Pedro de Córdoba was one of the first and among the most important figures in what Lewis Hanke has called “the Spanish struggle for justice in the conquest of America.” Nevertheless, he has received little recognition for his role in the endeavor, in comparison to that received by his colleagues Antonio de Montesinos and Bartolomé de las Casas. Professor Stoudemire’s felicitous translation of Córdoba’s Dotrina xp̅iana pa instrucion y informaciō delos indios [sic] is a helpful corrective in this regard. It makes available a text for English readers such as was provided for Spanish readers by the facsimile edition published in 1942. This English translation of Córdoba’s only known writing, along with the biographical and historiographical information provided in the Introduction, should help to establish his position as one of the first great social reformers on the Spanish colonial scene.
Córdoba’s Christian Doctrine is especially useful for establishing a nexus between his work as founder of the Dominican Order on Hispaniola and that of Bishop Juan de Zumárraga, first bishop of Mexico. Following Córdoba’s death in 1521, a manuscript edition of his catechism was preserved until it finally came into the hands of Zumárraga. Las Casas, a friend of both, may have been the intermediary. The zeal of the bishop of Mexico for the well-being and conversion of his own Indian charges caused him to recognize the appropriateness of Córdoba’s Indian catechism for that purpose. He and Friar Domingo de Betanzos added other “mysteries” to it and had it printed in 1544, making it one of the first books printed in the New World. Just as Córdoba’s humanitarian mission was carried to fulfillment after his death in the work of Las Casas, his theological efforts were likewise carried to completion by Zumárraga.
