Latin American Poetry - Pre-Columbian Poetry

Pre-Columbian Poetry

We have multiple examples of Aztec poetry written in Nahuatl. Most of these were collected during the early period of the colonization of Mexico by Spanish clergy who involved themselves in an effort to collect first hand knowledge of all things related to the indigenous civilizations of the newly conquered territory. One of these Spanish Clergy, fray Bernardino de Sahagun, enlisted the help of young Aztecs to interview and record stories, histories, poems and other information from older Aztecs who still remembered the pre-conquered times. Much of the information that was collected by these colonial anthropologist has been lost, but researchers find originals or copies of the original research in libraries around the world. Miguel Leon Portilla has published multiple books on Aztec poetry and "Ancient Nahuatl Poetry" by Daniel Garrison can be found online at gutenberg.org.