In 1659, a new governor, Bernardo López de Mendizábal, reached New Mexico. He quickly showed himself to be arrogant, self-serving and bitterly anti-clerical.

He claimed to have superior authority over the missionaries, which was not the case. When they refused to buckle to his demands, he attacked them at every opportunity.

In the matter of the kachinas, or catzinas, as the Spanish knew them, he found an issue he could readily exploit.

Soon after taking office, Mendizábal received several Pueblo delegations in his adobe Palace. They had learned that the new governor was hostile toward the church, so they complained to him that the missionaries had prohibited them from performing their sacred masked dances.

Gov. Mendizábal listened intently and then announced that he was granting the Indians permission to stage these ceremonies openly, in public. Indeed, he gleefully and strongly encouraged them to do so.

Soon, members of several pueblos converged on Santa Fe, carrying kachina costumes in their baggage. They changed into the costumes in “dressing rooms” inside the Palace.

After dancing for the governor in the building, they adjourned to the Plaza and continued the performance in front of shocked citizens.

New Mexican churchmen were scandalized, and they sent off letters and reports to the Inquisition in Mexico City, denouncing the governor. They condemned the Native dances as acts of idolatry and heathenism containing obscenities.