Mesoamerican Voices: Native Language Writings from Colonial Mexico, Yucatan, and Guatemala

by Matthew Restall (Editor), Lisa Sousa (Editor), Kevin Terraciano (Editor)

Translated into English, these texts were written from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries by Nahuas from central Mexico, Mixtecs from Oaxaca, Maya from Yucatan, and other groups from Mexico and Guatemala. This collection provides college teachers and students access to important new sources for the history of Latin America and Native Americans. It is the first to present the translated writings of so many native groups and to address such a variety of topics, including conquest, government, land, household, society, gender, religion, writing, law, crime, and morality.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Indigenous

264 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 2005

About the author

Matthew Restall is a historian of Colonial Latin America. He is an ethnohistorian and a scholar of conquest, colonization, and the African diaspora in the Americas. He is currently Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Latin American History and Anthropology, and Director of Latin American Studies, at the Pennsylvania State University. He is President of the American Society for Ethnohistory, a former editor of Ethnohistory journal, a senior editor of the Hispanic American Historical Review, editor of the book series Latin American Originals, and co-editor of the Cambridge Latin American Studies book series.

Reviews

[Kari Short · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this book as it gives multiple native accounts of pre and post conquest Mesoamerica. Every page is fascinating, although the conquest chapters are quite brutal to read.