Selected reviews of Early Churches of Mexico

Southern spaces: “Early Churches of Mexico”
Beverley Spears presents a visual and informational glory in Early Churches of Mexico: An Architect’s View, published by University of New Mexico Press. Ten years in the works, the book has 408 pages and hundreds of beautiful photographs. For her images, made from 2006 to 2016, Spears used black-and-white photography to emphasize the ancient buildings’ essential characteristics, to “convey architectural form, space, and light,” as she puts it in her introduction.

The churches and conventos (mission complexes or monasteries) were built during the 1500s by mendicant friars — Franciscans, Dominicans, and Augustinians — who came from Spain to convert, teach, and baptize indigenous peoples. The structures show massive walls, often buttressed and topped with rows of merlons (projecting forms like tiny towers), some with a single tower on one side only, and with grand atrios (churchyards) in front. Another striking characteristic, especially in the Franciscan conventos, is the rib-vaulted ceiling structure.

The majority of Early Churches features Spears’ photographic examination of convento exteriors and interiors, but the text chapters treat Spanish history in Mexico and explain mission architecture and ornamentation. An appendix offers a detailed chart of vaults, bell towers, atrios, and other features in 108 conventos in a dozen Mexican states, from Hidalgo to Chiapas. “The book is really about how I see these as architectural monuments, as pieces of art,” said Spears, an award-winning Santa Fe architect. “I’m really interested in the spatial quality more than the history and the art history, the decorations and the murals.”

Her topic encompasses a whole different realm from New Mexico’s 17th- and 18th-century mission churches, with their flat roofs and transverse clerestories. The roof structures in Early Churches are vaults, which were not done in the north of colonial Nueva España. “I think there were fewer, less-skilled masons here,” Spears said. “There were millions of people in Mexico who worked in stone, who had built the pyramids. So the friars were able to teach them about vaults and arches. Some of the spaces in these Mexican churches are just magnificent, partly because typically they’re not basilicas with three aisles and columns [as in Santa Fe’s Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi]. They’re very tall and very long, but it’s a single vault. So that space is very contained and very focused on the sanctuary.”
….The Santa Fe New Mexican–Paul Weideman Nov 3, 2017

The Power and the Glory: monuments of Christianity’s conquest of Mexico
The 16th-century monasteries and churches of Mexico are virtually unknown outside Mexico, yet they are among the most striking and unforgettable sights within that country, in some ways rivaling the acclaimed archaeological sites of the Maya and Aztecs. Beginning in the 1520s, mendicant friars including Franciscans, Augustinians and Dominicans went forth in twos or threes to convert the multitudes of native people in Oaxaca, Chiapas, Yucatan, Michoacán, Puebla and elsewhere, baptizing and converting by the tens of thousands at a time. With native labor, the friars constructed hundreds of missions throughout central and southern areas of the country until the close of the 16th century when friars had lost much of their influence and autonomy, and their indigenous followers had been decimated by hardship and disease. Today these sacred monuments collectively represent a fascinating period in history when two entirely distinct cultures began interweaving to form the fabric of modern Mexico.

These early sites of religious conversion, known in Mexico as conventos rather than missions, typically include a monumental single-nave church with attached cloister fronting on a huge high-walled courtyard with an elaborately carved stone cross in the center. Although some conventos are now in ruins and others are museums, most of them continue as active parish churches vibrant with flowers, candles, images of saints and Catholic liturgy. As we approach the quincentennial of the conquest of Mexico (1521) these ancient sites may gain greater recognition and conservation which they justly deserve.
….The [University of] Pennsylvania Gazette 22 June 2018

Review: Early Churches of Mexico–An Architect’s View
This gorgeous, coffee table-sized book by architect Beverley Spears leads the reader on a breathtaking tour of over one hundred conventos (“monasteries”) and churches that remain from sixteenth-century Mexico. As part of their missionary program in New Spain, Franciscans, Dominicans, and Augustinians organized the indigenous construction of hundreds of huge religious complexes replete with churches, courtyards, cloisters, housing, and open-air chapels. With an informative introductory essay concerning church architecture and over three hundred glossy pages of black-and-white photographs, the book more than fulfills the promise of its title. It also provides an understated reflection on the role of space and human creativity in sixteenth-century Mexican Catholicism.

