After a strenuous journey he arrived in Mexico, where he was greeted with great respect by
Hernán Cortés. Upon walking through
Tlaxcala the Indians said of his ragged Franciscan robes "Motolinia",
Nahuatl for "one who is poor or afflicted." That was the first word he learned in the language, and he took it as his name. He also chose Catalina de Bustamante to teach in the first school for indigenous girls in the New World and was aligned with the educational aspect of Franciscan missionary efforts. From 1527 to 1529, he worked in
Guatemala and perhaps
Nicaragua, studying the new missions in that area. Back in Mexico, he stayed at the convent of Huejotzinco, near Tlaxcala, where he had to help the natives against the abuse and atrocities committed by
Nuño de Guzmán. He suggested for the native leaders to complain to Bishop
Juan de Zumárraga about Guzmán, but the latter accused him of trying to instigate a revolt among the Indians against the Spanish. In 1545, the
encomenderos of
Chiapas asked for him to come there to defend them against Las Casas but he declined, in the same way he declined a position as bishop offered to him by the king. The letter to the king is an important document, clarifying the Franciscan position of baptizing as many Indians as possible if they presented themselves for it. In the time of the conquest Mexico's devastating plagues had reduced the indigenous population considerably and the Franciscans feared for the souls of Indians who died without baptism. They took the position that they should baptize to ensure salvation, but also continue pastoral care so that Indians would grow more knowledgeable about their new Christian faith. The Dominican Order was famous for its adherence to firm doctrinal positions, which meant that they refused baptism to Indians in Mexico if they were deemed to lack knowledge in the tenets of Christianity. In his letter to the king, Motolinia recounts an incident of Las Casas's refusal to baptize an Indian in Tlaxcala.; I said to Las Casas: "How is this, father, all this zeal and love that you say you have for the Indians is exhausted in loading them down and going around writing about Spaniards, and vexing the Indians, since your grace loads down more Indians than thirty (Franciscan) friars? And since you won't baptize or instruct an Indian, it would be well if you would pay those that you so load down and tire out." From 1548 to 1551 he was provincial of the Province of Santo Evangelio. With the exception of smallpox and factionalism among Spaniards, Motolinia considered Spaniards' deliberate oppression and exploitation of the Indians the worst afflictions. By 1555, Motolinia expressed hope to King Charles V that both secular and religious power in the Americas would be consolidated under the Spanish Crown as a theocracy, following the book of the Apocalypse. ==Death==