Foods of the Americas: Amaranth, the Outlaw Grain, by Chola Con Chelo

Fascinating read on how it came to be that a food so nutritious to Mesoamerican peoples could be so dangerous that it was outlawed, especially since it helped form the "near-perfect core" of their diet. I think that all of the reasons provided below are mutually consistent in explaining why it was banned, particularly considering the end-goal of weakening native peoples so that they could be conquered and colonized.

If you've not tasted it, it's delicious. You find it in some cereals in some stores. I like it in my smoothies. I've eaten it in mole in Mexico, too. I was not aware of any of these aspects of its history, however, that I indeed find intriguing. 

-Angela Valenzuela

Foods of the Americas: Amaranth, the Outlaw Grain

By Chola con Chelo | Nov. 18, 2017

Huaútli is the Aztec name for a plant so important to the people, it was banned by the invading Spanish Empire led by Hernán Cortez and the Catholic Church in 1519.

Today huaútli is most commonly known as amaranth, a super-food gaining worldwide recognition as a high-protein plant edible that could easily figure into the solution for world hunger. Although not considered a grain, the tiny amaranth seeds contain eight to nine grams of protein in a one cup serving, offering a nutritionally complete plant food that has all the essential amino acids needed by the human body, without gluten.

Together with corn, beans and chia, amaranth was a key part of the near-perfect core diet of Mesoamerican Indian civilizations, and a tribute item demanded by the Aztecs. But the invading conquerors prohibited its cultivation and consumption calling it an ungodly pagan food, something full of sin. So for hundreds of years under the rule of Spain, amaranth all but disappeared from the face of the earth except in the highlands of Oaxaca and to the south among the Mayan people where its cultivation most probably began some 10,000 years ago.

Amaranth was a primary crop not only important as food, but central to the spiritual and ritual life of Mesoamerican indigenous civilizations; its precious seeds and leaves were nutritious and therapeutic; it was an offering to the gods as well as the ingredient used by midwives to bathe newborn babies; it was mixed into a paste and transformed into miniature reproductions of the child’s future attributes: a bow, an arrow, the hunter’s instruments; or perhaps a flower or an animal spirit-guide. Amaranth was not only food and medicine for the body it was also valued as a divine plant.

Prized as a gourmet food, amaranth was traditionally prepared like corn: cooked, popped or ground into a flour masa for tortillas, tamales and atolli (atole), a traditional hot beverage.

Atolli or Atole, a traditional Mexican hot beverage, can be made of amaranth

But more importantly, it was used in religious rituals offered to certain deities, as a dish called tzoali, a delicacy of popped amaranth and sweet magüey blue agave syrup or honey, mixed together and shaped. Today those same tzoali are called alegrías and can be found in bakeries and stores throughout Mexico and in the Southwestern United States, or anywhere Mexican culture and cuisine flourish.

Today tzoali are called ‘alegrías’, meaning joy or happiness

Yet when Spain invaded the Americas, they soon criminalized the cultivation of amaranth, as they did with the quinoa plant in South America. In doing so they banned the cultivation of one the world’s best sources of plant protein. The Spanish Empire imposed the most cruel and uncompromising punishments for growing huaútli, including cutting off the hands of those who dared to plant it.

Cutting off the hands of those who dared to plant it

So why did this beautiful nutritious and mystical plant elicit such a savage response from the invaders? This atrocity was most likely triggered by the importance of amaranth both in the people’s diet and in their spiritual life, a plant rightly held in high esteem.

Chalchiutlicue, Aztec Goddess of Waters and Purifier of Newborn Babies

Upon their arrival, the Catholic priests were horrified to find that amaranth was considered a deity and used in religious ceremonial rituals. It was consumed and mixed, according to some sources, with the blood of people who were sacrificed, and was perhaps a tad too close to the religious ceremonial ritual of the holy Eucharist, the Catholic ritual that consecrates the body and blood of Christ and is also eaten. But the Eucharist is of course not considered savagery by the church. To the contrary, it is considered a blessed sacrament.

Mexica Aztec Warriors ate amaranth

As many scholars have noted, amaranth was an important part of the diet of warriors as well as a sacred plant that came into the cross-hairs of the Church’s war against paganism. So the more likely truth is that the criminalization of amaranth was both a military strategy intended to weaken the Aztec people allowing for an easier conquest. It was also a brutal tactic used by Catholic Church to eliminate any practices or evidence of an indigenous religion.

Like all warriors, the Mexica Eagle Guild Warriors ate amaranth and were responsible for fighting off and killing about 80% of the Spanish invaders who died in battle, despite their iron swords and their use of horses and dogs as weapons of war. So it was urgent for the Empire and the Church to weaken and crush the masses of people and their warriors by any

means necessary.

Despite its near extinction, today’s amaranth, the hardy survivor huaútli, can be found in contemporary cooking from granola to pancakes and is once again taking it’s place as an important plant food in defiance of its illicit past.

Diverse varieties of amaranth were cultivated all the way to the lands of the Inca people in the South American Andes, where it is consumed to this day. High in protein and the essential amino acid, lysine, amaranth found its way to Europe and is even consumed in India where it is known as rajeera, or the king’s grain.

How ironic that this offering of forbidden toasted amaranth seeds, held together by the sweetness of agave nectar and honey, made round in the shape of the sun and the circle of life, should survive to be called alegría, happiness or joy. No blood this time. Plenty of that was spilled by the Spanish invaders.

From Mesoamerica to East of The L.A. River, from street vendors to neighborhood mercados, bakeries and marketas you will find amaranth sold as the popular treat called alegría, the Spanish word for happiness or joy.

WRITTEN BY María Elena Gaitán (Chola Con Cello) writes about her obsessions, musings and rants from the heart of the universe, East of the Los Angeles River. This is first in a series about the global contribution, politics and cultural impact of Pre-Columbian foods. Thank you for following.

Small Pox, Historical Memory, and Divergent World Views: A Must-Read in The Time of #Covid19

Here is a definite must-read in the time of #Covid19, written by Los Angeles Times staff writer, Carolina A. Miranda.

Dating back to 1576, the "Florentine Codex" was co-constructed by the conquering and colonizing Spanish missionaries in Tenochtitlan (Mexico City today). 

The "lead editor," if you will, was a Franciscan Friar named Bernardino de Sahagún.  He, along with the "NextGen," post-Spanish-Invasion Mexica (Aztec) students of Tlatelolco in Tenochtitlan, generated this masterful 2,000-page tome.  With it, the students not only chronicled, but also interpreted, their own history and culture—motivated by the specter of annihilation brought on by the smallpox epidemic at the time.

Written in Nahuatl and Spanish in such a way that honored two distinct world views,  the "viruela," or small pox, was interpreted in dramatically different ways:

Dufendach says that Spanish texts frequently frame the smallpox pandemics as an act of God. “Sahagún says in the Codex, these people have diminished because of the plagues that God sends them,” she explains. 

Whereas the Nahua texts attribute the pandemics to the indigenous concept of tlazolli. “It’s this invasion of filth that has caused the disruption of their entire society,” she explains. “It was not just the war-time invasion but a moral invasion.”

