This work analyzes how New Spain conceived of and represented the afterlife beyond heaven, hell, purgatory and limbo, and how the living imagined the souls of the dead at these sites. Emphasis is placed on iconography and art, but the narrative ranges from the introduction of Christianity by the mendicant friars in the sixteenth century to the days before Independence in the late eighteenth century. This work explores how customs, attitudes and religious practices affected the social organization and economy of the kingdom.