The role of the Indian culture in the prooess of religious conversion in Mexioo ia still obsoure. This obsourity t has resulted from a tendency to study religious conversion 1 on a nationwide soale rather than a regional level. My study will focus on the sooial foroes at work in the small province of Tlaxoala during the first half of the sixteenth oentury. The events of the conversion in the province will be examined with special reference to the sooial and politioal causes underlying the exceptionally rapid conversion. Special attention will be given to an analysis of the rise of syncretism. The final objective of this paper is to examine the problem of cross cultural comparisons of religious conversion .