At the end of this piece, Miranda considers the deep introspection that the writers of the Florentine Index must have experienced: They saw the world ending as they knew it, and they tasked themselves with chronicling "the breadth of Nahua life."  

Similarly, for us in this moment of quarantine, it's important and healthy to ask ourselves about "the most important things we could be doing.”  At this precise moment, I am pleased to be both blogging and sharing with you these most profound, encouraging texts I've read of late.  

Not only will this all eventually pass, but we can take this opportunity to engender new ways of knowing and being in the world—ways that celebrate and honor our individual and shared histories, languages, cultures, and identities.  Thanks to Juan Tejeda for sharing.

-Angela Valenzuela

How a vital record of Mexican indigenous life was created under quarantine

By CAROLINA A. MIRANDA, STAFF WRITER 

MARCH 26, 2020

5 AM

It is the middle of a plague — “a pestilence so great and universal, that already it has been three months since it started, and many have died and many more continue to die.”

This does little to stop a group of scholars who have sealed themselves off from the world in a Mexico City convent, where they toil on a series of volumes devoted to indigenous knowledge.

He wrote those words in 1576.

Almost 500 years later, they couldn’t be more resonant.

Sahagún’s potent descriptions of a terrible plague are tucked into a colonial encyclopedia created in the late 16th century by a group of indigenous scholars at the Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco.

“The General History of the Things of New Spain” — better known as the Florentine Codex — is a massive 2,000-page compendium of Nahua (a.k.a. Aztec) life in the Valley of Mexico, where Mexico City is now located. In both Spanish and Nahuatl (the Nahua language), the codex is composed of 12 handwritten books featuring almost 2,500 illustrations, which are bound into three massive volumes that now reside at the Laurentian Library in Florence, Italy.

The last two books were created during a smallpox pandemic. As the contagion took its toll and supply lines for pigments fray, color disappears from the illustrations partway through Book 11. By Book 12, it’s as if all life has been drained out of it.

“To read that and see it,” says Mesoamerican scholar Kim Richter of the Getty Research Institute, “we can empathize with this text in a very different way now.”

If before the plague their goal was to create a historical record, it’s now become a race against time and disease: The pandemic is claiming lives outside of their walls. They continue to work even as they run out of pigments to color the illustrations that will accompany their text. It is simply too risky to leave the safety of their cloister to go looking for supplies.

“I don’t know how long it will last or how much harm it will do,” writes Bernardino de Sahagún, the Franciscan friar in charge of the endeavor. “I don’t know what will be of this pestilence.”

In a world turned head over heels by the new coronavirus, it is instructive to look at another cataclysm: the Americas during the 16th century, when European colonization shattered the old indigenous order through war, settlement and, most notably, disease. And not just one disease but several. A lethal cocktail of smallpox, measles and influenza — European illnesses to which indigenous people had no immunity — that decimated populations all over the continent.

(A study published by scientists at University College London in 2018 estimates that 90% of indigenous populations throughout the Americas died from disease in the 16th century — so many it cooled Earth’s climate for a number of decades as untended fields were taken over by carbon dioxide-absorbing overgrowth. It’s an event referred to as “the Great Dying.”)

I buried more than 10,000 bodies, and at the end of the epidemic, I caught the illness and was very ill. 

BERNARDINO DE SAHAGÚN, FRANCISCAN FRIAR

In Mexico, this played out in a series of pandemics throughout the 16th century. The first, in 1520, came a year after explorer Hernán Cortés arrived on the shores of the Yucatán Peninsula.

“There came to be prevalent a great sickness, a plague,” reports Book 12 of the Florentine Codex on this terrible event. “There was indeed perishing; many indeed died of it. ... No longer could they move, no longer could they bestir themselves ... And when they bestirred themselves, much did they cry out.”

Similar pandemics struck in 1555 and 1576, the latter being the one that Sahagún refers to in the section in which he wrote: “Since the plague started until today ...the number of dead has increased; ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, seventy, eighty die everyday.”

A page from Book 12 of the Florentine Codex records an early smallpox pandemic in colonial Mexico.

(Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana / By permission of MiBACT)

An illustrated detail shows a healer caring for patients lying on petates.

(Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana / By permission of MiBACT)

If the Florentine Codex marks the creation of a historical artifact — and a brilliant, richly layered work of art — in the face of certain death, it is also an object that speaks to survival and resilience.

It is the story of a group of authors determined to record their history even as fatal illness strikes just beyond their walls.

“They would not have seen their mothers, their fathers, their sisters and their brothers,” says Diana Magaloni, author of “The Colors of the New World: Artists, materials, and the Creation of the Florentine Codex.” “And it was so that the memory of them would continue.”

It is also the story of a book, and the knowledge contained within it, that, against all odds, endured the ravages of history. Shortly after it was created it was sent to Spain, after which its whereabouts remained uncertain for centuries. It reemerged in Italy in the late 18th century — a time capsule of indigenous life, fully intact.

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“It’s a connection to that world — all the animals, all the beings,” says Magaloni, who is a deputy director at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. “It’s comprehensive knowledge. It’s something amazing.”

And it continuously reaches into the present.

This is partly because of the work of organizations like the Laurentian Library, which has lovingly preserved it, and the Getty Research Institute, which is currently funding a digitization effort that is creating a high-resolution scan of the codex, which it aims to put online by 2022 — with translations and tagged, searchable images.

But it has also remained alive through the work of scholars who have studied it for more than a century, and through the artists who have long been inspired by its virtuosity. (Over the last decade, volumes from the codex have been displayed around Los Angeles at the Getty Villa, the Getty Museum and the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.)

Los Angeles painter Sandy Rodriguez creates contemporary paintings using materials of pre-Columbian artists, such as cochineal and mineral oxides. She is a student of the codex and its artistic methodologies, and for a recent show at L.A.'s Charlie James Gallery, which focused on the stories of Central American children who have died while in the custody of U.S. immigration authorities, she gathered a group of poets to create work inspired by Book 12 of the Florentine Codex, which tells the story of the conquest.

“We talked about imagining being one of the tlacuilos [scribes], sequestered and writing your history,” she says, “not being able to go out and get your materials.”

By the time of the show’s March 7 closing, the severity of the coronavirus pandemic had become all too evident in the U.S. — and what had been an interesting historical exercise now had new meaning.

“It’s like we performed this contemporary history in this contemporary moment,” she says.

It’s a moment, Rodriguez says, that she is still trying to process.

It goes without saying that the “Historia General de las cosas de la Nueva España,” as the Florentine Codex was originally titled in Spanish, wasn’t created simply because the Franciscans were in love with Aztec learning. Sahagún conceived of it as an anthropological tool that could provide an understanding of indigenous belief systems, and therefore help facilitate the conversion of the Nahua to Christianity.

To this end, he recruited a group of young men from the Colegio de Santa Cruz to help him research, write and illustrate the epic undertaking.

