La evangelización en náhuatl en la época colonial: documentos de la Audiencia de Guadalajara

Abstract

Rosa Yáñez Rosales examines several documents in order to understand the process by which Nahuatl was used to propagate the Catholic religion in the territory that belonged to the obispado of Guadalajara. She considers this situation to have been the result of the choice to use Nahuatl for both administrative and evangelical endeavors. Aware of the high diversity of languages spoken in this area, she recognizes the great difficulties that the clergy had to overcome. She presents us with an analysis based on an examination of Cédulas, Nombramientos de catedráticos, Certificaciones, and Nombramientos de padres, which shows the importance that the priests’ knowledge of Nahuatl had during the Colonia, even in places where Nahuatl was neither the main nor the only language spoken. This is why, she adds, that in order to get a better understanding of the situation as a whole, the search for documents in other indigenous languages should be continued.