Digital Collections

The Helmerich Center for American Research (HCAR) holds a rich Spanish Colonial collection, including over 100,000 pages of 16th- and 17th-century manuscripts and digitized microfilms. Highlights include Inquisition records, exploration accounts, and documents tied to figures like Hernán Cortés.

Gender and Power

This collection explores the relationships between gender and colonial power structures in Spanish-colonial Latin America. It shows how patriarchal authority and colonial institutions shaped women's roles and statuses, particularly in the context of colonial law, the Inquisition, and religious practices.

Punishment & Control

The collection features how colonial authorities maintained control over both Indigenous and colonized peoples through legal and religious punishments.

Religion and Indigenous Cultures

This theme examines the imposition of Christianity by colonial authorities and the responses from Indigenous communities in Latin America. The Spanish and Portuguese colonizers sought to convert Indigenous peoples to Christianity, but this process was often met with resistance or syncretism, where Indigenous beliefs were blended with Catholic practices.