Spears’s photographs reveal the immensity of the early Mexican conventos, the details of the artisanship that went into their creation, and patterns of ritual usage. Two particularly helpful chapters in the introductory essay are “Anatomy of a Sixteenth-Century Convento” and “Space and Ritual of Convento Architecture.” In these pages, we learn about the typical characteristics of these places, including soaring naves (generally without transepts), cloisters for the friars, and spacious outdoor atriosthat accommodated the large populations of indigenous converts who were accustomed to outdoor worship in the mild climate (p. 17). The corners of the atriosoften contain posas, or small churchyard chapels, that suggest a counter-clockwise movement around the atrioto observe devotional art and the stations of the cross (p. 31). While most of the Mexico’s surviving conventosshare these common spatial features, they vary widely in stylistic elements from Renaissance painting, to Moorish towers, to indigenous-influenced Tequitqui-style carving. Dozens of visual examples and a useful glossary guide even the architectural novice through all this specialized variety.

The question of Mesoamerican indigenous agency and activity in these churches occasionally emerges in the text of the book and lurks in many of the photographs. Early in the introduction, we learn that one of the main reasons why huge conventoslike these were not built in subsequent centuries is because of the precipitous (genocidal?) drop in indigenous populations during the 1500s. When these populations experienced cataclysmic death rates, there were not enough laborers to build and utilize churches and monasteries at the same monumental scale and rate (12). Nonetheless, traces of indigenous Mexican influences are visible in the old buildings and architectural features. For instance, the pre-Hispanic motif of living trees are found on many of the indigenous-carved atrial crosses that sprout stony leaves from their ends (23). Many of the conventosthemselves were built atop pre-Conquest temple platforms and, in this way, appropriated indigenous sacred space (p. 33). Indeed, in her discussion of the early Mexican churches, Spears begs the question of the sincerity and spread of Native conversions. Students of Latin American religious history will likely balk at her premise that the indigenous construction of these churches is proof of the friars’ evangelistic success (p. 13).

Acknowledging questions of indigenous influence is important, yet the most salient story told in the book’s photographs is the world-changing and world-shaping power of Spanish Catholicism in Mexico. One of the most stimulating aspects of this book is that it allows the reader to look into the Mexican past as that past is juxtaposed on the present. Some of the best photos display scenes of living churches, ancient in their size and configuration but full of worshippers, flowers, and other modern decorations. Today, even after years of urbanization and population growth, most of these churches remain the largest buildings in their environments. Arranged by state, the photographed churches also demonstrate regional geographic and climactic differences even as they tie the country together under one religious aesthetic. The lush and populous central region showcases grand churches surrounded by greenery; the conventosin arid Oaxaca sit in hilly deserts; and limestone churches with shaded ramadas rise out of the blistering flatness of the Yucatán peninsula. They all, however, embody the basic outlines of Catholic worship: long and high-arched naves full of pews where parishioners face the altar under the crucifix. Statues and paintings of saints and the Virgin line the walls. And the buildings themselves, when viewed in their surroundings, clearly continue to anchor village as well as urban life. The sheer number and size of these early Mexican churches means that these places seem to have their own irresistible gravity, and the reader has little option but to be pulled into their orbit of architectural splendor and colonial dominance.

Spears’s beautiful photography and informative, vivid descriptions will edify any reader, not just those interested in Christian architecture and Mexican Catholicism. The details of the more than one hundred monasteries and churches profiled in the book demand careful inspection. But the over-all effect—above and beyond the details—is to convey the power and reach of colonial Catholicism in Mexico.
….Reading Religion–A publication of the American Academy of Religion. Review by Brett Hendrickson, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Lafayette College. 19 April 2018

Spears, Beverley 2017 Early Churches of Mexico: An Architect’s View.
This is not a history book of Mexico’s early colonial church architecture but rather a stunning pictorial glimpse of monuments that continue to stand after hundreds of years. Spears, an architect and landscape architect, captures the architectural and cultural heritage of early Mexican convento and rural churches with over 350 photos in black and white, which she notes “removes the distraction of color and helps convey architectural form, space, and light” (pg. 3).

