Abstract

This thesis examines the discursive role that portrayals of masculinities, both hegemonic and deviant, played in the colonization and christianization of Indigenous peoples in New Spain, as well as the perpetuation of European imperialism in the years following the conquest. The thesis takes as case studies the portrayal of sodomy in the Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España (1558–1585) and of heteronormative masculinity in Los desposorios de la Virgen (1645–1652) by Spanish-born painter Sebastián López de Arteaga (1610–1652). Drawing from artistic theory of the period, this work contextualizes both case studies within larger discussions of (homo)sexuality and the nature of religious images to argue that European colonizers sought to extend the influence of Euro-Catholic colonialism into the intimate lives of Indigenous people.