San Jerónimo, Tlacochahuaya

1575-1625

Name(s) currently unknown

Tlacochahuaya, Oaxaca, MEX

The Dominicans, who arrived to the thickly populated Oaxaca region in the 16th century, commissioned this church. Their monastic complex in the town of Tlacochahuaya, was constructed by native laborers in the late 16th and early 17th century and became a center for the evangelization of its native residents. Under Dominican patronage, native mural painters also won local renown.

Tlacochahuaya is one of the hundreds of monastic foundations from 16th-century New Spain. It dates from the time monastic orders—the Dominicans, Franciscans, and Augustinians—first fanned out across recently conquered territory, seeking to evangelize its native peoples. At the time of this church’s founding, Zapotec was the indigenous language most commonly spoken in the area. The area abounds in pre-Hispanic constructions, making it likely that San Jerónimo was created of recycled stone.

Dana Leibsohn and Barbara E. Mundy.
Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820. http://www.fordham.edu/vistas, 2015.

Edgerton, Samuel. 2001. Theaters of Conversion: Religious Architecture and Indian Artisans in Colonial Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

Espinosa Spinola, Gloria. 1999. Arquitectura de la conversión y evangelización en la Nueva España durante el siglo XVI. Almeria: Universidad de Almeria.

Kubler, George. 1948. Mexican Architecture of the Sixteenth Century. New Haven: Yale University Press.