Schools for Indian girls in New Spain and the indigenous matronas (1530–c.1596)

In 1530 the Empress Isabel sent six beatas to New Spain and ordered the Audiencia to build houses out of royal revenue where the daughters of Indian principals and commoners would be taught. The chronicler who records the order also records that it "no duró muchos años" — and that the women who came out of it, called beatas, went on to teach doctrine, run confraternities and serve hospitals for two generations, until depopulation and tribute ended that too.