A Companion to Latin American Literature and Culture. Группа авторов. Читать онлайн. Newlib. NEWLIB.NET

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manners could be changed by merciful persuasion.

      In 1523, only three years after the conquest of Tenochtitlan, three Franciscans arrived and began the enterprise of evangelization-colonization, followed a year later by another 12. The Franciscan Pedro de Gante founded the first school of New Spain, San José de los Naturales. This school proved the natives’ ability to learn, in subjects ranging from manual labor and crafts to grammar and basic Latin. Although the Franciscans were the first order to arrive in New Spain, optimistic projects to evangelize through education were also designed by the Dominicans upon their arrival in 1526, and by the Augustinians when they later came on the scene in 1533. By the 1530s perhaps 600 natives had already begun to learn to write as a result of the friars’ education projects (Gruzinski 1993, 47). Learning in those first centers went both ways. The friars evangelized and alphabetized the natives but they also acquired linguistic proficiency in native languages, facilitating inquiry into Indigenous polities. For the friars, the more linguistic and cultural knowledge they gained from the vencidos, the more effective would be the enterprise of conversion. This knowledge would also be beneficial to Spanish officials in designing economic and political policies for the new colony.

      After the Primera Audiencia (1528–1530) (a court of law and administrative body) had failed to establish effective colonial government, research on types of tribute, political organization, and social institutions was encouraged by the president of the Segunda Audiencia (1530–1535), Sebastián Ramírez de Fuenleal, to aid the governmental logistics of the new colony. To exploit these enquiries, Fuenleal petitioned the Franciscans Andrés de Olmos and Martín de Valencia to produce a book on the antiquities of the natives, with special regard to the major centers of Mexico, Texcoco, and Tlaxcala. European education, for the Indigenous people, especially of noble status, would serve several purposes. On the one hand, well-educated Indigenous people would aid research into native languages and polities; on the other, they could serve as intermediaries in religious and secular matters. Outnumbered by the natives, Spaniards believed they would benefit from trusted native participation in developing the logistics for a better colonization. The moral and intellectual benefits of a higher education were also needed to prepare future caciques (lords) to lead Christian communities. Thus, higher education for the native elite was considered achievable as well as advantageous. The Viceroy Don Antonio de Mendoza and the Franciscan Bishop Juan de Zumárraga granted the privilege, to the Franciscan order, to open an institution of higher education to natives.

      The Colegio’s Students and Textual Productions

      Also well versed in Spanish, Latin, and Nahuatl was Pedro of San Buenaventura of Cuauhtitlan, who collaborated with Sahagún, writing the section on pre-conquest medicine and the animals of New Spain for the Hymns of the Gods. He also illustrated Sahagún’s Mexican calendar. Hernando de Ribas from Texcoco translated the Diálogos de paz y tranquilidad del alma of Juan de Gaona and helped Friar Alonso de Molina with his Vocabulario in Nahuatl and Friar Juan Bautista with his Vocabulario Eclesiástico. Francisco Bautista de Contreras from Cuernavaca, before becoming governor of Xochimilco in 1605, worked with Friar Juan Bautista in the translation to Nahuatl of the Imitación de Cristo, known as the Contemptus mundi, and collaborated with Hernando de Ribas in the translation of Vanidad del mundo. Juan Badiano of Xochimilco collaborated in the translation from Nahua into Latin of the Libellus de medicinalibus Indorum Herbis, known as the Códice Badiano, attributed to the Xochimilcan Martín de la Cruz. This codex contains information about plants and medicines used in pre-conquest times. Esteban Bravo from Tezcoco helped in the writing of a lost Sermonario of Friar Alonso de Trujillo. Pedro de Gante, named after the Franciscan friar who inaugurated San José de los Naturales, assisted Friar Juan Bautista in the Colegio and wrote about lives of saints. Although none of Gante’s texts have been discovered, Friar Bautista relates that he always consulted his abilities and talents (Garibay 1954, 2: 225). Agustin de la Fuente from Tlatelolco served as copyist and editor for Sahagún and Bautista.

      In the Florentine Codex Sahagún also recognizes the help of the ancient titicih or Indigenous physicians (León-Portilla 1990, 54). Diego Adriano of Tlatelolco and Agustín the la Fuente collaborated in painting the Codex. Martín Jacobita of Tlatelolco, who from 1561 to 1565 was rector of the Colegio, Antonio Vegeriano of Cuauhtitlán, and Andrés Leonardo of Tlatelolco helped Sahagún in the rewriting of the Coloquios and Códices Matritenses (León-Portilla 1990, 48). The Franciscans documented the names of the most brilliant students to show evidence of the Colegio’s success, emphasizing the students’ abilities and their willingness to cooperate in the enterprise of evangelization. However, the gramáticos’ textual production would later play an important role in the development of a native historiography.

      The introduction of the alphabetic system altered Nahua methods of recording history, which had been previously achieved by oral performance and pictographic