The colegio had been established at the Convent of Santiago in Tlatelolco in 1536 as a place to acculturate the sons of indigenous nobility to European ways, instruct them in a variety of subjects, and prepare some of them for eventual priesthood and, therefore, further Christian proselytizing. These were the intellectual crème de la crème of early Mexican society and they learned to read and write in a variety of languages, including Spanish, Latin and Nahuatl. (Already Spanish friars had devised a system of writing the previously unwritten Nahuatl using the Latin alphabet.)

It is estimated that Sahagún began work on the project in the late 1540s, assembling draft manuscripts (such as the Códices Matritenses, which still survive) and attempting to devise a taxonomy for how the tome would be organized. In its format and its ambitious scope, it nods to the work of the ancient Roman scholar Pliny the Elder and his “Naturalis Historia” (“The Natural History”).

“It’s based on the concept of the European encyclopedia,” explains Richter. “But it’s focusing on the cultures of the Aztecs and written in the generation after the conquest of the Aztec Empire.”

Sahagún ultimately settled on a bilingual, two-column system, one written in Spanish, the other in Nahuatl, that would cover the breadth of Nahua life: landscape, minerals, animals, food, belief systems, history, art, architecture, social classes and more. There is even an entry on “malas mugeres” — “bad women,” to quote the early modern Spanish — or sex workers.

What makes the book so dynamic is that the codex isn’t mere observation. The indigenous scholars working on the project — Antonio Valeriano, Alonso Vegerano, Pedro de San Buenaventura, Martín Jacobita, Diego de Grado, Bonifacio Maximiliano and Mateo Severino, among others — were actively interviewing the communities from which they hailed.

“They are capturing what their elders are saying, but also their colonial reality,” says Rebecca Dufendach, a research specialist at the Getty Research Institute who has been working with the codex for a decade. “They are trying to capture this world of knowledge.”

A page from Book 11 of the Florentine Codex, about Mexico’s natural history, features a buoyant illustration of a peccary. Spanish text is on the left, Nahuatl on the right.

(Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana / By permission of MiBACT)

The Codex therefore reflects a distinct Nahua point of view — one that bears the imprint of people who had memory of a world before the arrival of the Spanish.

It is believed that the Nahuatl text was written first and the Spanish came after. “The Spanish is usually called a translation, but it’s more of an interpretation,” says Richter. “In some places, [Sahagún] leaves the Spanish out completely. At other times, he provides more interpretation.”

This means that the Florentine Codex isn’t simply a bilingual record of events, it’s a pair of world views, presented side by side.

Book 12, which focuses on the Spanish invasion, tells the story of the Matanza de Tóxcatl — known in English as the Massacre in the Great Temple, which took place in May 1520. In that event, Spanish soldiers massacred a group of indigenous nobles celebrating a religious ceremony at the Templo Mayor, an event whose brutality reverberated through the region.

“The Spanish text states very clearly: Here was this ritual that was happening and Pedro de Alvarado went in and killed innocent people,” says Richter. “They aren’t hiding it. But when you read the Nahua text, it’s a gruesome painful thing to read. Nahua is so poetic and it has certain repetitions. The cutting of the flesh and the cracking of bones and people trying to walk and their guts spilling.

“I get goose bumps thinking about it because it’s so awful.”

The first page of Book 12 of the Florentine Codex, showing the arrival of the Spanish to the Gulf of Mexico. 

(Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana / By permission of MiBACT)

These different worldviews are brought to bear in the sections that describe disease.

Dufendach says that Spanish texts frequently frame the smallpox pandemics as an act of God. “Sahagún says in the Codex, these people have diminished because of the plagues that God sends them,” she explains.

Whereas the Nahua texts attribute the pandemics to the indigenous concept of tlazolli. “It’s this invasion of filth that has caused the disruption of their entire society,” she explains. “It was not just the war-time invasion but a moral invasion.”

In many cases, the Nahuatl language had absorbed lone Spanish words to describe phenomena introduced by the Europeans — such as the word caballo, for horse. But Dufendach says the Codex never really embraces the use of viruela, the Spanish word for smallpox, in the portions that are written in Nahuatl.

“They are understanding it on their terms,” she says. “They are trying to describe it in the Nahua language.”

Disease shaped not just the ideas in the Florentine Codex, but its manufacture.

Sahagún interrupts an entry on Mexican road systems in Book 11 to write, in first person, about plagues past and present — including the one in 1555. “I buried more than 10,000 bodies,” he writes, “and at the end of the epidemic, I caught the illness and was very ill.”

In fact, it is partway through that book — about the natural world — in which color begins to disappear as the pandemic of 1576 begins to claim victims, disrupt supply lines and force its authors into quarantine.

Though it was set down on European wood-pulp paper, the pigments and other materials used for illustrations are almost entirely Nahua in origin: cochineal for red, indigo for blue, clays and orchid gums used to change tones and fix colors. Almost 500 years later, they remain in dazzling shape.

“What always strikes me is how crisp and how fresh these books look,” says Richter. “It’s so different when you hold the real thing in your hand. The colors, they look like they were painted yesterday.”

One of the three volumes of the Florentine Codex on view at the Getty Museum in the exhibition “Golden Kingdoms: Luxury and Legacy in the Ancient Americas,” which opened in the fall of 2017.

(J. Paul Getty Museum)

As they ran out of color, scribes used coded images to denote the tones of an object — say, placing a ladybug next to a flower to mark the red of its petals. They also reserved what pigments they had for the most important images.

Book 12, the final book, contains only three color illustrations: one in which Cortés and his men are seen entering the Valley of Mexico, featuring a landscape rendered in brilliant shades of Mayan blue and green. Another shows the moment in which a pair of indigenous armies have defeated the Spanish in battle. The last shows two Spanish soldiers casually disposing of the dead bodies of Moctezuma and Itzquauhtzin, the leaders of Tenochtitlán and Tlatelolco, respectively.

“They were saving their pigments for things that were meaningful,” says Magaloni. “The world of color has meaning for them.”

There are three illustrations on the page that features Moctezuma and Itzquauhtzin. Only the image of the fallen indigenous leaders receives color.

A detail from Book 12 shows Spaniards tossing the dead bodies of Moctezuma and Itzquauhtzin into a canal. The artists reserved scarce pigments for this important scene.

(Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana / By permission of MiBACT)

Little is known about the scholars who created the Florentine Codex or how they lived. Magaloni imagines a high degree of dedication — scholars attempting to put the world of their elders on paper, before it disappears — but also of deep introspection.

“It’s the opportunity to go inside ourselves and think about what we are doing,” she says, “to think about the most important things we could be doing.”

For Rodriguez, that means continuing to paint — much like the scribes of the 1570s.

“I’ve been burning my sage and my copal and asking for strength,” she says. “There would be no sanity to my world if I didn’t get up and read and then paint for a few hours.”

While others were out buying toilet paper, she was stocking up on her materials.

“I will have the supplies,” she says, “to tell the story of whatever goes down.”

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AZTEC BIBLIOGRAPHY by Dorinda Moreno

I am happy to re-post this Aztec Bibliography that I received from Chicana activist and writer Dorinda Moreno close to a decade ago.  It provides a list of primary and secondary sources.  I am interested in other bibliographies that provide additional sources, either primary of secondary, if anyone has one that they can share.  

