University Honors

Restricted by the gendered, patriarchal structures of colonial society, women in New Spain hadlimited options or protections outside of marriage. The church, and convents in particular,offered women an alternative. Many women found fulfillment in conventual communities, wheremusic, libraries, servants and even delicacies were part of their lives. But not every woman couldenter a convent. The church required an extensive dowry for a woman to enter the convent andbecome a fully professed member of the order. The status and luxuries of a “nun of the blackveil" was limited to elite women who could afford the significant expense. Those who could notsecure the full dowry were relegated to second class religious citizenship as “nuns of the whiteveil,” or a “donada” a resident and servant who never professed. My research explores howwomen with religious vocations from elite and non-elite social backgrounds navigated ecclesialsocial structures and how class (as well as race) impacted the social status of nuns before andafter professing.Analyzing colonial manuscripts from the Archivo General de la Nación in México City, myresearch expands our understanding of the role of dowries in women’s conventual experiences.In recovering the complex religious lives of women under colonial rule, this paper argues thatwhile convents were an escape and an alternative to marriage, for some women, this access wasnot constructed equally.