The Inquisition Case of María de la Cruz in Mexico City

Record summary

The Mexico City tribunal’s seventeenth-century cases against women accused of love magic, fortune-telling, healing, and related practices include proceedings under names such as María de la Cruz. These records are useful not as evidence that spells worked, but as documentation of gendered labor, domestic conflict, and the colonial policing of vernacular expertise. Because several defendants may share common names, a researcher should identify the precise expediente before drawing conclusions. The case label is therefore a lead into the tribunal’s indexed records rather than a single settled biography.