For much of the colonial period, ritual maintained an important position in the public lives of Poblanos. As a didactic tool, ritual reified local and imperial identities, reinforced the power and prestige of the crown, and created a helpful blueprint for how power and legitimacy were disseminated locally. As an economic force it helped to stimulate a local industry that revolved around a plethora of secular and religious holidays, and as a religious event it helped Poblanos deal with the mysterious ravages of natural calamities while solidifying their Catholic faith and exalting civic pride and unity. Because the lives of Poblanos revolved around such a consistent schedule of celebrations and processions, to be in control of this ceremonial culture equalled status and power.

In Identity, Ritual, and Power in Colonial Puebla, Frances Ramos presents a sophisticated, complex and meticulously researched narrative that utilises ritual and ceremony as a way to explain the idiosyncrasies of identity and power in New Spain's ‘second city’, which, according to the author, remains ‘surprisingly understudied’ (p. xx). Her book is multifaceted – it addresses the ‘cultural, social, economic and political underpinnings and implications of public rituals at the micro and macro levels’ (p. xxvi). At the heart of Ramos’ narrative is an institutional history of the local cabildo. As Ramos argues, this organisation amassed a great deal of prestige through its control and promotion of Puebla's ceremonial calendar. By monopolising ritual space and discourse, council members played a key role in promoting the city's local industry, generating income for themselves (often through corruption), as well as for artisans, merchants, innkeepers, tailors and various other segments of Puebla's working and business class. They were also highly effective at promoting Poblano identification with city and empire, reinforcing obedience to their individual social class and the crown by carefully choreographing ceremony, itself highly infused with symbolism.

More compelling, however, is Ramos' focus on the cabildo's promotion of religiosity. Indeed, as she states, the cabildo was instrumental in shaping Puebla's religious culture. In a city that was made up of semi-autonomous neighbourhoods and corporations, each venerating a different saint, the promotion of city-wide religious processions superimposed a uniform Catholic unity and identity onto Poblanos, at the same time as it helped to connect them to the ultimate defenders of the faith, the Catholic monarchs. Control over ritual also made the cabildo the moral consciousness of the city. When a devastating plague hit, Poblanos would plead with cabildo members to hold processions so as to quell the plague's ravaging effects, giving them moral and patriarchal authority over the city. By addressing the religious influence of the cabildo, Ramos makes an important contribution to the history of religion in New Spain, particularly since ‘historians have paid more attention to overly religious institutions and far less to the spiritual objectives of municipal governments’ (p. 67).

Trouble for the cabildo began during the second half of the eighteenth century, when Bourbon officials instituted new fiscal policies in order to rein in excessive spending and place limits on baroque-style extravagance. This imposition not only affected the ceremonial culture of Puebla; it struck at the very heart of the cabildo's power. In 1771, Puebla's cabildo was informed that all rituals costing over 40 pesos would require prior approval – a drastic change from the start of the century, when for the celebrations in honour of Louis I the cabildo had spent 1,445 pesos. But curtailing ritual was not so easy. By the late eighteenth century bureaucrats faced a ‘ceremonial system so ingrained that even the most modest modifications to Puebla's ceremonial calendar met with organised resistance’ (p. 190). Why, Ramos asks, did the cabildo continue to prioritise ‘costly public rituals in the face of financial shortfalls and administrative interference’ (p. xxi)? At the core of her response, which is dominant throughout the book, is the struggle for power, made all the more intense by the Bourbon reforms.

Ramos writes that her book addresses ‘a relatively neglected aspect of ritual – conflict’ (p. 180). The final two chapters then address this crucial aspect of ritual, representing her most original contribution. In an arena where power was always being contested, conflict seemed inevitable. Conflict emerged in various forms; for instance, seating at public events and ceremonies broadcast an important message to the public regarding power and authority. Public humiliations or challenges arose when seating arrangements were altered, often in a coordinated power play, necessitating a public response. Such subtleties were not lost on the masses of illiterate Poblanos, who understood and read power in the intricacies of ritual. The final chapter narrows in on the exact nature of the conflict as it arose between the cabildo, the governor, the church chapter and the newly formed militia. While the church sought to limit baroque Catholicism in favour of a more practical form of religiosity, the militia, which had the full support of the Bourbon monarchs, began to encroach on the cabildo's symbolic space. The later eighteenth century witnessed the apex of conflict in this crowded battlefield. As Ramos concludes, ‘the creation and expansion of the professional militia not only provoked competition between cabildo and military but also undermined the authority and prestige of the municipal council and provoked conflict with the cathedral chapter’ (p. 154). Sadly for the cabildo, over the course of the eighteenth century it lost out to the militia, which by the end of the century had outflanked the cabildo in power, authority and prestige.

Ramos' book is attentively researched. She uses manuscript histories of important cabildo members, cabildo minutes, correspondence, judicial documents, printed sermons, official accounts of royal ceremonies and financial reports of expenses. Though she devotes little time to describing the pageantry of the rituals themselves, what she does describe is done nicely. This book is therefore mostly useful to scholars and specialists – lay readers may have some difficulties with it – for a few reasons. First, in addressing the intersections of ritual, power and identity in Puebla, Ramos furnishes an example of one colonial city which can testify ‘to the central role that ritual played in the political culture of many eighteenth-century cities’, opening the door for future research (p. 182). Second, Ramos provides an important contribution to the narrative of how the Bourbon reforms reshaped the economic, political and cultural landscape of one of New Spain's most significant colonial centres.