This project centers on two inquisitorial investigations which began in the 1540s. One is from Spain (Valencia), and the other from Mexico (Yanhuitlan, Oaxaca). The first involves relations between Muslims and Catholics, and the second relations between Native Americans and Europeans. The different testimonies given as evidence in both investigations (by religious specialists, nobles, former slaves) create a complex picture of social life in both Valencia and Oaxaca. Alliances and enmities, for example, commonly cross religious and ethnic divisions. For a broader perspective, and to place the charged testimonies presented before inquisitors in a wider social and documentary contexts, the words of witnesses are supplemented with evidence from non-inquisitorial sources: Islamic legal rulings, prehispanic books, notary documents. Overall, the project involves microhistories of two specific places, generated from archival research, and at the same time looks for parallels between the internal colonization of Muslims in Valencia and the external colonization of Native Americans in the New World.