoples thirsted for the spiritual apparatus, community, and avenues for position of stature and authority provided by the Church. They thus made rational choices to embrace Catholicism because it served their interests.
Many who have studied the interactions between Nahuas and Europeans after the Spanish invasion have focused on Nahua resistance to or misunderstanding...
