Translated Christianities. Mark Z. Christensen
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that such assistants “correct for us the incongruities we express in the sermons or write in the catechisms.”19 In his 1560s Coloquios y doctrina cristiana, Sahagún gives credit to the Nahuas Antonio Valeriano, Alonso Vegerano, Martín Jacobita, and Andrés Leonardo for their assistance.20 Fray Juan Bautista also recognized the native assistants that both he and Molina used to compose their works.21 The situation in Yucatan was similar, where one Maya assistant, Gaspar Antonio Chi, stated, “[I] have taught the said friars... the language of these natives, which I interpret to them... and I have written sermons for them in the language to preach to the said natives.”22
But the contributions of natives increasingly came under fire as the colonial period progressed and as precontact religious practices continued to persist in a Christian society. The First Mexican Provincial Council of 1555 claimed that due to the errors natives commit when translating religious texts and the misunderstandings conveyed, they were no longer allowed to translate or possess native-language sermons. If natives were to be given such texts, the texts themselves had to bear the signature of the ecclesiastic who gave it to them.23 The council then stipulated that native-language religious texts required the approval of ecclesiastical authorities, who would examine the text for mistakes to avoid “great dangers and errors in the mysteries of the Faith.”24 The increasing scrutiny of texts and suspicion of natives and their “conversion” to the Faith, let alone their translation abilities, led to a drastic decrease in their recognition as assistants and authors by the end of the sixteenth century.
Moreover, such factors combined with the scrutinizing conservatism promoted by the Council of Trent to erode the support for the training of native assistants in schools, such as the College of Tlatelolco, and the production of native-language religious texts. Whereas the eloquence and native rhetoric of many sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century printed texts betray the contributions of native assistants, the increasingly shortened and simplified texts published in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries suggest a decline in native-ecclesiastic collaboration. Regardless of such a decline, we may well suspect that oftentimes native assistants continued to work behind the scenes throughout the colonial period to some degree or another. In many cases, a scenario proposed by James Lockhart with regards to the composition of Nahuatl plays likely occurred among other texts, where a Spanish ecclesiastic would write the text in Spanish and then give the text to a native assistant “to translate and realize as he saw fit” without ever looking at it again.25
In other cases, natives autonomously created and composed the contents of their own texts. As mentioned, some of the natives trained in the church schools left to become fiscales and maestros in their own towns. Due to their small numbers vis-à-vis the native population, ecclesiastics relied heavily on these indigenous assistants, particularly in Yucatan.26 The role of fiscales and maestros as surrogate priests granted them a variety of duties that ranged from teaching the doctrine to assisting the dying prepare for death to recording the names of those absent from mass. To assist them in fulfilling such responsibilities, they oftentimes employed Nahuatl and Maya religious texts. Some used printed works; others, although technically forbidden to do so, made their own. When the latter occurred, the doctrinal accuracy of the text depended on the training, interest, and personal preferences of the native author, and this made ecclesiastical authorities nervous.
Although many indigenous authors composed texts that remained within the lines of orthodoxy, others crossed these lines. In recent years scholars have increasingly uncovered native-authored religious texts that represented a form of Christianity that incorporated the natives’ preexisting beliefs with those of their European colonizers.27 Nahua-authored religious plays could alter biblical stories through their adoption of preexisting religious themes, doctrinas could contain heresies, and sermons could take great liberties with Christian doctrine. In a word, in some cases what seemed most important for Nahua and Maya authors was not adhering to doctrinal accuracy but creating a text that conveyed its teachings in ways most familiar and accepted by their native audience. Although ecclesiastics such as Sahagún, fray Diego de Landa, Sánchez de Aguilar, fray Juan Coronel, Hernando Ruiz de Alarcón, Juan Gutiérrez, and many others continued to find and confiscate such texts, they continued in production throughout the colonial period (and beyond!) and contributed to the various Christian messages prescribed and preached.28
To be sure, understanding the authors of native-language religious texts assists in understanding the varied content and even orthodoxy of their messages. Yet the texts also provide a better understanding for how Nahua and Maya culture affected the transmission of Christianity. Throughout this book the presentation of Christian doctrine in religious texts betrays their audiences. Divine beings speak in a Nahuatl or Maya rhetoric; the individuals and settings of traditional moralistic stories become localized to central Mexican or Yucatecan surroundings; native epithets and deities are attached to Christian figures. Above all, the worldview of the Nahuas and Mayas continuously influenced the Christian message.29 Admittedly, such influences are generally more evident in texts produced earlier in the colonial period. Yet all Nahuatl and Maya religious texts translated here, to one degree or another, reflect the culture for which they were intended.
I have attempted to provide a smattering of religious texts that not only represents popular genres but also illustrates their diversity and the range of orthodoxy their messages provided. In exploring these messages, the following examples expose the influence of native and European cultures on the content of the texts themselves. Chapter 1 provides an example of a Nahuatl sermon authored by natives without the direct supervision of ecclesiastical authorities. The sermon is an excellent example of how religiously trained Nahuas could modify ancient Christian legends to accommodate a native audience. Chapter 2 reveals a similar situation, but for Yucatan through a variety of Maya Christian tales. The remaining three chapters provide examples of common texts and themes: chapter 3 provides translations of a wide variety of texts meant to instruct on the sacrament of baptism, chapter 4 contains Catholic and Methodist catechisms, and chapter 5 deals with confessional manuals. Throughout these chapters the variation among the texts and the diverse messages and concerns they betray become evident to illustrate the rich and assorted instruction available to natives through the translated Christianities of Nahuatl and Maya religious texts.
1. Sánchez de Aguilar, Informe contra idolorum, 181.
2. Some English translations would be Alva, Guide to Confession; Burkhart, Holy Wednesday; Burkhart, Before Guadalupe; Burkhart and Sell, Nahuatl Theater; Christensen, Nahua and Maya Catholicisms; Christensen, “Tales of Two Cultures”; and Christensen, “Nahuatl in Evangelization.” For Maya, see Hanks, Converting Words. Gretchen Whalen has done significant work on Maya religious texts. In particular, see her “Annotated Translation.” For English publications of the Chilam Balams, see chapter