The Hispanic Monarchy and Nahuatl

As you know, I love Nahuatl. I translate it, teach it, write original work in it.

Here’s something you probably didn’t know: the huge influence that Nahuatl had all over what is now Mexico and Central America is not just due to the expansion of the Triple Alliance (“Aztec Empire”). Nor can it be fully explained by the elevated status of Spain’s Nahuatl-speaking allies, the Tlaxcaltecah, despite how key that indigenous nation was in the establishment of multiple settlements in the northernmost extremes of New Spain.

No, a third nation played a crucial role in Nahuatl’s post-conquest spread.

Spain.

To understand the conditions that led to this linguistic policy, let’s consider the Colegio de Santa Cruz. Established by Franciscans in August of 1533 — built in Tlatelolco, on the site of a former Mexica calmecac or aristocratic school — this was first European university in the Americas. Its goal was to prepare young indigenous men for the priesthood, and students were instrumental in the ethnographic work of Bernardino de Sahagún as he sought to preserve what he could of Nahua (Aztec) culture in writing.

At the college, priests taught in three languages: Spanish, Nahuatl and Latin. During the 70 years it existed, the institution produced multilingual indigenous thinkers who went on to shape the religious, intellectual and social spheres of New Spain. Andrés de Olmos is a perfect example: that graduate published the first grammar of Nahuatl in 1547, a…