Synopses & Reviews
During the first two decades following the Mexican Revolution, children in the country gained unprecedented consideration as viable cultural critics, social actors, and subjects of reform. Not only did they become central to the reform agenda of the revolutionary nationalist government; they were also the beneficiaries of the largest percentage of the national budget.
While most historical accounts of postrevolutionary Mexico omit discussion of how children themselves experienced and perceived the sudden onslaught of resources and attention, Elena Jackson Albarrand#225;n, inand#160;Seen and Heard in Mexico, places childrenand#8217;s voices at the center of her analysis. Albarrand#225;n draws on archived records of childrenand#8217;s experiences in the form of letters, stories, scripts, drawings, interviews, presentations, and homework assignments to explore how Mexican childhood, despite the hopeful visions of revolutionary ideologues, was not a uniform experience set against the monolithic backdrop of cultural nationalism, but rather was varied and uneven. Moving children from the aesthetic to the political realm, Albarrand#225;n situates them in their rightful place at the center of Mexicoand#8217;s revolutionary narrative by examining the avenues through which children contributed to ideas about citizenship and nation.
and#160;
Review
"Here we have a fascinating glimpse of a Nahua historian's version of a well-known conquest narrative, infusing it with detail from a more local, indigenous perspective, and informed by hindsight. Chimalpahin's Conquest is a significant contribution to the growing literature on the Conquest of Mexico."Kevin Terraciano, University of California, Los Angeles
Review
"Chimalpahin's Conquest highlights the multi-ethnic voices of the colonial era in one text, forcing one to move beyond the 'vision of the vanquished' and some of the other 'myths of the conquest' to see indigenous people as conquerors in their own right."Jason Dyck, Histoire sociale / Social History
Review
"This book will be of great value to scholars of the conquest of Mexico, colonial Latin America, and early modern Spanish and Mexican historiography. . . . They have done justice to the complexity and novelty of Chimalpahin's hybrid narrative while making it accessible to an English-speaking audience."Glen Carman, Bulletin of Spanish Studies: Hispanic Studies and Researches on Spain, Portugal and Latin America
Review
andldquo;[
Seen and Heard in Mexico] skillfully weaves together a variety of complex and significant threads while keeping at its center the important topic of the construction of childhood as a central component of postrevolutionary citizenship and nationalism.andrdquo;andmdash;John Lear, professor of history at the University of Puget Sound and author of
Workers, Neighbors, and Citizens: The Revolution in Mexico Cityand#160;
Synopsis
This volume presents the story of Hernando Cortés's conquest of Mexico, as recounted by a contemporary Spanish historian and edited by Mexico's premier Nahua historian.
Francisco López de Gómara's monumental Historia de las Indias y Conquista de México was published in 1552 to instant success. Despite being banned from the Americas by Prince Philip of Spain, La conquista fell into the hands of the seventeenth-century Nahua historian Chimalpahin, who took it upon himself to make a copy of the tome. As he copied, Chimalpahin rewrote large sections of La conquista, adding information about Emperor Moctezuma and other key indigenous people who participated in those first encounters.
Chialpahin's Conquest is thus not only the first complete modern English translation of López de Gómara's La conquista, an invaluable source in itself of information about the conquest and native peoples; it also adds Chimalpahin's unique perspective of Nahua culture to what has traditionally been a very Hispanic portrayal of the conquest.
Synopsis
This volume presents the story of Hernando Cortes's conquest of Mexico, as recounted by a contemporary Spanish historian and edited by Mexico's premier Nahua historian.
Francisco Lopez de Gomara's monumental Historia de las Indias y Conquista de Mexico was published in 1552 to instant success. Despite being banned from the Americas by Prince Philip of Spain, La conquista fell into the hands of the seventeenth-century Nahua historian Chimalpahin, who took it upon himself to make a copy of the tome. As he copied, Chimalpahin rewrote large sections of La conquista, adding information about Emperor Moctezuma and other key indigenous people who participated in those first encounters.
Chialpahin's Conquest is thus not only the first complete modern English translation of Lopez de Gomara's La conquista, an invaluable source in itself of information about the conquest and native peoples; it also adds Chimalpahin's unique perspective of Nahua culture to what has traditionally been a very Hispanic portrayal of the conquest.
"
About the Author
Susan Schroeder is the Scholes Professor of Colonial Latin American History at Tulane. Anne J. Cruz is Professor of Spanish at the University of Miami. Cristián Roa-de-la-Carrera is Associate Professor of Spanish and Latin American and Latino Studies at the University of Illinois. David E. Tavárez is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Vassar College.