| Sumario: | The book discusses the work of Italian Capuchins in the face of American alterity, especially in the catechism of Indians and mestizos accused of being sorcerers of the devil. The friars faced a crisis in missionary optimism in the face of alleged indigenous resistance to Christianity or to European social rules. Portuguese colonial sources reveal evangelization as a field of dispute between friars, natives and settlers, motivating daily conflicts, as well as encouraging changes in social and symbolic traditions within or near the missions. The indigenous people were not passive subjects in the process, contradicting the missionaries for the determination with which they supposedly practiced their "gentle" customs and rites.
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