The Colegio de San Gregorio: An Intellectual Refuge for Indigenous Peoples in Mexico City in the Late Eighteenth Century

Abstract

In 1586, the Jesuits founded the Colegio Seminario de San Gregorio in Mexico City. Throughout the colonial era and into the late nineteenth century, the school worked almost exclusively for Indigenous students. The political reforms introduced in Spain in 1812 stipulated the eradication of the segregated system that had prevailed during the colonial era. In response, civil authorities in Mexico City elaborated plans and reforms to allow non-Indigenous students access to San Gregorio. The arguments that nineteenth-century intellectuals expressed in favor of those reforms were broad-ranging and analyzed by contemporary scholars. However, we know little about Indigenous communities’ opinions concerning those transformations. This essay aims to review some of the ideas expressed by Indigenous intellectuals who sought to maintain the school as an exclusively “Indian” college.