Carlos de SigÜenza y Góngora, one of seventeenth-century Mexico's best-known intellectuals, was a writer of fascinating and complex narratives that exemplarize the heterogeneous nature of colonial Spanish American prose. This book is the first critical study to place both the writer and his narrative within the phenomenon of the Barroco de Indias, or the Spanish-American baroque. Approaching SigÜenza as a criollo historian preoccupied with the placement of the New World within a universal context, Professor Ross develops a theoretical framework within which his texts can be read and understood today. Professor Ross incorporates into her examination new critical trends, such as the use of narrative theory, the new historiography, and feminist criticism.