Preparation of three volumes of a four-volume series that will make available edited translations of dramatic works in Nahuatl, the Aztec language of indigenous Mexico. (36 months)
This project will produce a reference collection of texts, translations, and analyses of the colonial Nahuatl (Aztec-language) theater that developed in Mexico as Spanish and indigenous writers scripted plays on Christian themes and adapted European plays for native audiences. Nahuatl, a lingua franca in the Aztec Empire and the Spanish colony, is the only native language in which colonial dramas survive. A series of four volumes, plus an English-only student volume, has been accepted by the University of Oklahoma Press. Volume 1 is complete; during the grant period volumes 2 and 3 will be completed and research and translation work for volume 4 will be prepared. volume 2 features Spanish Golden-Age dramas that were adapted into Nahuatl; Volume 3 foucuses on dramatizations of the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe.