Summary Of Isabel

With the conquest of Mexico and the establishment of colonial New Spain came widespread change. The conquistadors, the newly established Spanish government, and the Church flipped the social order upside-down and established new structures in every aspect of the natives' lives. Those who, in the old order, were wealthy and well-respected struggled to survive while the lower class fell even farther. Under the new system people of all classes and ranks—whether well-respected, royal, or poor—had to find a way to survive. The newly implemented social and economic structures in New Spain forced people of varying previous social status to make major adjustments in order to integrate as a means of survival. One important example of social integration
Through her relationships with men of the Spanish conquest Isabel became "a symbol of great legal and sociological importance to the Hispanization and Christianization of Mexico" (Chipman 217). As the wife of prominent men Isabel would be a model of the Hispanicized Indian woman. It was this image that women across New Spain were expected to emulate. As Chipman says, it was this image and the principles on which it was founded that would "provide a solid matrix for a new society" (219). Isabel was an intelligent woman of status and she did not abandon her old life without just cause and apt reward. With the conquest came new and important legal principles established by the crown that meant "that Spanish law took precedence over any natural rights of Indian inheritance" (Chipman 218). Isabel realized that without integrating into this new and foreign social order she would lose everything that she was entitled to under the old order.
Jorge Klor de Alva's article "Martin Ocelotl: Clandestine Cult Leader." The changes that the conquest brought about in Ocelotl's life resonate the changes primarily brought on by the introduction of the Roman Church in the Americas and offer a profound example of the global power of the Church and its entities. In the Americas "the inflexible position of the Roman Church worked to exclude most native rituals and all native priests from an active role in the new faith" (Alva 130). Because Martin was not only a priest of the old religion, but an esteemed one, considering his interactions with and the predictions he gave Moctezuma, he too was excluded from the new religious order. At this time, religion still played a key role in establishing social standing, whether by granting political power or economic favor, the Church could play a large role in anyone's rise or fall. Especially in the Americas where the Church and its leaders, far from the control of the papacy, could wield much power in whatever manner they desired. Due to this monopoly the Church had on social mobility Ocelotl might have become a virtual social outcast, were it not for his cunning and the other followers of the old faith. "Too set in the ancient beliefs to be truly converted and too worldly wise not to