Este artículo analiza la interrelación de los factores de clase, género y raza en la definición de una política de admisión de mujeres indígenas a las órdenes religiosas de la Nueva España. El argumento teológico que permitiría ubicarlas dentro de los parámetros de espiritualidad de la época maduró en el siglo dieciocho. Clase y raza, usadas previamente para excluirlas, fueron utilizadas por sus promotores para su reivindicación y aceptación, a pesar de residuos de prejuicio racial entre algunos miembros de la iglesia y la burocracia. This article discusses the interplay of class, gender, and race in the definition of a policy of admission of indigenous women to full membership in the regular orders in New Spain. A theological argument to accommodate them within the parameters of established spirituality reached its maturity in the eighteenth century. Class and race--previously used to exclude Indian women--were skillfully used to buttress the acceptance of Indian nuns by their supporters, despite residues of racial prejudice among members of the Church and the bureaucracy.

This work underlines the close association of interests between the ecclesiastical sources of credit and the social elite of the Archbishopric of Mexico. Although the availability of credit was not restricted to the top members of the socio-economic hierarchy, the wealthiest money-lending religious institutions showed a marked preference for that group. Large merchants, choice members of the local and viceregal bureaucracy, and considerable range of rural property owners received preferential treatment from credit institutions in the allocation of their loans. The author provides data on the operations of the Juzgado de Capellanías, and several confraternities and nunneries of the capital of the Vice-royalty in the last two decades of the eighteenth century.