Mexican literature -- Translations into English; Mexican prose literature
In this year of 1589, in which peace was arranged, Santa María del Rio
was founded by Guachichiles and Otomis on lands of the Hacienda of
Villela and at a place called San Diego de Atotonilco. Of the villages
of our State, this one and Tierra Nueva count among their founders
individuals of Otomi stock. The other colonies established were formed
with Indians brought from Tlaxcala, either because that city was
populous, or because of its relative culture, or--what is more
probable--because of its unshakeable loyalty to the Spaniards. It is
asserted that four hundred families set out from the ancient republic
for these parts, by order of the Viceroy, Don Luis de Velasco II (1591),
and with the aid of Friar Jerónimo Mendieta. Friars Ignacio de Cardenas
and Jeronimo de Zárate brought them and distributed them in
Tlaxcalilla--on the outskirts of this city of San Luis, close by the
congregation of Santiago, which was of Guachichiles--in San Miguel,
Mexquitic, Venado, San Andrés, Colotlan, and Saltillo. It can easily be
believed that these colonists would not readily consent to abandon their
soil and come to such a distance to serve as a protection against
barbarians and as a guarantee of their obedience. Far from it; they
stipulated that they should enjoy the same privileges as if they were
noble-born Castillians; that they should go on horse and bear arms; and
that their towns, in which no Spaniards were to live, should measure
three leagues on each side.
ANDRES DE OLMOS.
God, who holds aloft with his right hand a torch to light the way of his
creatures and to fructify, in the very field of death, the germs of
life; behind the bearded divinities with dress of steel and armed with
thunderbolts; from the region of light, the east, that they might anoint
with the oil of charity, the victims of greed, and resuscitate for
Heaven those dead for the world, sent the friars, shorn and shaven,
unshod, clad in sackcloth, with no shield but their faith, with no
weapon but the Gospel. Among these was that notable man, who wandered
through the whole Huasteca, while the Guachichiles still obstinately
fought their fierce battles; so wise was he that, besides his
miracle-play of _The Last Judgment_ and Conversations, Sermons, and
Tractates, all written in Aztec, he left grammars and vocabularies of
that language and of the Totonaco and Huastec, as well as many other
books for the instruction and admiration of missionaries, philologists
and historians; so poor, that, when he died, there was nought but a
rosary, some beads, a _disciplina_[7] and a _cilicio_,[8] left to his
hosts in token of gratitude; so temperate, that he did not in the least
seek those things which the appetite naturally desires, nor took
pleasure in them, but ate whatever was placed before him, although bad
in savor and smell; so strong that, after bearing a heavy weight of
years, going on foot through wastes and wilds, in a trying climate,
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