I would be happy to post bibliographies of any other indigenous community, too.

The more common self-referent, by the way, is "Mexica," rather than "Aztec."  Mexico and Mexicans get their name from the Nahuatl-speaking Mexica.  And Nahuatl, like the Mexica people, is a language that is very much alive today. From a September 11, 2018 post to this blog:

According to Mexico's census bureau, Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Geografía (INEGI), in 2015,  25,694,928 people in Mexico, or 21.5% of Mexico's population, self-identified as indigenous, with well over 1.5 million speakers of Nahuatl, the language of the Mexicas, alone.  

Increasing numbers today live in the  U.S., as well.  It's really neat to read and learn about how very much our ancestors valued education; they read poetry and studied the classics of their own time.  They had schools and universities, even as parents and families, alongside communities (kalpullis, meaning coalitions of houses), always were recognized as their children's first teacher.  Respecting parents and elders and living a disciplined life and working hard and giving back to the community were core, fundamental values that helped you to live a good life and live peacefully in community and society,.

I have actually posted a number of items on Nahuatl and the Mexica to my blog over the years that you can peruse yourself here.  It's fun for me to re-read these items and to appreciate anew the value of having a blog. 😊

As we study, develop curriculum, engage in culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogies, and otherwise reconnect to our roots on this continent as the descendants of native peoples, such sources aid in the recovery of that history, knowledge, and culture that not surprisingly, resonate strongly with these same values to which we adhere today. 

Moreover, this process of recovery is so incredibly redemptive and healing of ourselves as individuals, communities, and of the planet, our Earth Mother.

We all need to build up our own personal libraries and secure these and other readings that intellectually stimulate our imaginations and deepen our sense of relatedness and being.

Many thanks again to Dorinda Moreno, for making this available.  

-Angela Valenzuela

Mexica or Aztec Teacher with his students.  Source:
https://tinyurl.com/y5n78cz

Aztec Bibliography

Primary Sources

Anonymous Conqueror; Marshall H. Saville, Trans. A Narrative of Some Things of New Spain and of the Great City of Temestitan MexicoTaxus Baccata Books: 2004. Reprint of 1917 translation with illustrations from 1556 edition, finally back in print for only $12.95!!

Anderson, Arthur J. O.; Charles E. Dibble. Florentine Codex, Second Edition Revised, in Thirteen Parts (13 Volumes). School of American Research & University of Utah: 1970/1978. F/None

Carvajal, Luis de, el Mozo. Seymour B. Liebman (translator & editor). The Enlightened. University of Miami: 1967. VG/No (The only extant text by a Jew in the Colonial period.)

Columbus, Christopher; Cecil Jane (translator). The Journal of Christopher Columbus. Bramhall House: 1960. VG/VG.

Cortes, Hernan. Irwin R. Blacker (intro & commentaries); Harry M. Rosen (editor). Conquest: Dispatches of Cortes from the New World. Grosset & Dunlap: 1962. TP-G

Cortes, Hernan. J Bayard Morris (translator & ed.). The Letters of Hernando Cortez 1519-1526 (The Argonaut Series). Robert M. McBride: 1929. VG/G (water staining to DJ)

de Landa, Diego; A. R. Pagden (translator). The Maya: Diego de Landa's Account of the Affairs of Yucatan. J. Philip O'Hara: 1975. (Mayan.) VG/VG

de Oviedo, Gonzalo Fernandez; Sterling A. Stoudemire (translator). Natural History of the West Indies (University of North Carolina Studies in the Romance Languages and Literatures, No. 32) University of North Carolina Press: 1959. TP/VG

Diaz, Bernal del Castillo. Genaro Garcia (editor), A. P. Maudslay (translator.) The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico 1517-1521. Farrar, Straus, and Cudahy: 1956. VG/No

Also have by Maudsaly & Garcia:TP "The True History of the Conquest of New Spain." And, Hakluyt Society: 1908. Five volumes, illustrated, one volume is box of maps. Ex-libris of Edward Lynam, map collector/editor, one-time secretary of Hakluyt Soc., British Museum curator (?), etc. VG (This is third copy, so one of others must go.)

Diaz, Bernal; J. M. Cohen (translator). The Conquest of New Spain. Penguin: 1963. TP-VG.

Duran, Fray Diego; Doris Heyden & Fernando Horcasitas (translators). The Aztecs: The History of the Indies of New Spain. Orion Press: 1964. VG/No

Also have:Univ. Oklahoma: 1994 (this includes all the original illustrations, complete text. The 1964 edition was a popular version, and so did not. This is a scholarly one, and also includes annotations, intro, etc.)

Duran, Fray Diego; translated & edited by Fernando Horcasitas and Doris Heyden. Book of the Gods and Rites and the Ancient Calendar. University of Oklahoma: 1973. TP-VG

Glubok, Shirley; Leslie Tillett. The Fall of the Aztecs: Illustrations by the Conquered, Text by the Conquerors. (Based on Bernal Diaz.) VG/No

Knab, T. J. (editor); Thelma D. Sullivan (translator.) A Scattering of Jades: Stories, Poems, and Prayers of the Aztecs. Simon & Schuster: 1994. TP-F

Las Casas, Bartolome de; edited & translated by Nigel Griffin. A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies. Penguin: 1992. TP-F

Leon-Portilla, Miguel. The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico. Beacon Press: 1962. TP-VG

Leon-Portilla, Miguel. Pre-Columbian Literatures of Mexico. University of Oklahoma: 1969. (Leon-Portilla has a lot of his own text in here, but about half of the book is composed of pre-columbian writings.) VG/VG

Ross, Kurt (ed.) Codex Mendoza: Aztec Manuscript. Miller Graphics: 1978. Color reproductions of all full pages of this codex, as well as many close-ups. Includes some translations of the Spanish written on the codex. VG/VG

Vespucci, Amerigo; Luciano Formissano (editor); David Jacobson (translator.) Letters from a New World: Amerigo Vespucci’s Discovery of America. Marsilio: 1992. (Unrelated to Aztecs.) F/VG

Zorita, Alonso de; Benjamin Keen (translator). Life and Labor in Ancient Mexico: The Brief and Summary Relation of the Lords of New Spain. Rutgers University: 1963. F/VG

The Aztecs

Adams, Richard E. W. Prehistoric Mesoamerica, Revised Edition. University of Oklahoma: 1991. F/F. Take to store?

Anawalt, Patricia Rieff. Indian Clothing Before Cortes: Mesoamerican Costumes from the Codices. University of Oklahoma Press: 1990. TP-VG.

Benson, Elizabeth P. & Elizabeth Hill Boone, editor. The Art and Iconography of Late Post-Classic Central Mexico: A Conference at Dumbarton Oaks October 22nd and 23rd, 1977. Dumbarton Oaks: 1982. F/None

Berdan, Frances F. The Aztecs of Central Mexico: An Imperial Society. Holt, Rinehart & Winston: 1982. TP-G. (dry but good sociological overview, good use of Nahuatl.)