She focuses primarily on sixteenth-century churches in central and southern Mexico, including churches in the states of: Hidalgo, Morelos, Puebla, Tlaxcala, Michoacán, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Yucatán, the State of Mexico, and Mexico City. Spears has organized the photographs by geographic areas as defined by state boundaries. This book includes a glossary of architectural terms and a well-organized chart in the appendix of 108 sixteenth-century conventos with names, locations, dates, church style, various features, and page numbers. What more could you ask for?

Her insightful and profoundly written introduction conveys her awe and appreciation for these historic and artistic monuments. This book is produced with the hope that by sharing the knowledge of this unique and cultural heritage these places will be protected and continue to survive.
….[South West Missions Research Center, Tucson] SMRC Revista, Vol. 53-54, no. 176, pp. 91–92

Early Churches of Mexico: An Architect’s View. Edited by Beverley Spears. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2017. Pp. 408 370 photographs. 4 drawings. 9 maps. One chart. $45.00 cloth.

The title of this beautiful book is a bit misleading. This work is not, in fact, a study of Mexico’s early church architecture. Instead, Spears has purposefully—and, to my mind, wisely—ignored the urban churches with which many of us are most familiar, and has instead chosen to focus her study on Mexico’s sixteenth-century convento and visita churches. These structures are generally more rural and less accessible to the average visitor, which makes Spears’s study a valuable guide for those interested in the physical spaces created for the grand evangelization projects of Mexico’s sixteenth-century mendicants.

The work is divided into two parts: one textual and one pictorial. Part one is textual and comprises seven chapters. These chapters are meant to serve as brief introductions to various aspects of the early churches. And they are indeed brief introductions: the longest of them is a mere eight pages. Their brevity is not necessarily bad; there is just enough information here to satisfy most casual readers and guide them through early church architecture. These chapters are not, however, significant contributions to historical or art historical scholarship. The author seems happy to leave more serious discussions of history, architectural style, retablos, murals, and sculpture to others. The most intriguing of these textual chapters is chapter 7, “Time and Transformation,” which is a thoughtful discussion of the ways in which time has ravaged the sixteenth-century conventos through neglect, vandalism, and remodeling.

The least enjoyable chapter for historians is likely to be chapter 1, “Conquest and Conversion.” This chapter is superficial, includes no citations, and ignores most recent historical scholarship on these themes. And given recent historical work by scholars such as John Chuchiack or David Tavárez on idolatry extirpation campaigns, many historians are sure to take issue with Spears’s assertion that “the program of the mendicant friars was fairly benign if not beneficial”.

The second part, which constitutes the bulk of the book, is a well-organized showcase of Spears’s photographs of early convento and visita churches. There are eight chapters in this part, and each chapter is dedicated to a particular present-day Mexican state. Chapter 9 deals with both the state of Mexico and the Federal District, and Chapter 7 deals with both Puebla and Tlaxcala. Geographically, they begin in Hidalgo in the north and continue down to Yucatan in the south. The photography is lovely. Spears has chosen to present the photos in black and white, which both “removes the distraction of color and helps convey architectural form, space, and light”. They do indeed possess a rather timeless quality; very few images include elements of present-day life. People, however, are included when possible, maintaining the link between these structures and the communities they serve. As Richard Perry notes in the foreword, the photos are not overly dramatic in their composition. Instead, these “subtle images convey a quiet, almost artless calm”. Moreover, in contrast to many of the texts currently available on colonial art and architecture, Spears has organized her photographs by church, rather than by architectural feature or style. This organizational structure is satisfying; it helps to ground these buildings in the geography and gives the work the pleasant feel of a guidebook.

The book’s large size will prevent most readers from taking it along on trips to explore rural sixteenth-century conventos. Nonetheless, this book beautifully guides the reader through what Spears calls “the most striking and unforgettable sights” in Mexico. Spears’s treatment of these architectural treasures is both a testament to her own skills as a photographer and architect and to the sixteenth-century friars and native peoples who built them.