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We People Here
Nahuatl Accounts of The Conquest of Mexico
Repertorium Columbianum
Edited by James Lockhart
Imprint: Wipf and Stock
Historians are concerned today that the Spaniards' early accounts of their first experiences with the Indians in the Americas should be balanced with accounts from the Indian perspective. 'We People Here' reflects that concern, bringing together important and revealing documents written in the Nahuatl language in sixteenth-century Mexico. James Lockhart's superior translation combines contemporary English with the most up-to-date, nuanced understanding of Nahuatl grammar and meaning. The foremost Nahuatl conquest account is Book Twelve of the Florentine Codex. In this monumental work - volume 1 of a series, produced by U.C.L.A's Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, called the 'Repertorium Columbianum' - Fray Bernardino de Sahagun commissioned Nahuas to collect and record in their own language accounts of the conquest of Mexico; he then added a parallel Spanish account that is part summary, part elaboration of the Nahuatl. Here, the Nahuatl and Spanish texts are together in one volume with en face English translations and reproductions of the copious illustrations from the Codex. Also included are five other Nahua conquest texts. Lockhart's introduction discusses each one individually, placing the narratives in context.
James Lockhart is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, Los Angeles. His most recent book is 'The Nahuas After the Conquest' (1992).
"This is an excellent compilation of several primary sources which have been brought together, transcribed, translated, dated, and analyzed to bring into clearer focus the attitudes of the indigenous people of Central Mexico during the latter half of the sixteenth century....This work will certainly be of great value to the neophyte and to the experienced scholar in Nahuatl culture and philology."
Gloria S. Melendez, Brigham Young University