Fray Bartolomé de las Casas was a Spanish Dominican friar who became famous for defending Indigenous peoples during the early colonial period. He criticized abuses committed by colonizers and argued that Indigenous people had rights and dignity.

He was not Mexican in the modern national sense, but he is important to the history of New Spain and the colonial world that shaped Mexico. For citizenship learners, he helps introduce the moral debates around conquest, colonization, and the treatment of Indigenous peoples.