"... careful and abundantly documented, and tends above all to demonstrate the willingness of the Crown to allow substantial adjustments to policy by colonial officialdom, provided its essential jurisdiction was maintained.... Ruiz Medrano and the University Press of Colorado are to be congratulated for making her work accessible to an English-speaking readership....I will be asking my university library to order ... Read moreseveral copies of this important monograph." —Adrian Pearce, Journal of Latin American Studies “Provides a valuable, detailed account of the economic benefits of high office and the importance of kinship and social networks in early colonial New Spain. All colonialists will benefit from reading Reshaping New Spain." —Mark A. Burkholder,  New Mexico Historical Review "[C]learly written and well-argued . . . a further development in the study of institutional-social relationships that is so much needed in Latin American history." —Hispanic American Historical Review   “This book makes a very useful contribution to historians' understanding of the early colonial process." —Jeremy Baskes, The Americas Show Less