A Reconstruction of the Nawat Literary Corpus

FAIN: HB-50027-11

Richard McCallister
Delaware State University (Dover, DE 19901-2202)

An annotated collection and reconstruction of the Central American Nawat literary corpus (200-300 pp.), with an accurate, relevant translation, notes and introductory articles into English and Spanish. The outstanding works are Myths in Their Mother Tongue (El Salvador), a mythological cycle similar to the Guatemalan Popol Vuh and the Mexican Legend of the Suns, and El Gueguence (Nicaragua), a farcical play written in a mixture of Spanish and Nawat Niquirano language and prosody. These works are masterpieces of world literature, equivalent to the Popol Vuh or El Cantar del Mio Cid. Other works in Nawat Pipil include songs, prayers, stories, ecclesiastical documents, short poems and a Nativity play. While these works have been printed in Spanish, virtually none has been adequately translated and they are all scattered and out of print.