Point South Mexico - Real Estate and Lifestyle Magazine

The term Native American literature describes both oral and written compositions by indigenous peoples of the Americas. Only recently has this form of literature been recognized and deemed worthy of serious study. The former inaccessibility of many of these texts, the difficulty of translation and interpretation of native languages, and European bias against native traditions in general, prevented or delayed the recognition of these compositions as genuine literature. With the re-emergence of Indian pride and the late resuscitation of cultural and linguistic traditions this picture is changing rapidly.

Hernan Cortes is credited with the "Conquest" of Mexico; and yet no statues or other memorials have been erected to celebrate his achievement. The last Aztec king, Cuauhtémoc, whom Cortes captured, tortured, then later murdered, is even today honored above Cortes. Almost overnight, Cortes destroyed an entire civilization and set the stage for centuries of oppression of the indigenous people of Mexico. Nevertheless, he still has his admirers, who see in him a rather sympathetic, badly misunderstood man, who had the best interests of the native at heart.

Everybody knows that "history" takes place in the past. But is it that simple? Whether you recall a recent event in your life or read an ancient history book your experience is the same in that it all takes place in the present moment. This problem of the historical past has given rise to a complex philosophy of history. Historians and philosophers differ widely in their respective concepts.

Spanish is the official language of Mexico but even after more than 500 years of occupation it has still not replaced all the Indian languages once spoken throughout the Republic. Even the Castilian form of the language brought by the Conquistadores from Spain has been greatly influenced by the inclusion of many loan words from Nahuatl and other indigenous languages. The name Mexico comes from Mexica, the original name of the wandering band of nomads who founded the city of Mexico-Tenochtitlan (ca. A.D. 1325) and later became known as the Aztecs. In that sense the true Mexican language is Nahuatl as spoken by the Aztecs at the time of the Spanish Conquest in 1521.

In this series "What is History?" we looked at some of the philosophical and practical problems historians face in the writing of history. Speculative theories include religious and secular approaches: in the former, history is seen as a process with a divine purpose or master plan; the latter involves a "scientific" method of analysis. The current trend is toward a more critical approach, in which the historian focuses on specific, presumably unrepeatable, events. However, professional historians sometimes seem to raise more questions than they answer. Is the "scientific method" really applicable to human behavior, which at times seems quite unpredictable? How objective can or should a historian be? How selective in the choice of subject matter? What is a historical "fact?" How much of the story line in historical writing is due to the subjective interpretation or imaginative reconstruction of the writer?