Berlo, Janet Catherine. Art, Ideology and the City of Teotihuacan: A Symposium at Dumbarton Oaks 8th and 9th October 1988. Dumbarton Oaks: 1992. F/None

Bernal, Ignacio; translated by Willis Barnstone. Mexico Before Cortez: Art, History and Legend, Revised Edition. Anchor: 1975. MM-G

Berrin, Kathleen; Clara Millon, Rene Millon, Esther Pasztory, Thomas K. Seligman. Feathered Serpents and Flowering Trees: Reconstructing the Murals of Teotihuacan. Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco: 1988. Interesting account relating that the "official" discovery of these murals was prompted by looted pieces of them all of a sudden showing up in auctions. VG/none/signed

Blanton, Richard E.; Stephen A. Kowalewski; Gary Feinman; Jill Appel. Ancient Mesoamerica: A Comparison of Change in Three Regions. Cambridge University: 1981. TP-F Second edition, 1993. TP-G (very well done, with excellent bibliography.)

Boone, Elizabeth Hill. The Aztec Templo Mayor: A Symposium at Dumbarton Oaks, 8th and 9th October 1983. Dumbarton Oaks: 1987. F/none

Bray, Warwick. Everyday Life of the Aztecs. Dorset Press: 1968. F/F

Broda, Johanna; David Carrasco; Eduardo Matos Moctezuma. The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan: Center and Periphery in the Aztec World. University of California: 1987. TP-VG

Brundage, Burr Cartwright. The Fifth Sun: Aztec Gods, Aztec World. University of Texas: 1979. VG/G

Carrasco, David. City of Sacrifice: The Aztec Empire and the Role of Violence in Civilization. Beacon Press: 1999. F/F

Carrasco, David. Quetzalcoatl and the Irony of Empire: Myths and Prophecies in the Aztec Tradition. University of Chicago: 1992. TP-VG

Carrasco, David. The Tenochca Empire of Ancient Mexico: The Triple Alliance of Tenochtitlan, Tetzcoco, and Tlacopan. University of Oklahoma: 1999.

Caso, Alfonso. Illustrated by Miguel Covarrubias; Lowell Dunham (tranlsator.) The Aztecs: People of the Sun. University of Oklahoma: 1958. VG/VG

Clendinnen, Inga. Aztecs: An Interpretation. Cambridge University: 1991. BCE? VG/VG. (One of my favorites, has very lucid descriptions of life with some fresh & believable interpretations.)

Coe, Michael D Mexico, Third Edition. Thames & Hudson:1984. TP-G

Covarrubias, Miguel. Mexico South: The Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Alfred A. Knopf: 1946. VG/VG 1st ed.

Davies, Nigel. The Aztec Empire: The Toltec Resurgence. University of Oklahoma: 1987. F/F

Davies, Nigel. The Aztecs: A History. University of Oklahoma: 1980. TP-VG

Davies, Nigel. The Toltec Heritage: From the Fall of Tula to the Rise of Tenochtitlan. University of Oklahoma: 1980. F/VG

Driver, Harold E. The Americas on the Eve of Discovery. Prentice-Hall: 1964. TP-G.

Enciso, Jorge. Design Motifs of Ancient Mexico. Dover: 1947. TP-VG

Fastlicht, Samuel; Javier Romero. El Arte de las Mutilaciones Dentarias (Encyclopedia Mexicana de Arte #14). Ediciones Mexicanas: 1951. TP-VG

Furst, Jill Leslie McKeever. The Natural History of the Soul in Ancient Mexico Yale University: 1995. TP-F

Gillespie, Susan D. The Aztec Kings: The Construction of Rulership in Mexica History. University of Arizona: 1989. TP-F

Gillmor, Frances. Flute of the Smoking Mirror: A Portrait of Nezahualcoyotl, Poet-King of the Aztecs. University of Utah: 1949. TP-VG

Gillmor, Frances. The King Danced in the Marketplace. University of Utah: 1964. TP-VG

Hardoy, Jorge. Urban Planning in Pre-Columbian America. George Braziller: 1968. VG/no (Short monograph, but lots of excellent photos & drawings.)

Harvey, H. R. Land and Politics in the Valley of Mexico: A Two Thousand Year Perspective. University of New Mexico: 1991. F/No

Hassig, Ross. Aztec Warfare: Imperial Expansion and Political Control. University of Oklahoma: 1988. F/VG

Hassig, Ross. Time, History, and Belief in Aztec and Colonial Mexico. University of Texas: 2001. TP-F

Hassig, Ross. Trade, Tribute, and Transportation: The Sixteenth-Century Political Economy of the Valley of Mexico. University of Oklahoma: 1985. F/F

Hassig, Ross. War and Society in Ancient America. University of California: 1992. F/VG

Horcasitas, Fernando. The Aztecs Then and Now. Minutiae Mexicana: 1979. TP-G

Keen, Benjamin. The Aztec Image in Western Thought. Rutgers University: 1990. TP-VG

Leon-Portilla, Miguel. The Aztec Image of Self and Society : An Introduction to Nahua Culture. University of Utah: 1992. VG/VG

Leon-Portilla, Miguel. Aztec Thought and Culture: A Study of the Ancient Nahuatl Mind. University of Oklahoma: 1963. VG/VG

Lopez, Angel Raul. El Numero 13 en la Vida de los Aztecas. Costa-Amic: 1984. TP-VG

Millon, Rene. The Teotihuacan Map (Urbanization at Teotihuacan, Mexico, Volume 1). University of Texas: 1973. VG. Two parts, the second being a volume of bound maps with clear plastic overlays, and with a box of folded maps attached to the rear board.

Moctezuma, Eduardo Matos. The Great Temple of the Aztecs: Treasures of Tenochtitlan. Thames & Hudson: 1988. F/VG

Parsons, Jeffrey R.; Elizabeth Brumfiel; Mary H. Parsons; David J. Wilson; et al. Prehispanic Settlement Patterns in the Southern Valley of Mexico: The Chalco-Xochimilco Region. University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology: 1982. TP-VG

Peterson, Frederick. Ancient Mexico: An Introduction to the Pre-Hispanic Cultures. Capricorn: 1959. TP-G

Pohl, John M. D.; Angus McBride. Aztec, Mixtec and Zapotec Armies. Osprey: 1991. F

Powell, Guy E. Latest Aztec Discoveries. San Antonio: Naylor Co., 1967. VG/G. (Probably better shelved in fiction, as author appears to have discovered Aztlan in his backyard. Nevertheless... it does have map endpapers! Road trip!)

Schroeder, Susan. Chimalpahin and the Kingdoms of Chalco. University of Arizona: 1991. VG/No

Sejourne, Laurette. Burning Water: Thought and Religion in Ancient Mexico. Shambala: 1976. TP-VG

Soustelle, Jacques. Daily Life of the Aztecs on the Eve of the Spanish Conquest. Stanford: 1955/1961. TP-Fair.

