Rise of the Chichimeca: Translation of Don Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl's History of Ancient Mexico

FAIN: RQ-50821-14

University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA 52242-1320)
Amber Brian (Project Director: January 2014 to December 2019)

Preparation for publication of a translation of "Historia de la nacion chichimeca," a history of pre-Columbian and conquest-era Mexico by Don Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl (ca. 1578-1650). (36 months)

Alva Ixtlilxochitl's "Historia de la nacion chichimeca" is a 150 page account of pre-Columbian and conquest-era Mexico, with special focus on his family's ancestral home of Tetzcoco. With the support of a NEH Scholarly Editions and Translations Grant, we propose an annotated English translation of the "Historia," based on the original manuscript, accompanied by scholarly apparatus including introductory essays and a glossary. For the first time in almost four centuries, our edition will finally bring Alva Ixtlilxochitl's famous history to an English-reading audience.

Associated Products

History of the Chichimeca Nation: Don Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl's Seventeenth-Century Chronicle of Ancient Mexico (Book)
Title: History of the Chichimeca Nation: Don Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl's Seventeenth-Century Chronicle of Ancient Mexico
Author: Don Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl
Editor: Amber Brian
Editor: Bradley Benton
Editor: Peter B. Villella
Editor: Pablo Garcia Loaeza
Abstract: A descendant of both Spanish settlers and Nahua (Aztec) rulers, Don Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl (ca. 1578–1650) was a collector of indigenous pictorial and alphabetic texts and a chronicler of the history of pre-conquest and conquest-era Mexico. His magnum opus, here for the first time in English translation, is one of the most accessible and influential accounts of the rise and fall of Aztec Mexico derived from indigenous sources and memories and written from a native perspective. Composed in the first half of the seventeenth century, a hundred years after the arrival of the Spanish conquerors in Mexico, the History of the Chichimeca Nation is based on native accounts but written in the medieval chronicle style. It is a tale of adventure, romance, seduction, betrayal, war, heroism, misfortune, and tragedy. Written at a time when colonization and depopulation were devastating indigenous communities, its descriptions of the cultural sophistication, courtly politics, and imperial grandeur of the Nahua world challenged European portrayals of native Mexico as a place of savagery and ignorance. Unpublished for centuries, it nonetheless became an important source for many iconic memories of the Nahuas, widely consulted by scholars of Spanish American history, politics, literature, anthropology, and art. The manuscript of the History, lost in the 1820s, was only rediscovered in the 1980s. This volume is not only the first-ever English translation, but also the first edition in any language derived entirely from the original manuscript. With introduction and notes outlining the author’s historiographical legacy, this translation affords readers the opportunity to absorb the history of one of the Americas’ indigenous civilizations as told by one of its descendants.
Year: 2019
Primary URL: https://www.worldcat.org/title/history-of-the-chichimeca-nation-don-fernando-de-alva-ixtlilxochitls-seventeenth-century-chronicle-of-ancient-mexico/oclc/1097418786&referer=brief_results
Primary URL Description: WorldCat listing
Secondary URL: https://www.oupress.com/books/15233374/history-of-the-chichimeca-nation
Secondary URL Description: Publisher's listing
Access Model: Book
Publisher: Norman: University of Oklahoma Press
Type: Translation
Type: Scholarly Edition
ISBN: 9780806163994
Translator: Amber Brian
Translator: Bradley Benton
Translator: Peter B. Villella
Translator: Pablo Garcia Loaeza
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

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