Remaining early Mexican exconventos bear witness to the initial sixteenth-century conversion of millions of indigenous people to Catholicism. These monuments are typically in lesser known areas rather than major cities and have been overshadowed by more ornate Mexican churches from later centuries. However, these Mexican exconventos of the Franciscans, Dominicans and Augustinians are typically enormous, striking and unforgettable. As an architect, I was immediately captured by these sites upon first encountering one by chance in the early 1980s.
When time and resources permitted, I began to travel to Mexico to seek out sixteenth-century exconventos starting with Huejotzingo, Calpan and Tlaxcala. My fervor was of course intensified by these wonderful examples. Over a decade ranging from 2006 to 2016, I made many trips to Mexico to explore and photograph sixteenth-century sites and buildings. Richard Perry’s excellent books on Mexican Colonial architecture guided my way both geographically and in knowledge about these treasures. My husband enjoyed driving and visiting in remote areas of Mexico so our trips were a wonderful pursuit for us both.
During the sixteenth century, areas of conquest and subjugation happened mainly in central and southern areas of Mexico – what is now Puebla, Tlaxcala, Michoacán, Oaxaca, Hidalgo, Morelos, Chiapas, the State of Mexico, and Yucatán. These are the areas we explored. After pursuing this work for several years as time permitted, I thought that the material warranted being published. There are fine books on the subject but none providing recent photographs of such an extensive array of the extant sixteenth-century sites and monuments
The field work was the most thrilling, but I also enjoyed research, writing, mapmaking, and drawing floor plans. The last two tasks were done with Vectorworks, the CAD program I use for architectural drawing. The photographs, which are the heart of the project, were taken primarily with a Canon SLR camera in color, then converted to black and white, cropped, and enhanced primarily using Photoshop.
I was fortunate to have the work published by the University of New Mexico and to have both Banamex (now Citibanamex) and the Gerald Peters Gallery support the subvention fee imposed by UNM Press.