Townsend, Richard F. The Aztecs, Revised Edition. Thames & Hudson: 2000. TP-F

Vaillant, George C. Artists and Craftsmen in Ancient Central America. American Museum of Natural History: 1945. TP-G

Vaillant, George C. Aztecs of Mexico: Origin, Rise and Fall of the Aztec Nation. American Museum of Natural History/Doubleday: 1950. VG/VG

Von Hagen, Victor W. The Aztec: Man and Tribe. Mentor: 1958. MM-VG

Von Hagen, Victor W. The Ancient Sun Kingdoms of the Americas: Aztec, Maya, Inca. World Publishing: 1961. VG/VG

Wauchope, Robert (general editor). Handbook of Middle American Indians (sixteen volumes plus supplements). University of Texas: 1964-1976, plus supplements. VG/G

Willey, Gordon R.; Jeremy A. Sabloff (introductions). Pre-Columbian Archaeology (Readings from Scientific American.) W. H. Freeman: 1980. TP-VG

Wolf, Eric. Sons of the Shaking Earth: The People of Mexico and Guartemala: Their Land, History, and Culture. University of Chicago: 1959. TP-VG (Covers prehistory through Colonial period.)

Wolf, Eric R. (editor). The Valley of Mexico: Studies in Pre-Hispanic Ecology and Society. University of New Mexico: 1976. F/G

The Conquest and Conquistadors

Christensen, Thomas & Carol (editors.) The Discovery of America & Other Myths: A New World Reader. Chronicle Books: 1992. TP-VG (Some very good essays.)

Day, Jane S.; foreword by Eduardo Matos Moctezuma. Aztec: The World of Moctezuma. Denver Museum of Natural History/Roberts Rinehart: 1992. Published in conjunction with exhibition, but not a catalogue per se. TP-VG

Eidsmoe, John. Columbus and Cortez, Conquerors for Christ. New Leaf Press: 1992. TP-VG. (poorly researched, hypocritical, but does remind us that Cortez was devout Catholic.)

Hanke, Lewis. The Spanish Struggle for Justice in the Conquest of America. Little, Brown: 1949/1965. TP-VG (excellent overview of legalistic concerns of Spaniards.)

Hassig, Ross. Mexico and the Spanish Conquest (Modern Wars in Perspective series). Longman: 1994. TP-VG

Horgan, Paul. Conquistadors in North American History. Fawcett: 1963. MM-VG

Padden, R. C. The Hummingbird and the Hawk: Conquest and Sovereignty in the Valley of Mexico, 1503-1541. Harper: 1967. TP-G

Pohl, John; Charles M. Robinson III. Aztecs & Conquistadores: The Spanish Invasion and the Collapse of the Aztec Empire. Osprey: 2005. F/F. (Light reading except for good military details.)

Prescott, William H. The Conquest of Mexico & The Conquest of Peru. Modern Library. VG/G

Stannard, David E. American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World. Oxford University: 1992. TP-VG

Thomas, Hugh. Conquest: Montezuma, Cortes, and the Fall of Old Mexico. Simon & Schuster: 1993. TP-VG

Thomas, Hugh. Who's Who of the Conquistadors. Cassell & Co.: 2000. F/F

Todorov, Tzvetan; Richard Howard (translator). The Conquest of America: The Question of the Other. Harper & Row: 1987. TP-G. (Perhaps the best interpretation I’ve read.)

Verrill, A. Hyatt. Great Conquerors of South and Central America. New Home Library: 1943. V/V (Dated, but good teen intro.)

Warren, J. Benedict. The Conquest of Michoacan: The Spanish Domination of the Tarascan Kingdom in Western Mexico, 1521-1530. University of Oklahoma: 1985. F/F

White, Jon Manchip. Cortes and the Downfall of the Aztec Empire: A Study in a Conflict of Cultures. Hamish Hamilton: 1971. HC-VG/no.

Wise, Terence; Angus McBride. The Conquistadors.

Miscellaneous Stuff (Colonial, Travelogues, Olmecs, Peopling of Americas, General Mesoamerican Interest)

Adams, Richard E. W. Prehistoric Mesoamerica. Little, Brown: 1977. VG/No.

Benson, Elizabeth P., editor. Death and the Afterlife in Pre-Columbian America: A Conference at Dumbarton Oaks October 27th, 1973. Dumbarton Oaks: 1975. F/None

Benson, Elizabeth P., editor. Mesoamerican Writing Systems: A Conference at Dumbarton Oaks October 30th and 31st, 1971. Dumbarton Oaks: 1973. F/None

Benson, Elizabeth P., editor. The Sea in the Pre-Columbian World: A Conference at Dumbarton Oaks October 26th and 27th, 1974. Dumbarton Oaks: 1977. F/None

Bernal, Ignacio. 100 Great Masterpieces of the Mexican National Museum of Anthropology. Harry N. Abrams: 1969. VG/G

Bernal, Ignacio. The Olmec World. University of California: 1976. TP-VG.

Bierhorst, John. The Mythology of Mexico and Central America. William Morrow: 1990. F/F (remainder)

Boone, Elizabeth Hill. Painted Architecture and Polychrome Monumental Sculpture in Mesoamerica: A Symposium at Dumbarton Oaks, 10th to 11th October 1981. Dumbarton Oaks: 1985. F/None

Boone, Elizabeth Hill; Tom Cummins. Native Traditions in the Postconquest World: A Symposium at Dumbarton Oaks, 2nd through 4th October 1992. Dumbarton Oaks: 1997. F/None

Butler, John W. Sketches of Mexico. Cincinnati: Cranston & Curts, 1894. VG/None. Son of missionary. Interesting history of Mexican race, as Butler lists several theories of the peopling of the Americas, including 6 theories that they originated from Europe, 4 theories of African origin (including Atlantis which theory is dealt with at length), and "at least six" theories of Asiatic origin.

Cervantes, Fernando. The Devil in the New World: The Impact of Diabolism in New Spain.

Clendinnen, Inga. Ambivalent Conquests: Maya and Spaniard in Yucatan, 1517-1570. Cambridge University: 1987. TP-VG

Coe, Michael D. Archaeological Mexico: A Traveler's Guide to Ancient Cities and Sacred Sites. Moon Travel Handbooks: 1998. TP-F

Coe, Michael D.; David Grove; Elizabeth Benson (editor & organizers). The Olmec and their Neighbors: Essays in Memory of Matthew W. Stirling. Dumbarton Oaks: 1981. F/None

Coe, Michael D.; David Grove; Elizabeth Benson (editor & organizers). In the Land of the Olmec. Vol. I: The Archaeology of San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan; Vol. II: The People of the River University of Texas: 1980. F/VG Slipcase with F folder containing four maps

Dossio, Francisco Gonzales de. Cronicas de la Compania de Jesus en la Nueva Espana. La Universidad Nacional Autonoma, Mexico: 1957. TP-G (Jesuits in Colonial Mexico.)

Davies, Nigel. Voyagers to the New World. William Morrow: 1979. (Pretty even-handed discussion of evidence for pre-Columbian contacts.)

