The illustration presented above presents the reader with two left hands with each finger depicting two statements. The hand on the left has writing in the Spanish language whereas the hand on the right has writing in Huastec, a language belonging to one of the indigenous of New Spain. According to the description, each finger is meant to depict two of the Ten Commandments. For example, with an understanding of Spanish, the thumb can be roughly translated to “You shall honor one God” and “You shall not desire what belongs to your neighbor”. This pattern continues across all five fingers of the two hands in their respective language.

Taking this into account, it could be inferred that this artifact served as a means to aid the evangelization efforts of Christian missionaries. As historian James A. Wood points out, “The Roman Catholic Church in colonial Latin America was a conglomeration of institutions, including ecclesiastical offices, the parish clergy, and various orders of nuns, monks, and friars that ran hospitals, schools, orphanages, missions, and even slave plantations” (Wood 2019, 2). Owing to the Church’s mission to educate the ‘ignorant’ natives of the New World, it was of great importance to them that a proper translation of the Lord’s decrees were presented to the indigenous. Furthermore, the archival description bolsters this deduction as it asserts that the artifact was meant to be a mnemonic reminder. In other words, when practiced correctly, an American Indian could recall the commandments by going back to their hands and start from there.

This dedication to supersede indigenous lifestyle with Catholic traditions was a common practice done by the colonial churchmen. One example being their habit of implementing cultural syncretism, such as the Virgin of Guadalupe and the celebrations of Corpus Christi. Both of these developments had the goal of replacing indigenous deities while still retaining the worship of the local community, thus ensuring compliance with the Church and by extension, the Spanish Kingdom.

Works Cited:

John Carter Brown Library, Annual Report, 1927, p. 9-10; http://www.vjf.cnrs… (Feb. 2004)

Wood, James A., and Anna Rose Alexander. Essay. In Problems in Modern Latin American History: Sources and Interpretations, 2. Rowman & Littlefield, 2019.