Michael Brescia: Head of Research and Curator of Ethnology, Arizona State Museum; Professor of history, University of Arizona
Monday, April 28, 2025,
2:30pm – 3:30pm (with break),
ASA Koffler Great Room and Zoom
Dr. Brescia’s last session explored the establishment of the colonial Mexican Church via the first bishop of Mexico City who had to broker competing political and economic interests among the Spanish Population while promoting the spread of Christianity among the Indigenous peoples.
In his third session, Dr. Brescia will assess the political and social conflicts that erupted in Mexico during the early seventeenth century, as the Habsburg monarchy navigated multiple challenges to its power, including a shifting geopolitical landscape, competing corporate interests within the Mexican Church, and declining economic fortunes that eroded Spain’s standing among European powers. Juan de Palafox y Mendoza arrived in 1640 wielding both secular and ecclesiastical power but soon clashed with various religious corporate entities. His nine-year tenure reveals the inherent tensions between an individual’s exercise of power and the collective interests that evade or stymy those efforts.
You can connect to Zoom either by using the following URL: https://zoom.us/j/95456511620?pwd=OC9GcnJRNmJpMTdXdXFhaUpCUkx4QT09 or by opening a browser to zoom.com/join and typing in Meeting ID: 954 5651 1620 and Passcode: 85747