The Missionary Work of Fray Pedro de Gante in the Early New Spain

This article is intended to recover the evangelical and educational work of Friar Pedro de Gante in sixteenth-century New Spain. Less well known than other missionary figures, Gante was the first to take as serious commitment with the education and the conversion of the natives of the New World, which is why many aspects of it are attended: the first school of European studies in the city of Texcoco, the school and the open chapel of San Jose de los Naturales and various mechanisms for their evangelizing labour demonstrating the cultural syncretism that should proceed to their task. The problems they faced in his mission, mainly the complaint of the trustees abuses that prevented the indigenous conversion to Christianity, and the impact of his legacy in later missionary works are also presented.