Aztec Latin

Download or read book Aztec Latin written by Andrew Laird and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024-03-29 with total page 505 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Soon after the fall of the Aztec empire in 1521, missionaries began teaching Latin to native youths in Mexico. This initiative was intended to train indigenous students for positions of leadership, but it led some of them to produce significant writings of their own in Latin, and to translate a wide range of literature, including Aesop's fables, into their native language. Aztec Latin reveals the full extent to which the first Mexican authors mastered and made use of European learning and provides a timely reassessment of what those indigenous authors really achieved.