Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs

by Camilla Townsend

Today, more than a million Mexicans still speak Nahuatl. Among them are those who are promoting scholarship in Nahuatl; they have even written a Nahuatl-Nahuatl dictionary, for instance. They do not want all work with Nahuatl texts to have as the only goal translation into a European language. They prefer to participate in creative and critical thinking in terms their own language allows for. Among the Nahuatl speakers there are not only scholars but also artists and writers. They have published plays, stories, and books, some written entirely in their own language, some with Spanish text as well. They write in workshops, and they write alone; they paint on traditional maguey-plant paper, or they type at keyboards, as they choose. Perhaps, say the poets, given all the changes, we have now embarked on life under the Sixth Sun.6