Davies, Nigel. The Toltecs: Until the Fall of Tula. University of Oklahoma: 1977. VG/G

Day, A. Grove. Coronado’s Quest: The History-Making Adventures of the First White Men to Invade the Southwest. University of California: 1964. TP-VG

Diehl, Richard A. Tula: The Toltec Capital of Ancient Mexico. Thames & Hudson: 1983. F/VG

Dumbarton Oaks. Studies in Pre-Columbian Art and Archaeology, Numbers Nine through Eleven. #9: Badner, Mino. “A Possible Focus of Andean Artistic Influence in Mesoamerica.” #10: Quirarte, Jacinto. “Izapan-Style Art: A Study of Its Form and Meaning.” #11: Moser, Christopher L. “Human Decapitation in Ancient Mesoamerica.” Dumbarton Oaks: 1973. F/None

Dumbarton Oaks. Studies in Pre-Columbian Art and Archaeology, Numbers Twelve through Fourteen. #12: Wilbert, Johannes. “The Thread of Life: Symbolism of Miniature Art from Ecuador.” #13: Roe, Peter G. “A Further Exploration of the Rowe Chavin Seriation and Its Implications for North Central Coast Chronology.” #14: Benson, Elizabeth P. “A Man and a Feline in Mochica Art.” Dumbarton Oaks: 1974. F/None

Fagan, Brian M. The Great Journey: The Peopling of Ancient America. Thames & Hudson: 1987. F/VG

Ferguson, William M.; Arthur H. Rohn. Mesoamerica’s Ancient Cities: Arial Views of Precolumbian Ruins in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras. University Press of Colorado: 1990. F/F

Gibson, Charles. The Aztecs Under Spanish Rule: A History of the Indians of the Valley of Mexico, 1519-1810. Stanford University: 1964. TP-VG

Graham, John A. Ancient Mesoamerica: Selected Readings. Peek Publications: 1966. TP-VG (prehistory, agriculture, Maya, misc.)

Grove, David C. Chalcatzingo: Excavations on the Olmec Frontier. Thames & Hudson: 1984. VG/VG

Grove, David C. & Rosemary A. Joyce, editors. Social Patterns in Pre-Classic Mesoamerica: A Symposium at Dumbarton Oaks 9 and 10 October 1993. Dumbarton Oaks: 1999. F/None

Gruener, James C. The Olmec Riddle: An Inquiry Into the Origin of Pre-Columbian Civilization. Vengreen Publications, 1987. F/F

Hansen, L. Taylor. He Walked the Americas. Amherst Press: 1963. G/No. (Haven’t read this yet. Is it Mormon? New Age?)

Hardoy, Jorge L. Precolumbian Cities. Walker, 1973. Large basic survey with a chapter on the Aztecs, and a chapter on Tenochtitlan. VG/VG.

Jones, Lindsay. Twin City Tales: A Hermeneutical Reassessment of Tula and Chichen Itza. University of Colorado: 1995. F/VG

Kelemen, Pal. Medieval American Art: Masterpieces of the New World before Columbus, Third Revised edition in two volumes. Dover: 1969.

Kiev, Ari. Curanderismo: Mexican-American Folk Psychiatry. Free Press: 1968. TP-G

Killion, Thomas W. Gardens of Prehistory: Archaeology of Settlement Agriculture in Mesoamerica University of Alabama: 1992. TP-F

Luckert, Karl W. Olmec Religion: A Key to Middle America and Beyond. University of Oklahoma: 1976. F/VG

MacKenzie, Donald A. Pre-Columbian America: Myths and Legends. Random House: 1923/1996. TP-VG. (Links between Old & New Worlds via mythology. Although much of the research is now out of date, bottom line remains valid: Do you believe in contact or archetypes?)

MacNeish, Richard S. (introduction). Early Man in America (Readings from Scientific American.) W. H. Freeman: 1973. TP-VG

Malmstrom, Vincent H. Cycles of the Sun, Mysteries of the Moon: The Calendar in Mesoamerican Civilization. University of Texas: 1997. TP-VG

Marcus, Joyce; Kent V. Flannery. Zapotec Civilization: How Urban Society Evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Thames & Hudson: 1996. VG/VG

Maslow, Jonathan Evan. Bird of Life, Bird of Death: A Political Ornithology of Central America. Dell: 1986. TP-VG (Neat travelogue/natural history of the quetzal.)

Miller, Arthur G. Highland-Lowland Interaction in Mesoamerica: Interdisciplinary Approaches: A Conference at Dumbarton Oaks, October 18th and 19th, 1980. Dumbarton Oaks: 1983. F/None

Miller, Mary Ellen. The Art of Mesoamerica: From Olmec to Aztec, third edition. Thames & Hudson: 2001. TP-VG

Nelson, Ralph (translator.) Popul Vuh: The Mythological Book of the Ancient Maya. Houghton Mifflin: 1976. TP-F

Nuttall, Zelia (editor); Arthur G. Miller (introduction) The Codex Nuttall: A Picture Manuscript from Ancient Mexico. Dover: 1902/1975. (Nuttall’s original manuscript is not reprinted, just the screenfold.) TP-F

O’Hanlon, Redmond. In Trouble Again: A Journey Between the Orinoco and the Amazon. Vintage: 1988. TP-VG (take to work?)

Pollard, Helen Perstein. Tariacuri’s Legacy : The Prehispanic Tarascan State. University of Oklahoma: 1993. F/F

Posnansky, Ing. Arthur; translated by James F. Shearer. Tihuanacu : The Cradle of American Man [La Cuna del Hombre Americano], Vol III, IV. Ministerio de Educacion, La Paz: 1957. VG/None

Ragghianti, Carol Ludovico; Licia Ragghianti Collobi. National Museum of Anthropology: Mexico City. Newsweek: 1970. VG/None

Read, Kay Almere; Jason J. Gonzalez. Mesoamerican Mythology: A guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs of Mexico and Central America. Oxford University Press: 2000. TP-F

Rice, Don Stephen. Latin American Horizons: A Symposium at Dumbarton Oaks, 11th and 12th October 1986. Dumbarton Oaks: 1993. F/None

Riley, Carrol L. (ed.); J. Charles Kelley; Campbell W. Pennington; Robert L. Rands. Man across the Sea: Problems of Pre-Columbian Contacts. University of Texas Press: 1971. HC-VG/no

Riley, G. Micheal. Fernando Cortes and the Marquesado in Morelos, 1522-1547: A Case Study in the Socioeconomic Development of Sixteenth-Century Mexico. University of New Mexico Press: 1973. F/VG

Sabloff, Jeremy A. The Cities of Ancient Mexico: Reconstructing a Lost World, Revised Edition. Thames & Hudson: 1997. TP-VG

Schwartz, Marion. A History of Dogs in the Early Americas. Yale Univeristy: 1997. TP-F

Soustelle, Jacques. The Four Suns: Recollections and Reflections of an Ethnologist in Mexico. Grossman: 1971. VG/VG

Soustelle, Jacques. The Olmecs: The Oldest Civilization in Mexico. Doubleday: 1984. F/VG

