When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away
Book • 1991
Ramon Gutierrez’s book analyzes cultural and religious transformations among Pueblo peoples after Spanish contact, focusing on how Christianization interacted with indigenous fertility rituals and social customs.
He uses mission records, colonial documents, and ethnographic sources to argue that Spanish suppression of native ceremonies undermined central aspects of Pueblo social life.
The work sparked debate for relying on post-contact sources and for generalizing across diverse Pueblo societies, prompting scholars to highlight persistence and syncretism instead.
Gutierrez situates his argument within a broader new Western history emphasizing indigenous agency and cultural change under colonialism.
The book remains influential and contested in studies of religion and colonialism in the Southwest.
He uses mission records, colonial documents, and ethnographic sources to argue that Spanish suppression of native ceremonies undermined central aspects of Pueblo social life.
The work sparked debate for relying on post-contact sources and for generalizing across diverse Pueblo societies, prompting scholars to highlight persistence and syncretism instead.
Gutierrez situates his argument within a broader new Western history emphasizing indigenous agency and cultural change under colonialism.
The book remains influential and contested in studies of religion and colonialism in the Southwest.
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Mentioned by the host as a controversial influential interpretation of Pueblo culture and Spanish contact.
New Mexico: From Prehistory to the Pueblo Revolt
