It was the efforts of the humanitarian and progress-orientated liberals that struck a significant blow at Mexico's indigenous people

Arguably, only in the wake of the War of Independence (1810-1821) did indigenous identity truly suffer. In one of the greatest ironies of history, it was the efforts of the humanitarian and progress-orientated liberals that struck a significant blow at Mexico's indigenous peoples. With all people suddenly equal in the eyes of the law, it seemed counterproductive  to persist in encouraging indigenous peoples to speak in their own language. No longer could a native person go to court and find a translator: that person would need to speak Spanish.

C. Townsend, Fifth Sun (2019), 207

It will never be forgotten, it will always be preserved

It will never be forgotten, it will always be preserved. We will preserve it, we who are the younger brothers, the children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and great great grandchildren, we who are the [family extensions] - the hair, eyebrows, nails - the colour and the blood, we who are the descendants ... we who have been born and lived where lived and governed all the precious ancient Chichimeca kings.

The Nahau historian Chimalpahin, quoted in C. Townsend, Fifth Sun (2019), 197

What the Indians were thinking when they first had Christian doctrines to them has long been a matter of great interest

What the Indians were thinking when they first had Christian doctrines to them has long been a matter of great interest. Generally, Europeans have made their own assumptions without much evidence. At first friars enthusiastically reported that the indigenous were deeply moved and that they, the friars, had been able to baptize many thousands right away. Later, they walked back their assertions that all the Indians had been devout converts from the moment they were sprinkled with holy water, but the friars also remained generally confident in their overall success. They convinced the whole world that they had successfully converted Mexico to Catholicism in relatively short order. Only in the 1990s did it become commonplace for scholars to argue that this premise was indeed false - that in fact the indigenous had not simply rejected generations of belief and accepted Christian teachings without question.

C. Townsend, Fifth Sun (2019), 135