Spores, Ronald. The Mixtecs in Ancient and Colonial Times. University of Oklahoma: 1984. F/F

Stark, Barbara L.; Philip J. Arnold III. Olmec to Aztec: Settlement Patterns in the Ancient Gulf Lowlands. University of Arizona: 1997. VG/VG

Stephens, John L. Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, with 111 Illustrations, in Two Volumes. Dover: 1854/1969. (Also have old vol. 2 of Yucatan, Harper & Bros: 1868)

Tompkins, Peter. Mysteries of the Mexican Pyramids. Harper & Row: 1976. VG/VG

van Roojen, Pepin. Ancient Mexican Designs w/ CD-ROM (Pepin Press Agile Rabbit Editions) Pepin Press: 2002. TP-F w/ CD

von Hagen, Victor Wolfgang. Maya Explorer: John Lloyd Stephens and the Lost Cities of Central America and Yucatan. University of Oklahoma Press: 1947. VG/No

Von Wuthenau, Alexander; E. W. Hathaway (translator). Tepotzotlan (Art and Color in Mexico, Volume 1). Von Stetten Fotocolor: 1941. TP-VG/Slipcase (Awesome illustrations of Colonial baroque monestary.)

Westheim, Paul. The Art of Ancient Mexico. Doubleday: 1965, MM-VG

Wilgus, A. Curtis. Latin America in Maps: Historic, Geographic, Economic. Barnes & Noble: 1943. TP-G (plumber dropped this one in sink.)

Wilson, James A. Bits of Old Mexico. Self Published, San Francisco: 1910. G/No. (Amusing and interesting - but light - travelogue.)

Fiction

Bennett, Rowena; Fiore Mastri (illustrator). Runner for the King. Follett: 1944. (Kids’ book on the Incas.)

Bishop, Michael. Stolen Faces. Victor Gollancz: 1977. VG/VG (review copy). The planet Tezcatl is Aztec-culture society which has an infection of muphormosy, similar to leprosy . . . or does it?

Davidson, Avram. Clash of the Star-Kings. Ace (Double): 1966.

Esquivel, Laura. Malinche. Washington Square Press: 2006. TP-VG

Falkenhorst, C.; adapted by Elise L. Lathrop. With Cortez in Mexico: A Historical Romance. Hurst & Co: 1892.

Haggard, H. Rider. Montezuma's Daughter. Hodder & Stoughton: 1893/1919. Fair/No.

Ingraham, Joseph Holt. Montezuma, the Serf, or the Revolt of the Mexitili, a Tale of the Last Days of the Aztec Dynasty. H. L. Williams: 1845. G/No (Virtually no basis in history, but still a nice tale with a Arthurian/chivalric feel. Scarce.)

Jennings, Gary. Aztec. Avon: 1980. MM-G (well done, basic historical novel)

Jennings, Gary. Aztec Autumn. Forge, 1997. F/VG. (Second in the trilogy ending with "Aztec Blood.")

Kidwell, Carl. Arrow in the Sun. Viking: 1961. Illustrated with line drawings, possibly a teen novel? VG/G.

MacLeish, Archibald. Conquistador. Houghton Mifflin: 1932. VG/no 6/e. (Pulitzer-winning epic poem of the Conquest.)

Marshall, Edison. Cortez and Marina. Doubleday/Popular Library: 1963. MM-G

Murray, Yxta Maya. The Conquest. HarperCollins: 2002. G/G exlib

Novo, Salvador. The War of the Fatties and Other Stories from Aztec History. Univesity of Texas: 1994. VG/VG

Saberhagen, Fred. The Mask of the Sun. Tor: 1979. '87 MM.

Shearer, Tony. Lord of the Dawn: Quetzalcoatl. Naturegraph Publishers: 1971. TP-G (poetry inspired by Aztec thought & history.)

Shellabarger, Samuel. Captain from Castile. Little, Brown: 1945. ‘65-BCE-VG/G

Somerlott, Robert. Death of the Fifth Sun. Viking: 1987. Xlib-G/VG (Interesting in that it is told through the voice of Malinche. Some of it actually makes sense in clearing up a few of the more mysterious parts of the Conquest.)

Steele, Philip. The Aztec News. Candlewick Press: 1997. (Kids’ book in form of newspaper. Well done.)

Velasquez, Pedro. From John L. Stevens et al. Memoir of an Eventful Expedition in Central America; Resulting in the Discovery of the Idolatrous City of Iximaya, in an Unexplored Region; and the Possession of Two Remarkable Aztec Children, Descendants and Specimens of the Sacerdotal Caste, (Now Nearly Extinct) of the Ancient Aztec Founders of the Ruined Temples of that Country, Described by John L. Stevens, Esq., and Other Travellers. New York: J. W. Bell, 1850. Taped covers, possible first, but want the illustrated English edition.

Sabin 98812: "The Spanish original of the above and its author are myths. The chief interest lies in its connection with the history of the American circus, having been published to advertise the exhibition of the supposed "Aztec" children. A ms. note of E.G. S[quier] filed with Joseph Sabin's memoranda states that the children were born in the town of Usulutan, or Usulatan, south west of San Miguel, of mixed Indian, Spanish, and negro stock. Frequently reprinted in connection with exhibitions in the United States and in England, with the title 'Illustrated Memoir.' As is hinted in the title, the whole purpose of this hoax, which became a travelling performance, was to capitalize on the extraordinary interest that Stephens' two books on his discoveries in the Mayan lands had aroused. It can also be classed as 'Lost Race fiction.'"

Wallace, Lew. The Fair God, or, The Last of the ‘Tzins: A Tale of the Conquest of Mexico. Houghton, Mifflin: 1873. VG/No 1887.

Watson, Virginia; Frank E. Schoonover (illus.) With Cortes the Conqueror.

Hampton Publishing Co.: (orig. 1917). VG/No. (Original edition is by Penn Pub. Co., this is probably 30's reprint.)

Misc.

Acosta, Joseph de. De Natura Novi Orbis. Salamanca: 1590. (or any English translation)

Aguilar, Fray Francisco de. Relacion Breve de la Conquista de la Nueva Espana (1560-1565) Mexico City: UNAM, 1977

Alva Ixtlilxochitl, Fernando de. Obras Historicas (1625) Mexico City: UNAM, 1985

Benson, Elizabeth (ed.) Ritual Human Sacrifice in Mesoamerica.Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks, 1984.

Beristain y Souza, Jose Mariano. Biblioteca Hispano Americana Septentrional . Amecameca: Colegio Catolico, 1883-1889 (3 vols + supplements). This may have been reprinted in 1980s.

Berlin, Heinrich (ed.) Anales de Tlatelolco (1530). Mexico: Robredo y Editorial Porrua, 1948

Brundage, Burr Cartwright. A Rain of Darts. Austin: Univ. Texas, 1972.

Emmart, Emily Walcott (ed.) Badianus Manuscript (Codex Barberini, Latin 241). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1940.

Lanyon, Anna. Malinche's Conquest. Allen & Unwin, 2000.

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