In the last article we looked at the Aztec document, the Codex en Cruz. These pre-Hispanic chronicles or annals contained dated events recorded in chronological order. The priest or scribe familiar with the symbols in the pictorial manuscript would then use it as a kind of prompt book or mnemonic guide that could be turned into a continuous historical narrative. This way of recording history passed continued into the post-Hispanic period. For example, the Anales de Cuauhtitlan (in Nahuatl) follows the annalistic format but also contains long narrative passages interspersed with mere lists of dates in chronological order.
The early chroniclers and historians of Mexico and Guatemala included both secular and religious writers, although the distinction is often blurred. The basic purpose or mission of the former was to send reports back to Spain, as Cortes did in his letters to the emperor, the latter to instruct other friars in the conversion of the natives. The Cartas de Relacion of Hernando Cortes and the Historia de la Conquista de la Nueva España of Bernal Diáz del Castillo were essentially justifications of the Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. However, some religious writers, such as Andres de Olmos (d. 1571) and Las Casas (1474-1566), wrote works dealing directly with the indigenous language and culture. Much of our knowledge of the language spoken by the Aztecs at the time of the Conquest comes from colonial grammars and vocabularies written by Franciscan missionaries. Indian and mestizo writers on the other hand were anxious to record their own native history.Our main early historical source for the history of the Maya of Yucatan is the Relación de las Cosas de Yucatan of friar Diego de Landa (1524-1579), who came to Yucatan in 1549 and became bishop of Merida. Although classified among the religious writers for his over-zealousness in destroying Maya codices, his work covers every phase of the social anthropology of the Maya from pre-Conquest times to about 1630. Of even greater importance for the native view of Yucatecan history and the Conquest are the various Books of Chilam Balam (ABooks of the Jaguar Priest@), Chumayel, Tizimin, and others. Other early written sources of Maya history include the Annals of the Cakchiquels (in Cakchiquel, a Mayan language) and the Popol Vuh and other documents in Quiche Maya.
All written history of course dates from the time of the Conquest when the Spanish missionaries taught the Indians how to write in Roman transcription. There is therefore the possibility of Christian influence even in historical writing by mestizos and Indians. The problem then is to separate the genuine pre-Hispanic record from the biases of the Spanish missionary-historians. For example, the Historia de los Indios de la Nueva España and the Memoriales of the Franciscan Benevente, Toribio de AMotolinia@ (1482-1568), contain a wealth of information on pre-Hispanic Aztec religion but, among other things, he translates tlamacazque, the title of Aztec temple priests, as Athe Devil=s Officials,@ indicating the extreme hostility of the Spanish missionaries towards native religion. Even Bernardino de Sahagún (1499-1590), considered the greatest of the Spanish ethnographers in New Spain, refused to translate the twenty Aztec hymns he collected because he considered them the work of the Devil (presumably the Christian Devil, the Aztecs didn=t have one until the Spaniards arrived). Still, the Spanish version of the Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España, the Nahuatl text of the Florentine Codex, and the earlier Primeros Memoriales.still provide a comprehensive coverage of Aztec life and culture.
The Monarquia Indiana of Juan de Torquemada (1564-1624) poses the problem of early plagiarism. We have few data on his life. Nevertheless he used native sources and his major work is therefore an important source of information on the origin and wars of western Indians as well as the themes of discovery, conquest, and conversions. His aims, if not his methods, were admirable enough: to give a true picture of the early state of the Indians, to describe and assess the influence of the Spaniards and the Franciscan missionaries in New Spain; and to evaluate the acculturation process that began with the arrival of the Spaniards.
It cannot be emphasized too strongly that the Spanish missionaries did not come to New Spain to learn about Aztec religion or Maya hieroglyphs but rather to destroy the native religion and, in effect, commit cultural genocide on an entire people. This becomes most clear in such works as the Historia eclesiastica of Jeronimo de Mendieta (1528-1604). Like other Spanish missionaries Mendieta=s mission in life was to convert the Indians of New Spain to Christianity. In the Prologue to Book II he tells us that the Indians were somewhat less than human. However much we may abhor the Aztec practice of human sacrifice or denigrate Mesoamerican religious beliefs as mere superstition they pale into insignificance besides the atrocities committed by the Spaniards against the Indians.
