Nahuatl

The essential guide to the world of Aztec mythology, based on Nahuatl-language sources that challenge the colonial history passed down to us by the Spanish.

Who were the poets of Mexico in the days of Aztec splendor? Here, Miguel Lon-Portilla presents biographies of fifteen composers of Nahuatl verse–fourteen men and one woman–and analyzes their poetry, reproduced here in both Nahuatl and English.

Testaments written in their own language, Nahuatl, have been crucial for reconstructing the everyday life of the indigenous people of central Mexico after Spanish contact. Those published to date have largely been from the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.